designing my own yard - ideas, what cant you live without...

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2horsesnomoney

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Ok so i might have the opportunity to build stables and private yard at home for my own horses. So i was thinking of 2 12X12 stables a 12X16 for foaling and feed and tack rooms 8 X12 all in a straight line with concrete yard and small storage barn just outside the yard and muck heep just out side the yard. I will need water and electricity to the yard. So who has doen this and what do i need to think of? what makes your life easier and what could you not live without....

Really interested....

Thanks any ideas and thoughts welcome
 
The widest overhang you can afford :)

Water - situate it inside (with a drain) in an insulated room. My pump room has a temperature controlled heater in it.

Rig your electricity so that you can control the yard lights either from the stable yard, or the house/gate. No more crashing about in the dark trying to find the switches.

Alarm your tack room/yard gate.

Good guttering.

Good drainage, I am sure there was a thread about all this recently .......

Here you are, perhaps some ideas you may find useful here :)

http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?p=11466139#post11466139
 
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A heated tap is a must. I say 3 hail mary's every time it freezes and I turn my beloved heated tap on !!!

Site it so it is central to the whole yard so you don't have miles to walk carrying buckets, you can also reach every where with a hosepipe attached to the heated tap.

Muck heap on hard standing so removal does not churn the area up and it is easy to push the barrow.

Rug racks, drying stinking wet and heavy rugs is a pain.

Personally I would not opt for auto drinkers because you cannot monitor intake and could easily miss a sick horse.

A really good overhang so you say dry. You need a well ventilated hay barn so the haylage gets plenty of air to it.

CCTV so you can check them from home.

Post and rail throughout, no wire, tubular gates no cross members and either wire grid or boarded.
 
Tack and feed room should be separate and the tack room should as big as possible .
If at all possible put in a washbox.
Make an area of hard standing to use as a turn out pen.
Whatever storage you put in you will find you want more but you need enough space to have plenty stored in times of bad weather.
Think very carefully about the muck heap for choice I would buy a proper muck trailer and have it taken away
If you go for a muck heap make sure it on the other side of the yard to the prevailing wind think about where the bedding will end up when it blows and how you are going to cut that to a minimum.
Think of how you prevent water freezing up and where you will dump snow in very bad weather .
Make sure you have a convenient place for your trailer or lorry .
Think very carefully how all the space outside the bulidings will work I totally underestimated how much you need for parking things turning things round etc ,
when I did mine.
 
Make sure your stable floors have a good slope on them (backwards) and that there are drainage channels out the back of the stables so that any urine drains away (also prevents it running out the front of the stables and across the yard)

A concreted tie-up area, with tap as close to field as poss so that you can hose legs and feet off before walking them on the yard - saves lots of sweeping.

Insulate all your taps and water pipes VERY well. That way they shouldn't freeze too easily and will be easily thawed.

A good overhang on the stables and or an undercover tie up area.

Big vented windows on stables to let light and air in :)

Think about access required for large machinery for removal of much heap and, god forbid any emergency situation (make sure plenty of room to manouvre)
 
If possible I would try and have stables with a door onto yard and perhaps a stable door that backs out onto the field, for when it's really icy on yard and too slippery to lead through at least they would be able to be turned out without too much risk of slipping.
Hope that makes some sense!! :)
 
Think about where you're siting it . Which way do your prevailing winds blow ? When we did ours this year , we actually turned the yard round , so that instead of having the north winds blow straight into their stables , together with vast quantities of rain and snow , the winds now batter the back of the barn , with the stables down the other side of an L shape , and are very happy indeed . Also has a bearing on siting of muck heap goes too . Hate getting mouthfuls of dirty straw everytime I dump the barrow .
 
Agree wtih spare box for farrier/dentist etc, preferably with an acrylic roof to let in as much light as possible. I would have an acrylic panel in each stable roof, we have skylights, but a full panel would be better. We have solar powered lights in our stables, which have worked all winter, would do that again.
 
Given recent weather and our location I bless the choice of a mini barn with windows opening on the outside walls as well as stable doors inside. Dry and warm for horses and people ! We didn't have skylights as we were advised it would increase the chance of leaks in our exposed location. We used the slope of the land in that the muck trailer is level with the front yard when parked up - no muck heap mountain to climb ever!!!
 
Drains spend as much as you need to to do them properly photograph where every thing is that's going underground water drains electric because in ten years it will look completly different and you won't remember where things are and where the drains run.
Make sure all drains have easy to get at roding points.
 
Biggest overhang you can afford/get permission for.

Taps outside each stable.

Tap in feed room.

Lights positioned so you can do a proper muck out when it's dark upside.

Electric sockets in tack room and think carefully where you would clip, etc., and make sure socket is within easy reach.
 
Hard wearing water/shock proof light switches.

I fitted some into barn with red LEDs on them..wired slightly differently so that LED is lit when lights are off and off when lights are on...never have to fumble in the dark again for the light switch.
 
If I was starting from scratch I would set it up so that each stable had it's own hardstanding pen available. Then if you end up restricting turnout in bad weather, or even just when they're normally stabled, you'd be able to let them have a bit more room to move about. My chiro says this would be her ideal setup. You might find an unexpected bonus when mucking out as well. When I used this layout every night most of my mucking out consisted of sweeping the outside areas, as they wandered and poo'd outside and kept the beds relatively clean.
 
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