~ if you were designing your stables from scratch ? ~

[shiresrus123]

if you were designing your stables from scratch, what would you make sure to use?

rubber matting? mirrors? rubber matting up the walls?

anything else ?

 

[pairciban]

Proper drainage in each stable with matting over the top. So many stables have not got a slope/drain so the pee puddles under the mats.

 

[mandk]

We are designing ours from scratch - its not as much fun as it sounds!

We have a limited budget- so it is going too be nothing spectacular - but we will have drainage and rubber matting. Also, will make sure horses can see each other through the stable partition and not just when their head is out the door!

We are having one stable with 2 doors (one stable door and the other a full size door), so our NF can be out in her field with excess to her stable and the other door into the yard as a normal stable would be.

 

[Brontie]

I always used to design my dream stables. MM Just enough space to tie them up, space for all the horses as well as open top doors. The back door idea is veyr good aswell as back windows so you can open it on hot days.

 

[Ezme]

This is my favorite game when I'm bored, design my own yard because when I win the lottery I'm going to have a massive venue for all types of competitions so I don't even have to leave my house for everything! lol

My stables would be american barn type with those little turnout areas attached to the outside where the horse can wander in and out. They would also have half solid partiticions and half bars although the solid bit would slope up so at the back there is somewhere to "hide". Hard to describe but if anyone have seen internal stables from late 1800's you'll know what I mean! It'd also have rubber matting thenyou have the option of beds or not.

I'd have wash box, harnessing area, secure WARM tack/harness room, solarium all in the same barn as exmoor weather is a tad unpredicitable!

I have various other plans too... .but i'll stop now cos i'm sounding a tad mental!

 

[Enfys]

First, use the best quality items you can afford, it pays in the long run.

I would change very little about the barn I already have. It isn't really broken, so I am not going to fix it overmuch. All stalls were full of junk and with high black painted walls (like the one in the photo) when we took it over. It looks dark but in fact there are individual windows that let in plenty of light, it is cool and ventilated in summer and 5C warmer than outside in winter.

The aisle would be resurfaced, and I'd fit out one stall as a grooming/wash stall but that's it. I have ten stalls, four of which have removable partitions and are currently two 11x20' foaling stalls.

My walls are double layer inch thick oak, the stuff is 30 years old and still broke a chainsaw, tough as, well, oak. If anything kicks the walls with intent they don't do it twice. So no matting on walls for me.

Scratch pads they all have (they like those green spikey doormat things from Home Depot/B&Q)

If starting from scratch I would advise that you give yourself lots of room in the aisle, mine is 15' wide. Absolutely nothing worse than having to dodge heads as you pass by.

Good lighting is an absolute must, as is water, and a loo if you can squish that into a corner.

If you don't do automatic waterers then it isn't so much hassle to have piping installed so that you aren't lugging buckets or dragging hoses.

Consider how big you want your tackroom, then double it, take as much room as you can for storage, floor it with wood, insulate it and get a heating system installed, your tack will thank you for it. Oh yes, and get a phone installed, cell phones are great, but not always reliable.

Oddly enough, the stables I designed endlessly as a child are pretty much what I have now. I simply don't care about them being pretty (although the graduated walls etc would be nice too) functional does it for me. Of course if I move anywhere with posh stables then they'd be just fine too! I am quite sure that the next owners will rip the guts out of mine, never mind.

Basically, I think, when planning, walk through your routine and think what you like, dislike, is awkward, inconvenient, non-existent and go from there. Work out your sizing, do floorplans, think about deliveries or emergencies, could you get a vehicle directly to the stalls in an emergency? (God Forbid, but a dead horse is NOT easy to move)

Have Fun!

 

[longtalltilly]

rubber matting, auto waters, american barn or an L shape with internal grills/half walls so horses can see/touch eachother, hay bars in each stable, good drainage,

Wash box with hot and cold running water, solarium, horse undercover walker. Heated Rug room, heated tackrooms and coffee room, Indoor arena with arena mirrors down the long sides

 

[only_me]

big stables that are 12x14 if possible, brick walls like you see in all the old yards, but painted black on the bottom inside the stable and white at the top.

and i would also like an american barn with traditional style stables, with a big deep straw bed

each stable would have their own little "yard" out the back so that they could move around and it would be fenced with post and rail so that each horse could see each other.

plenty of natural light and each stable to have a haybar, and excellent drainage. i would also like rubber mats, but only at the front of the stable for them to stand on.

i would like auto drinkers but with an option of turning them off if nessacary. and lots of fields for turnout.

a wash box, with a solarium, a walker for the horses and a swimming pool for the horses as well

oh and some good gallops.

and an indoor arena wouldnt go a miss

i can dream

 

[bushbaby28]

1. big stables with partitions.
2. Lots of fields with big barn shelters so they could live out.
3. 2 or 3 barns so everybody isn't together so you can still avoid the odd person or enjoy your own personal space!!
4. erm indoor school,
5. lots of storage areas,
6. large hay barn hehe the list goes on...

 

[lachlanandmarcus]

the ones we just had built! Mini barn with stables and tack room (we are building a barn behind too). Big chap has 18x12, pony girlie has 12x12, 4 stables for 2 of them so they are opposite and can see each other but not annoy each other, portal frame so light and airy, painted white walls and doors with green woodwork. Half doors to outside as well as the internal stable doors and the outside ones have windows in the middle so if you do have to shut them in crummy weather, ponio can still see out..... Wide central gangway as we get a LOT of weather in the Cairngorms. hasnt fallen down in the 90mph winds yet! Yard out the front which is being fenced to use as a turnout area. Proper industrial drain covers, not the crappy clip on thin ones which I think are lethal! Access to acres of newly fenced (4 foot horse fence).

havent finished it quite yet but the residents have moved in!

 

[longtalltilly]

oooo that loooks nice!

 

[chunkytfg]

[ QUOTE ]
the ones we just had built! Mini barn with stables and tack room (we are building a barn behind too). Big chap has 18x12, pony girlie has 12x12, 4 stables for 2 of them so they are opposite and can see each other but not annoy each other, portal frame so light and airy, painted white walls and doors with green woodwork. Half doors to outside as well as the internal stable doors and the outside ones have windows in the middle so if you do have to shut them in crummy weather, ponio can still see out..... Wide central gangway as we get a LOT of weather in the Cairngorms. hasnt fallen down in the 90mph winds yet! Yard out the front which is being fenced to use as a turnout area. Proper industrial drain covers, not the crappy clip on thin ones which I think are lethal! Access to acres of newly fenced (4 foot horse fence).

havent finished it quite yet but the residents have moved in!


[/ QUOTE ]

That does look lovely aprt from one thing.

That floor would annoy the hell out of me! It is going to be an absolute pain to sweep as you can only sweep into the middle rather than along the length of the hallway.

would it not make sense to get it filled with self leveling concrete to make the floor nice and smooth?

 

[Enfys]

Haffieliesel, that looks super smart, and very well planned.

Chunkytim, I can see your point, but smooth floors are hellishly slippery, especially if you are contending with a lot of snow and ice. It is a toss up between an easy to sweep, immaculate, but possibly slippy floor and safety.

HF, how do you find the floor now that you are using the barn?

 

[Skhosu]

The main thing for me is they MUST be brick/concrete as having had a fire in a concrete barn I would never put a horse of mine in a wooden one as any fire is going to go straight through it.
Then the normal, we have a pretty good yard, everything is compact and doors to seal off areas etc.