If you were to build a new yard what would you change ??

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moorhillhorses

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I'm building a new yard . Mostly livery , small riding school and to be used for show jumping comps. If you had to build a yard what would you do/ not do? What go you not like about your existing yard? What attracts liveries ?
I'm going to do an all weather cross country , a gravel track to each jump. I want some sort of pay as you go electric for liveries. A horse trailer liveries can hire. Winter turn out so stabled horses can stretch there legs.Do you get a big area and cover it with sand? Or each horse has a pen type area outside the stable ? Which surface? My school horses are going to have a huge barn for the winter with turn out do I use straw ?. Again what surface? Liveries will have huge lockers so people don't lift each others stuff! A sofa room for liveries with a stove for winter !what would you do ?
 
wow your going for alot!

good stuff to have.
plent of well insulated taps... dont want to be draging water everywhere
plent of drains - dont like water sitting there
hot horse shower - under shelter
plent of safe tying up space
light airy stables - not huge in size but bright and inviting
storage storage storage - and even more storage!!!!!
grazing - lots of the stuff to support the horse you have then....and then even more!!!!
well maintained facilites - can be the best looking yard in the world.... but if the schools harrowed only once a week theres no way id take my horse there!!!!

im sure there is much more....but cant think of right now!!!

for winter turnout id do a large 'pen' (30x30m? or bigger) and put down plent of wood chips/bark...no planning but good for running around in with no mud.... individual pens on back of stables wouldnt be big enough and wouldnt provide enough 'socialisation'.... could also create turnout problems, i know a horse that had a pen on the back of his stable and once he learnt he could run into and out of his stable directly he would no longer settle out in a field and crash through evrey fence to reach his stable!
 
I'm currently in the process of having a new yard built at home so I spent a lot of time thinking about what I want. the concrete is going down this week so hopefully it will all be ready for use in a couple of weeks.

I am having larger than average rubber matted boxes, with a 6' overhang. The yard has a hard standing area in front of it so it isn't slippery when icy and it could be used for turnout if the fields are too wet. I have a large open plan covered area for the farrier, tacking up etc next to the tackroom with drainage and hot water so it doubles up as a wash bay. The covered area leads straight into the school so I can tack up and mount in the dry and walk straight into the school and back again.

Gates to arena and off the property all open both ways and can be opened from on a horse. Field gateways have hard standing to prevent mud. Auto fill troughs and field shelters in turnout fields. I would like a muck heap/s easily accessible from all fields so I don't have to walk miles when poo picking.

The tackroom will be fully insulated and heated so tack stays mould free and so it is a pleasant place to hang out with a sofa. I also have a big saddle stand on order for tack cleaning and some fab open fronted wooden storage boxes.

I did a thread about a year ago and got a lot of good suggestions so it might be worth looking at that.

On a livery yard I liked having access to a horse walker, a solarium, individual storage (best were diagonally across one corner of a large stable), good parking, good safe paddock fencing, rug hanging space, good amount of bedding, a one fee covers all so no unexpected extras on your bill and knowledgable sensible staff.
 
One of the best ideas i have seen on here was a stable with a door in the back leading to an individual store room which ran the width of the stable and must have been about 4ft deep at a guess
 
My yard ( money no object ) would be as follows...

Indoor school... Tres large, with mirrors and lighting, rubber sand mix
Outdoor school tres large, lighting and rubber sand mix
Gallops,
Track system with pea gravel, feeding and drinking points etc
Additional separate paddocks
Use of poo vacuum
Woods... With tracks and jumps
Automatic water to all fields
Min of 12 x 12 stables and a couple of 16 x16 just incase of impromptu foals.
Good access to bridle paths and good rides
Carpark with space for lorries
At least one decent sized barn (enough to accommodate 1 yrs cut of hay and winter bedding
Tack room (ideally individual tack rooms)
Feed room (ideally lockable feed containers for each)
Rubber matting and ground hay mangers in each stable
On site residence
CCTV
Social room with heater, microwave, fridge, toaster and kettle!
Xc jumps and show jumps
Visiting jumping and dressage instructors
Round pen
Horse walker

That is all... Lol! :)
 
What do you mean by track system ? Would pea gravel work well in a turn out area? Also I'm going to put done gravel at the gates so the area never gets mucky! X
 
Bark chips won't rot down for at least a year, probably will last lots longer.

I wouldn't have too many horses on the land and I would have summer and winter turn out. I'd want a sick paddock, horses to be quarantined, not just turned straight out when they arrive and proper electric fencing with zero barbed wire. A lami paddock would be amazing, too. Indoor school, naturally! Amazing off road hacking would be a huge bonus.
 
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The things I like about my current yard are that we have good grazing all year, the yard is well maintained and kept tidy, the stables are American barn type which is nicer all round when the weather is bad, we have plenty of tie ups on hard standing, a floodlit schol with a rubber surface, good security, good hacking, most of the turn out has auto fill water troughs and we don't have to poo pick. Oh yeah and we have a decent toilet.

The things I would do to improve it if it was my yard and money was no object....

Get a horse walker and a heated rug drying room.
Make the tea room more comfortable and inviting.
Get rid of the spooky trees by the school and improve the floodlighting.
Build a jumping paddock with a surface.
Get a decent surface and lighting in the second school.
Get a hot horse shower.
 
