Your barns

[BFS_Simon_Says]

Long storry short we bought some land a couple years ago, and now it's finally ready for building, I have my floor plan for the new barn picked out but I need some ideas for the outside, can some people post pictures of the inside and outside of their barns so I can get some more ideas? and give me some helpful hints, what I should have and any other helpful information. I'm really excited about this, all my boys and the little lady who will soon be mine, will all be toegther finally.

 

[Frankie]

We did ours in siding, but there is also 3/4 inch plywood under there. The siding ended up being cheaper than metal, and/or wood. The windows, triple pane were given to me. It is warm, and looks pretty good. Had some touch ups to finish in these pictures, but you get the idea.

Good luck, always fun to get a new barn. :aktion033:

 

[qtrrae]

On the Best of The Miniature Horse Forum there is a thread that is called - "I'm Building a Barn 1234

Send me pics of yours and what you'd do different"

It is excellent and I know you would get some great ideas from that.

 

[Neil]

I finally got my new barn finished in the middle of February of this year. Just in time for me to leave for Las Vegas for the AMHA meeting. While I was in Vegas the fencing for the outside runs was finish. I moved the horses in the week after I came back from Vegas.

This is a photo from across my driving track. Each stall has a back door out to a 12' x 20' outside run. The fencing is 5' no climb with double fencing in between where I might put stallions.

This is a view down the center isle from the front of the barn. The entire flooring of the barn is cement with rubber matts in each stall and the grooming area. Stalls are 12' x 12' with a 16' raised center isle. There are 8 stalls with the front right stall open in the front for grooming, tack and feed. There is a back door to each stall with a fenced area outside. I also have a fenced area outside the grooming stall in case I want to put a horse out there.

Raised center isles are important here because of our high heat in the summer. We do often have a breeze here and the barn is set so it would normally go in the front and out the back and sides. The center isle is 16'. I was told had I put in a 12' isle I would have later wished I had put in a wider one. There is plenty of room to move around in there. The floor was stamped to give it some character.

I had skylights put over each stall and continuing over the raised center isle. It sure makes it bright inside with no lights on.

Each stall has a feeder door from the center isle and a feeder inside in the corner.

This is a view from the center isle through a feeder door. Although they were meant for placing feed in the stalls without going in they are great for minis to see out. Say hello to HHH's Redi or Not.

Although not really a part of the barn, here is my guest seating area. I bought it at a dog show and had the top back slot changed from a dog to a horse cutout. The cutout is of Miss Kentucky.

I still have to have power and water brought out to the barn. Hopefully, I will get that done soon. At the moment I have an over 300' hose coming out from the house when I need water. With skylights and it staying light until abut 7:30 pm these days I'm ok with power. I also have cordless clippers.

What would I have done differently, well for one I would have hired a different/better cement contractor. I am getting used to it and try to remind myself that it is a barn. The quality and construction of the barn is the best done by Royal Stall of Sanger, CA.

 

[horsehug]

Neil,

I love your barn!! It is SOOOO nice!!

And I loved getting to see that cute little face again

My barn is coming along and I'll post pix when it is finally ready to show off. Not as fancy or big as yours but I love it just the same.

Susan O.

 

[Joyce]

Neil, I love your barn and you and Susan will get a kick out of this. As I went thru the pictures, when I saw that little red horse, I said to myself, "Gosh she looks familiar to me. And gosh, she was from you Susan.

Joyce

 

[Miniequine]

Neil,

Can I move in??

)) That is one nice facility!!!!!

I LOVE the fact that it is LOW maint too! You can just

power wash it, right?! WOw, I love everything, right

down to the colors.., My favorite too!

~Sandy

 

[qtrrae]

Neil,

Your barn is just beautiful!!

: I can see that you put a lot of thought into it. Lucky little horses that live there.

Thanks so much for sharing! :aktion033:

 

[MBhorses]

neil,

where do we get a barn like ours? O my i would hate to know the cost.

sure a fine barn. you can move the whole barn here to our place(haha)

 

[Vicky Texas]

Neil

Wow, I love

:

: that barn. Very nice inside into. I love the inside of it, the stalls.

the stall doors for feeding. Can you give us more information on the inside of it. Like did you

make or buy the stalls? Is it very costly? I love the feeder doors - where did you find them for

minis? I have seen them in big horse training barns we rode at. We loved them then. Sure made

it easier for feeding. I love the wagon wheel hanging up on the wall. The little guy hanging his

head to say hello is precious too.

Hope you will share more on the barn. When we ever get moved, I get a new barn. I too want

ideal's on building it. I know Marty here on the forum has a fantastic barn too. Its on her web

site.

Hey by the way, I think I am closer so you can drop that beautiful barn off here... so this way

you won't have to carry it so so far.

