I want to build a large run in shelter that can comfortably harbor 4 horses. The pasture is pretty open, on a slight slope, with only a few trees on the perimeter. I’m guessing it’s about 3-4 acres in size and rectangular in shape. How do I go about picking a good spot for this run in? Any rules of thumb for placement? The whole property is high and dry so no low spots. Also - please post pics of your run ins! I need ideas!! 
TIA
Run in sheds should have the backs of them to the NE as most storms come from that direction. I like my sheds close to the gates as the ponies like to hang around them/stay in them quite a bit and when I go to bring them in, I like them to be fairly close 
Less walking for all of us. Plus on the crappy snowy days, its less hauling around the hay as I feed in and around the shed.
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Here are a few pictures of our 2 run in sheds that my husband built. There is one with a clear back to it and the ponies will stay inside it and watch out for us to bring them in lol! The gate is behind the shed, this way they can watch for us and are waiting at the gate when we arrive. The other shed faces the gate so they see us coming.
Mine is in my blackacre blog. Please keep in mind it only got one coat of paint before winter (red is really a multi-coat color!!). It is sided with LP Smartside and has an architectural shingle roof. We wanted it to match our other out building. It is nice if you can do it a bit off the fenceline or they have shelter from all sides, but mine is deep enough it works even with a strong south wind. It opens south with a bit of an eastern slant.
The best thing I did was go 16’ deep with a bit of an overhang and build it up higher than the rest of the dry lot. My drylot is high, but the shed is a 2-3 feet higher and it also slants higher towards the back a bit. I don’t think you can go wrong with putting down/building up an aggregate pad like I did. The third good thing I did was mat it.
You would need multiple, or larger sheds–my 12’x16’ is for a horse, donkey and mini that all get along.
I put up the equivalent of shade structures…10 feet deep, 20 feet long, with a roofline probably 10 feet off the ground, with no sides at all. They use it to stay dry, and that’s where I throw hay. The footing (pea gravel) has stayed in great shape over the past 6 months, and it’s reasonably dry ground most of the time. We have our worst winds out of the NW, but my all-weather paddocks are down the hill and behind a line of trees and the barn, so it doesn’t get nearly the wind the rest of the farm does. They stay very comfortable without sides, and the air circulation is much better.
Wow, DiamondJubilee, you have a beautiful place.
OP, is there a part of your pasture which is more convenient for you? I want my shade structure positioned so that I can easily see the horses from my house. If that is not possible for you or something you don’t want, maybe you could at least locate the shade structure so that the horses inside are visible when you approach the gate or drive by.
How about maintenance? If the building is far from the gate, that involves more effort to muck it out, especially in muddy or snowy seasons. Do you want to be able to easily push a wheelbarrow to it or drive up with a truck or tractor? If the run in is against the edge of the pasture and one wall is accessible from outside the fence, you can build an overhang and use it for storage, even if that is simply a rack to hang the muck rake and wheelbarrow under an eave and out of reach of the horses. I would like mine like this, with a wide door so I could access the run in from outside and also have use of it as a catch pen.
On the other hand, I see many instances where the shelter is in the middle of the pasture so this must not be an issue in many cases. As well, if the shelter is in the middle of the pasture, the horses can choose which side to stand on depending on the sun, the wind, the bugs, other horses and herd dynamics, etc. I would be interested to hear DiamondJubilee’s opinions and observations on this issue.
Make it face the direction you need for your location. So if you get cold winds and lots of snow, you want to face the opening so the horses are protected according to the prevailing winds in your area. If you are in Arizona or Florida, you probably don’t want the shed opening facing west, which would give the horse no shade in the hot afternoon. Where I live I want to protect from western sun exposure and driving cold rains which also come primarily from the west. In my current barn, one of the shade structures is aligned north and south which makes it useless for shade protection in the afternoon and morning. Fortunately, there are many trees along the fence line.
You did not ask about shelter designs, but I will add my two cents anyway. I like this design or some version of it – the concept which combines an enclosed three-sided protected area with an overhang. I think it really allows the horses comfort in all kinds of weather conditions.
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I’d put the run-in on the highest ground. It will probably get trampled in front, and if the shed is low at all it will get muddy quickly. I learned this one the hard way.
In my area the bad weather comes from the north west, so sheds face south, or southeast.
Will you want to be feeding hay inside the shed? I do (in whole-bale, small hole nets) because the hay can sit in there for a long time and be fine as it is out of the weather. If you want to be “working” around the shed, make it convenient to you (not far from the gate, e.g.)
Put yours wherever I don’t put mine. Garr…moved it three times now and the boys still don’t use it!
Not from experience, but from reading, better to have it wider than it is deep 
I think that sheds should have a totally open front. If horses get nasty over hay, etc, the lower on the totem pole horse needs to have a way to exit quickly.
DiamondJubilee’s shed is absolutely gorgeous for 1 or 2 horses, but for more than that you need to create an easy way out.
To me, the perfect run in shed has a 10 x 10 room on the side for holding enough hay to last several weeks. That way there is no lugging hay across the field.
