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Veteran
Posts: 120
| This might be a long shot, but what are some tips/must haves for building a new barn? It will be 4 stalls with runs attached...anything and everything you can think of is welcome! |
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Veteran
Posts: 227
Location: Heart of Texas | Where are you building first of all?
-make sure your feed room is big enough lol
-place it close enough you can walk to it but not close enough the flies live with you too; also, how easy will it be to run water and electricity to your barn
-where will the sun rise and set on the barn (hot summers or freezing winters)
-where does the water run off go on your property, don't want a flooded barn
-suggest as little of wood as possible (cribbers)
-I put solid walls between my stalls as one of my horses gets super antsy at feeding time and keeps her from fighting with her neighbor.
-try to preplan your dream property, if you should add an arena, round pen, etc, you don't want your barn in the way
-DON'T BE A CHEAP A$$, I cut some corners and I regretted it down the road. I wish I woulda just spent the extra $4k to do this or that, as much time as you'll spend in it, you'll be much happier.
Good luck, I'm super excited for you! |
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Duct Tape Bikini Girl
Posts: 2554
 
| If you live in areas of high heat, put your stalls and runs on the east side so the barn provides shade in the afternoon. |
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 Shelter Dog Lover
Posts: 10277
| luckyjo - 2016-11-29 2:20 PM If you live in areas of high heat, put your stalls and runs on the east side so the barn provides shade in the afternoon.
I live in southeast Texas and built and open barn, sold wall on the north side to block the wind, no walls on other 3 sides. I love my barn, I have a hay room that will store 200 bales, a 10 x 15 feed room and a 20 x 15 storage room. My stalls are 15 x 15 and have 40 x 60 runs although mine are only stalled for weather. |
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Veteran
Posts: 120
| jewishprincess - 2016-11-29 1:14 PM
Where are you building first of all?
-make sure your feed room is big enough lol
-place it close enough you can walk to it but not close enough the flies live with you too; also, how easy will it be to run water and electricity to your barn
-where will the sun rise and set on the barn (hot summers or freezing winters)
-where does the water run off go on your property, don't want a flooded barn
-suggest as little of wood as possible (cribbers)
-I put solid walls between my stalls as one of my horses gets super antsy at feeding time and keeps her from fighting with her neighbor.
-try to preplan your dream property, if you should add an arena, round pen, etc, you don't want your barn in the way
-DON'T BE A CHEAP A$$, I cut some corners and I regretted it down the road. I wish I woulda just spent the extra $4k to do this or that, as much time as you'll spend in it, you'll be much happier.
Good luck, I'm super excited for you!
These are great!! Thanks! It will be in north Texas |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1079
| ooh ooh I'll play! All I can offer is what I wish was different about my own barn but maybe it'll give you some tips
More windows and more LIGHT.
More outlets. There is literally one in my whole barn.
Pay to do the stall floors right the first time. I would give anything to have solid, level, rubber stall floors.
Some kind of awesome aisle material.. gravel sucks. it's dusty and it continuously breaks down into powder.
Leans off each side make for really nice hay storage or protection for your dry lots.
Wide enough to drive thru.
Storage for any misc. equipment is nice.
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 Texas Taco
Posts: 7499
Location: Bandera, TX | Make sure you have enough storage for hay and feed. Warm water at wash rack is nice. Automatic water in each stall. Room for extra horses.
I love my barn, but would add the above if I would do it again. When I built it, I had two horses. Figured a three stall barn would be plenty... Fast forward 12 years and now I have 5 horses, and have to come up with ideas on how to stack them... :) |
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Married to a Louie Lover
Posts: 3303
| We have a 3 sided barn that opens to the south. On the north side we have our tack room, hay storage, and hitching rail, then an aisle. There's 4 runs, the 4th one on the east end comes all the way up to the north side, so if you're looking down the aisle you're looking at he 4th gate with 3 more runs to your left. We work cattle through it too hence the reasoning there, we can drop the chute in the aisle and with a few gates run them through from the 4th run and back into the 1st.
Runs open to the dry lots which open to the pasture. The dry lot has an automatic waterer right now but when we are done the runs will have them too. Big gates at the end of the runs so we can get in with the skid steer and clean. Hedge posts and continuous pipe fence. If we did need to set up a smaller stall for confinement, pretty simple to tie in gates.
I love the openness of it even though we are in Iowa and it gets cold windy and crappy. They have plenty of room to get out of the wind but also good airflow - i saw massive improvement in my IAD horse when I still had him and moved here.
As far as must haves - I love our automatic waterer and can't wait to have them in the runs, there are times I like to lock them out of the dry lots and I'm spoiled by the waterer when it comes to having to haul buckets, especially since we don't have a pump in the barn (long story); we plan to put one in when we do water lines for the waterers.
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| The ideas and suggestions on this thread are the best I have ever
seen on one thread .... copy all of them and organize them ... they
are not high dollar items but make a barn functional for years.
I will never do 4 ft stall doors again .. make stalls 12x12 and have swinging
gates so you can get a bobcat or front end loader to make stall stripping
a low labor job. Make sure you have one or all divider walls between stalls
that will swing flat against the back wall .... instant 12x24 foaling or
sick horse stall ... or lock kids in to play .. lol
16 ft alleyway plus 12 ft stalls on both sides equals a 4o ft wide barn..
this allows you room to pull the whole rig into the barn, put hay bales
in front of each stall and walk around your rig freely .... even do a little
riding in the alleyway during bad weather .. or pull your trailer // truck
in out of the weather for a snow/ice free takeoff to an event etc etc ..
16 ft alleyway gives you a lot of options to use it for ...