:

:

Vicky

 

[Whitestar]

One suggestion I can make, is whatever you decide to build, build it for a big horse & put in some type of dividers to make it small horse friendly. Otherwise, if you decide to sell, you will NEVER ( or spend years looking for another mini owner) sell it unless it can easily be retrofitted back to full size. I built 4 barns on my farm, all sized for full size horses that simply had dividers that could be removed with minimal work. Even my wash rack was full size & all my outdoor fencing. I never thought I would leave my dream home, but cancer changed that. When it came time to sell my 50 horses, & farm, the horses went quickly, the farm was retro fitted & although the larger stumbling block seemed to be the fact that I had 4 barns instead of a normal 1 ( one main/foaling barn, one stallion barn, a mare motel for outside mares & a quarratine barn away from the others) I was able to sell it to a large horse training/boarding facility for my full asking price.

As far as building, all our barns were built Pole barn style, with large support poles on the outdoor corners, & a few interior to hold up the roof & 2nd floor. Two of the barns had overhead hay storage with shoots, which is a lot better idea up north ( my family is dairy farmers in upstate new york where i got the idea) then down in Texas...because texas bales of hay are around 90-100# each, versus 40-50 up north, they have elevators up north, here you dont. For years we had to hook each bale of hay to a pully system & a golf cart to get the 200 bales in the loft until we found a dealer with an elevator

I also had auto waterers in each stall which saved sooo much time. All my doors on the outside were trolly doors that swung to the side. I had 8 cameras hooked to the house for foaling. It also had an intercom system in it. Also always have a phone in your barn. If you have an emergency & have to run to the house, when the fear hits you, the legs just dont work like they are suppose to on that run for the phone ( been there done that!)

 

[Shaladar]

WOW Neil. :aktion033: ...well worth the wait you had to go through!!!

I LOVE the stamped aisle !! Looks very nice

:

Sue

 

[Neil]

Can I move in??

)) That is one nice facility!!!!!

I LOVE the fact that it is LOW maint too! You can just

power wash it, right?! WOw, I love everything, right

down to the colors.., My favorite too!

Sandy, my originall plans included an office in the front left stall but when I finally built this barn decided that I would rather have a stall.

All of the surfaces of the barn are steel with wood sandwiched in for the side panels so it should be easy to keep clean not to mention fire proof. The overhang for both the upper and lower roofs is about a foot and half so that would help for the splash when it rains but I had them add gutters on both the upper and lower roofs with downspouts in all four corners. This will help it stay cleaner but when it does get dirty I can just power wash it off.

As for the colors, I debated on that for a while. The sides are a cream color to reflect our hot summer sun. I need to repaint the house soon. It is now a light gray with a cream colored trim. When I paint the house it will be cream colored with green trim.

Wow, I love

:

: that barn. Very nice inside into. I love the inside of it, the stalls.

the stall doors for feeding. Can you give us more information on the inside of it. Like did you

make or buy the stalls? Is it very costly? I love the feeder doors - where did you find them for

minis? I have seen them in big horse training barns we rode at. We loved them then. Sure made

it easier for feeding. I love the wagon wheel hanging up on the wall. The little guy hanging his

head to say hello is precious too.

Hope you will share more on the barn. When we ever get moved, I get a new barn. I too want

ideal's on building it. I know Marty here on the forum has a fantastic barn too. Its on her web

site.

Hey by the way, I think I am closer so you can drop that beautiful barn off here... so this way

you won't have to carry it so so far.

:

:

Vicky, I will answer your costly question first. Everything is relative but I will say for a retired person on a fixed income for me it was clostly. But, for me it was worth it. It is not like it is lowering the value of my property. I had thought for several years about wanting this barn and finally last year it got down to "Neil, either build the barn or get out of horses." So, I had the barn built so now I can stay in minis. I have always known what I wanted in a barn but in the years that I waited the price has gone waaaaaaaay up.

Everything that you see in the photos came with the barn built buy the barn manufacturer. The feeder doors were an option and is comon in many barns. The only thing I had changed was the highth of the wall of the feeder. I had them cut down 10 inches so the minies could reach into them. The plus with the feeder doors is that they can stick their heads out. Also, because I put back doors in with an outside fenced area the horses can go out and see each other.

Royal Stall is a locally owned second generation business and has been around a lot longer that companys like MD and Barnmaster and they do quality work. Unfortunately, they can be a little slow and you have to keep after them.

Speaking of carrying the barn, I have a friend (now in Texas) when she lived here had a Royal Stall barn built. She later divorced and when she moved she took the barn with her. It goes up sort of like an erector kit so it is easy to take down and reassemble. All you have to do is pour a new foundation to set it on. It was from spending time in that barn (my trainer for the first three years) I leaned to like and appreciate it.

One suggestion I can make, is whatever you decide to build, build it for a big horse & put in some type of dividers to make it small horse friendly.

Something I though a lot about before I built this barn. At my age it won't be long before they haul me off to the old folks farm and I have to sell this property so building a barn for big horses will make it more saleable when the time comes.

WOW Neil. :aktion033: ...well worth the wait you had to go through!!!

I LOVE the stamped aisle !! Looks very nice

:

Sue

Sue had to listen to me for several years about wanting to build this barn.

I love the concept of the stamped isle but in my original post I commented about the next time I would hire a better cement contractor. His work was sloppy in some places. I guess the plus side is that the cement for the stalls was done good. I hosed it down several times before the barn went on it and for the most part the water ran off it. There is one spot where the water sat but it was a very thin layer.