Also, if it is easy, electricity is a wonderful thing to have in a shed. If there is a problem at night, being able to see what has happened is invaluable.
ALSO, the water source should be near the shed if possible. In really cold weather, you want to make it easy for the horses to drink.
All these wish list things may not be feasible, but they are nice to have.
Oh – one more thing: a shed I inherited on a farm I bought had a 3’ high panel on hinges which could be opened up (flopped down) in the summer to allow for air flow when it gets hot It is easy to do if your shed is more than 8’ in back since you will already have a horizontal line across where the plywood ends.
[QUOTE=froglander;7989768]
Not from experience, but from reading, better to have it wider than it is deep :)[/QUOTE]
In theory I agree, but it still has to be deep enough (assuming 3 sided). A 10’ deep up here is not great, although you can block the prevalent wind. Our prevalent wind is from the north, north west, but some of the absolute coldest nights have a strong south wind. Also, some warmer winter days (so freezing rain instead of snow) will have a southerly wind. A shallow shed with a straight wind = soaked animals. The blizzard this weekend was from the north east. So winds change.
I want my animals, who live out 24x7 to be able to stay dry and out of the wind. Ultimately my shed will be 32’ long x16 deep (8’ hay or tack area in the middle), but I really am happy with the 16’ depth. 12’ with an overhang would be great too.
YMMV.
I agree with LordHelpus on the hay storage, electricity and water too.
I don’t think I ever answered the original question, but I think the best place for a run in shed is in the dry lot. I have trees fenced off in the pasture.
I agree with others that 16’ deep is best for shelter from everything.
Our run-in was 48’ long and 16’ deep. I hung three 16’ gates to break it up into 4 12x16 “stalls” so that everybody had a place to go. Every stall also had a 12’ gate on the front, mounted so it could swing flush with the 16’ divider gates and be secured open. That allowed the whole front of the run-in to be wide open for escape, or I could easily swing a 12’ gate shut to lock somebody in/out of a “stall”.
Eventually, we did enclose one of the “stalls” for storage, and that project was UBER simple and cheap since all the posts were already there. All we had to do was mount some horizontal 2x4’s, and slap on some painted-to-match tin and plywood.
I just want to add that my sheds were built for 2 ponies, they are 10 x 12 but I do have one in a field and all 4 ponies do go in it. Its like a clown car! But they all get along really well.
Mostly its the 2 older ponies inside and the 2 younger ones on the outside with their heads/necks in the shed, and I feed hay along the back wall and near the opening so all have access to the shelter. My guys also come in at night, so its only used during the day. If I were to keep them out, I would need a 20 x 16 for sure. That way they could all lie down when needed and get their whole bodies inside.
If your guys are going to be staying out, some great ideas were thrown out. I like the idea of swinging gates and extra storage, especially if you don’t have a barn. Water close by would be a good idea as well (my heated tub is about 40ft from the shed and I notice they use it quite a bit on the cold days. My mother in law has her automatic waterer in the shed - which works out really well!).
I also use wood chips outside of the shed to keep the footing dryer in the spring/fall and we replace it every year. Works out well for us.
Our sheds ( we had 3, one in each pasture) were open towards the South. It seems we get the wind from the North & West and big snows seem to come with an East wind. This was the rule for our 2 farms in Missouri and I would stick with that unless you have a different experience. Make sure they are placed at the highest point or build up the ground to make it the highest point so all rain and snow melt go away from the barn.
One of the 12’ wide x 16’ deep run-in stalls during an Oklahoma blizzard in 2011 . Winds from the SE, shed faced E. Being 16’ deep gave “dry” space at the back.
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Another:
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Another:
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I also wanted to agree that Diamond Jubilee’s place is gorgeous (as are your sheds)! Is that wood fencing or “wood look” fencing? Stained or painted?
Thank you for the nice comments on our place. One day I will start a thread of before and after pictures of our place. It’s been a lot of work!!
The fencing is mostly all 3 board oak fencing and we painted it all with a black stain. We used a paint sprayer and placed it on a skid with a genarotor and I drove the tractor around the farm while my husband sprayed the fencing. The run in sheds are oak that was stained and they were also built by my husband. It’s handy having a carpenter and horse person as a husband
[QUOTE=DiamondJubilee;7985260]
Run in sheds should have the backs of them to the NE as most storms come from that direction. [/QUOTE]
You can’t make a blanket statement like that. Where I live in the great plains, & much of the great American West, the weather comes in from the west. Just sayin’.
One should build & site appropriate to their own area.
Very true thistooshallpass! And I was totally wrong as well!!! Most of our bad weather comes from the north west, I was totally wrong there. I don’t know what I was thinking when I wrote that…
I was saying that I face our sheds the opposite direction than where our bad weather comes from, not where meadow should place their run in shed. Sorry for the confusion…
Where do they like to hang out? I have a steep hill… no matter how miserably hot out it is, the horses like congregating at the highest point up near the house.