Fiberglass panels ...... NEVER IN THE ROOF ... sun will shine thru them
like a magnifying glass and heat up the barn ....... think simple .....
outside walls should be a minimum of 10 ft high.. 12 is even better ...
when installing metal walls ... in the middle of each stall .. is a 9 ft sheet
of metal and then a 42 inch piece of fiberglass up at the top.... instant
window to let light in without the heat ... easy replacment as it ages
42 inches is for overlap so you don't have a seam leak ...
Water line inside barn ... cold or hot climate ... make it drainable inside
inside the barn... nothing is underground inside the barn.. OK ..
Use the frost free faucets at end of barn just barely inside the barn ...
say you had a 120 ft .... or you want easy available water in a shorter
barn .......... now think about drop down faucets that will be in the
alleyway .... one at each end of barn .. then divide the length of the barn
into 1/3 sections or for this barn would be 40 ft apart ... which would give
you 4 total faucets .... major thing.... run your long line up in the rafters
at an angle ... 2-3 ft higher on the far end so water will drain out of it
in freezing weather............. to drain it ... shut off frost free faucet that
has the long handle on it ... and go open all 4 drop down faucets to let
water drain out ... this allows you to use a 50 ft hose at each faucet
that will reach stalls on both sides of your 16 ft alleyway ... no dragging
heavy hoses around..... in freezing weather of course when you open
faucets to drain the overhead waterpipe ..... you unhook and drain your
water hoses too ...... just throw an end over a rafter and drag the hose
so it hangs in a hairpin loop.... hose is drained ... lol
Lighting ... for burglars and coming to the barn at night or even a loose
horse .... have you two movement sensor lights in the middle of the barn
to shine at opposite ends .... you turn on when you leave the barn or need
extra light when grooming a horse .... these lights lets you know if there
is movement inside your barn alleyway and will help you find light
switches or just a quick look around to make sure everyone is ok ...
most have automatic timers to set when you want them functional
or set them to just use an on off light switch ....
Google and find out what peak ventilation is ... just means a raised
ridgerow at the peak of the barn to allow heat or air to flow out
the top of the barn .... less heat in summer ... good ventilation in
winter to keep horses healthy ... very cheap to install when building
a barn ...
HAVE FUN WITH EVERYONE'S SUGGESTIONS!!
Never use any fiberglass insulation in a barn ... it is a rat/mice heaven ..
use the hard cell spray insulation if needed .... not the old sponge white
foam crap ... google again .. lol
Here is one of my favorites ... no one is getting any younger ... so setup
your barn with a shedrow or side you can back a 16ft flat bed trailer
into and not unload your hay .. 10 ft wall will let you back a 16 ft'r
loaded with 120-150 regular bales and there is no hay wasted sitting
on the bottom row ... I have 2 trailers I use for this ...
Edited by BARRELHORSE USA 2016-12-01 8:56 PM
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Veteran
Posts: 120
| Wow these are all amazing tips!! It is nice to see what works/doesn't work for everyone. As far as stall flooring goes, what are some options there?? I like the idea of the polylast flooring that they are putting in horse trailers but not sure how it would work for stalls... |
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 Expert
Posts: 2457
| nicole.b - 2016-12-02 11:17 AM
Wow these are all amazing tips!! It is nice to see what works/doesn't work for everyone. As far as stall flooring goes, what are some options there?? I like the idea of the polylast flooring that they are putting in horse trailers but not sure how it would work for stalls...
maybe think about drainage?
I would look at more traditional flooring like packed lime, sand, or a mix with mats over the top. Done correctly - both are solid floors but lend themselves well to draining urine or water. |
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Nut Case Expert
Posts: 9305
Location: Tulsa, Ok | Since you said you are in North Texas really consider the height of your sidewalls. The higher the walls the better airflow therefore much cooler. I live in Oklahoma. I have two barns. One has 10' sidewalls the other has 14' sidewalls. In the summer the one with the high walls is always 10+ degrees cooler in the summer.
When we built the newer barn (tall one) we went with all pipe construction. It is all virtually used pipe and ended up being cheaper than building wood. We invested in 2x8 rough cut oak to line the inside of the walls. It is virtually indestructable. Horses will only kick it once and it is so hard they don't try it again. |
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 Expert
Posts: 1718
Location: Southeast Louisiana | Does anyone here have experience with a horse who keeps a sloppy stall? I hope to be building a barn soon, also. I am following this thread for more ideas. Currently, my stalls are 12 x 15. One horse I have keeps a really sloppy stall and I was wondering if that type does better in a smaller stall maybe? Just curious if anyone else has experience with this.
The barn I have now has windows on the north side and the door is on the south side. But, even when I keep the window closed, he walks around and churns up his stall. |
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 Tried and True
Posts: 21185
Location: Where I am happiest | Great suggestions in this thread. Our stalls we put crushed lime finds ( gravel), packed it down, and then put rubber matts down. Awsome flooring that drains well. One thing we did was put a drain field ( ditch ) in where the roof runs off. This will keep your paddocks dry. You wont have all that water running off the roof creating endless mud. My husband dug a ditch 3 feet deep right under the roof line. Lined it with road fabric and filled it with gravel. We then put the crushed lime finds in the paddocks about 6 inches deep. We have NO MUD what so ever year round and we get quite a bit of snow in the winter and spring rains. No mud what so ever at any time no matter how much it rains or snow melt. Also make sure your isle way is wide enough to drive a pickup through and you can still open the truck door. . |
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 To the Left
Posts: 1865
Location: Florida | Use 10 foot gates either in the front of the stall or the back of the paddock so you can get a tractor in there to move sand and poop. |
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