My dram yard here goes

Indoor school with 2 American barns off either side. These are large corridors with stables off each side and on the back wall there is a traditional style door to the outside yard. So that the horses can see the outside world but you don't have to go outside to ride the horse at all.

Individual tack lockers outside each stable. Individual lockable feedbins. Heated wash box. Heated coffee room.

Large outside school. XC fences off road hacking, horse walker, round lunge pen.

I'm sure there is more but those r the basics
 
I was going to put an all weather Crosscountry in :) gallop for locals to hire. Small cafe fit showjumping nights and a stove fire in the lounge area !
 
If I was to design my own yard. . .
I would have a large American style barn that was well ventilated and airy so horses can see each other and grooming can be done in the ailse.
Well managed paddocks with psot and rail fencing and strong secure gates.
A paddock for.new or ill horses
a round pen
An indoor school and an outdoor school
Concrete as an area of hard standing
gravel driveways
a wash stall/area undercover
Winter paddocks that magically stay dry and no.mud :)
 
Big roomy looseboxes 15ft x 5ftand plenty high enough too. each horse would have a wood chip yarded area 15ft x 30ft infront of the box whuich it could acess at will if the door is left open. there would be post and rail fencing between the little "paddocks" and the horses could mutually groom over the fence. hay snd all other feed would be fed inside the stable to prevent upsetting the neighbours.
 
Good fencing
Barkchip pen
Good, Dry tie-up area
Individual tack room/storage area at the back of each box that liveries can lock
Floodlit school (a roof over it would be a massive bonus)
Jumps

Bonus Facilities:
A gallop track
Indoor stables
Parking for a horsebox
Hot shower and wash bay
Solarium
Heated rug racks
Running warm water
Arena Mirrors
 
I'd love a water treadmill or water horse walker so the horses could paddle/swim to improve fitness and aid recovery (no idea what they are called but look fantastic!)
 
Well I hope you've won the lottery with all these suggestions haha!!
Some things I would suggest which are hopefully practical and cost effective in the long run are definitely a wash box with warm water shower, cross ties and and electricity supply for clipping. Somewhere for drying turnout rugs, a room with rug racks is fine (a swinging rail for each stable) and dehumidifiers are a relatively cheap but very effective way of drying and maybe a small heater for winter. Rubber matting thats stuck down, prevents smell and saves bedding and dragging them out to wash under every year. Muck heap, a trailer which you can tip into from a platform is best and means you can take the muck away regularly and leave it somewhere away from the yard to rot helping reduce flies and it will look tidier as most are notoriously bad at forking up their muck and messy muck heaps ruin a yard in my opinion. All year turnout is what people will pay extra for but that depends purely on how much land you have and how wet it is. Drainage is a priority and for a turnout pen I would go for sand, will need replacing far less frequently than bark! for a barn for school horses straw is fine but it would mean deep littering them and would require a tractor to muck it out at the end of the winter. Personally I would go for just rubber matting with large doors at one end and permanent access to a sand pen outside for horses to urinate and roll and maybe a corner of shavings in the barn that can be regularly changed. that way it can easily be kept clean and less hay will be wasted being trampled into the straw bed. Also go and look at lots of other yards and ask questions, go to competition centres and spend along time watching the shows. Warm up space is really important for a show centre aswell as some where to get refreshments, a good viewing area and toilets.
 
My old yard had an equestrian washing machine which came in handy when I couldn't sneak rugs into the washing machine ;). Also, a warm + cold shower comes in handy as you can use it though out the year. If you can afford it, cameras that the owner of a stall can use to check up on their horse if they are worried about him/her (especially if they are new and worried about how their horse is settling in.)
 
My wish list, money no object. 1&2 non-negotiable the others on a sliding scale!

1. Turnout, turnout, turnout. All year grazing would be preferable, but if not I'd want a turnout area that meant my horse could get out for at least 8 hrs every day.
2. Decent fencing
3. Nice big stables (12 x 14 at least, prefeably 14x14) could cope with 12x12 but no smaller with rubber matting.
4. Hot shower & heat lamps for drying off (on a coin meter if necessary)
5. Indoor school (or really well lit outdoor as a minimum) big enough for proper jumping.
6. Plenty of secure storage - preferably individual. By the time you have feed bins, a tack locker, rug storage etc the space needed soon adds up.
7. Trailer parking.
8. Coffee room.
9. Gravel paths to all the gateways (as well as the gateways themselves being gravel)
10. Tap in every stable (under a plastic cover to prevent horses breaking them! - I don't like automatic drinkers as I like to monitor what they drink, but it would be lovely not to have to lug buckets about!

In an absolute ideal world I'd have a U-shaped stable yard with the fields towards the open side of the U so all the horses can see each other and have a nice view. Every stable would have a door onto the (concrete) yard and a door on the other side onto a little turnout pen so they could choose whether to be in or out (but with hay and water in the stable). This would be in addition to enough grazing for all year turnout. There would be a big barn for hay and undercover trailer parking behind one side of the "u" (on the other side of the turnout pens) and an indoor school on the other.
I think I've thought about this a bit too much haven't I!
 
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