piccies/ hints on building on a field shelter??

[Jericho]

My OH, bless him, has said that for my birthday he is paying for our local builder / handy man to come in and build me a field shelter - yippeeee. So I was hoping for some hints / tips / piccies to give me some ideas of what I can have for my bespoke field shelter? Eg what roofs are best? Should I have an overhang? Kickboards? Gates or sliprails on the front? Can I put rubber matting straight on the earth inside or will the earth dry out and stay fairly firm? Whats the best way of feeding hay in them? I was also thinking of having gutters with drainpipes into water butt for the horses to drink out of? is this a good idea/ safe?

Have looked on various websites for designs but just wondering what things work well or things that should be incorporated. My only must have criterias is that it needs to be split down the middle so 2 v small ponies can go in one side and the big beast in the other (i.e. often they are segregated and the shelter needs to accomodate this?)

Sorry - lots of questions....

 

[stencilface]

We have had out two field shelters made and built by companies, but I shall try to help!

Right to try and answer most of them....

Roofs - plastic, cheaper, but does wear out faster ime. We have just reroofed our stables with metal panels with flat, not rounded corrugations. Make sure you get some clear ones too so you can make the most of the natural light - it makes a lot of difference!

Overhang - yes, at least 2' and make sure you have a gutter, otherwise you have annoying drips all the time!

Kickboards - yes, ours get well used

Sliprails - we used to have these and they were very handy and flexible to requirements - but depends on how amenable your horses are to an extent to let you fiddle with putting them up. advantage being that they can be put completely out of the way, unlike a gate

Rubber matting only works on a solid base such as concrete. Earth floors are fine for them to lie on (obviously!) but can still become waterlogged. Choose your location very carefully, taking into account natural drainage.

Hay - haybars I would say (you can make your own, so not expensive, do a search on the forum for a post on how to

)

Gutters with a butt will be fine for them to drink out of. Just let a couple of good rainfalls go before you start collecting to give the roof and gutters a good rinse through

Hope thats helpful!

 

[Eaglestone]

I don't really think I can add to Stencilface's detailed response .... apart from that they are better facing North

 

[Stinkbomb]

Me and the OH built ours. Here it is when we had done it.

We just built the frame and then nailed wood boards to it. We used corrigated roof from b and q. Roof sheets were £7 each and there are 4.

We then made it bigger as in here..

And then put guttering up to collect rain water which i use in the buckets. It has a hayrack inside and one outside and rubber matting at the back near the racks. Its not great but it works!!!

 

[BlueCharlie]

watch the size, we built one and it ended up being called the Giraffe house!! It was so tall you could see it from miles away!!!

yes add kickboards much safer. I had rubber matting in mine and it was fine.
can't see a problem with waterbut and guttering. We built ours from wood and to be honest it would have ended up being cheaper to buy a flatpack one from a field shelter specialist. So if you are going down the wooden route, check your costings furst as you may not find it is any cheaper to do yourself and might as well spennd £15k on one from a manufacturer.

Goodluck : )

 

[hollyandivy123]

off topic but doesn't your mini have a good winter coat

 

[eriskaypony]

[ QUOTE ]
Roofs - plastic, cheaper, but does wear out faster ime. We have just reroofed our stables with metal panels with flat, not rounded corrugations. Make sure you get some clear ones too so you can make the most of the natural light - it makes a lot of difference!

[/ QUOTE ]

Use Onduline, very light and tough.

[ QUOTE ]
Rubber matting only works on a solid base such as concrete. Earth floors are fine for them to lie on (obviously!) but can still become waterlogged. Choose your location very carefully, taking into account natural drainage.

[/ QUOTE ]

Where we are earth floor = mud. We have rubber mats in ours on top of plastic mesh (both from Horsemats) which is dry enough to put bedding on, Just rubber mats and they sink right into the mud.