Converting a big pole building to horse barn WWYD?

[fourfillies]

Our farm search continues. Saw a nice place today, good topography, nice house, decent commute. There is no barn but there is a 100(l)x80(w) pole building that has a stoned foundation. The main part of the building is 100x40 and 20 feet tall. There are two 20ft deep overhangs the run the 100 ft length that start about 15ft tall and run down about 3 feet over the 20ft of depth. The south side overhang has a finished block 20x20 room in the SW corner and has sheeting cladding the rest of the south side. The north (long) side is completely open. There are sliding doors on the West and East ends. Current use is to store hay (lots) of hay. There is electric but we’d have to run water.

My needs are:
4 stalls (12x12 or slightly larger ok)
Feed room
Tack Room
Wash stall
Trailer storage (24’ long GN)
Truck storage
Tractor Storage
Store 300 average size square hay bales

Prevailing winds here are out of the West, occasionally NW.

Ironically, my last COTH barn Question was about a barn with 7ft ceilings. This building is cavernous. But, not quite wide enough for an indoor
Not sure where to start or is it a non-starter? Could use part of it as a workshop for dear husband.

I appreciate any suggestions.

[cutter99]

We had a pole barn on a property that we bought that was used for beef cattle before we got it. I had custom stall panels made by Smyrna Grove Manufacturing in Christiana, PA. They are like a round pen panel, plus each stall has a panel with a swinging door on it. We attached them to the upright posts of the pole building with chains. This configuration allowed for the utmost flexibilty in the space. I could make stalls 10’ x 10’ and larger based on 10’ lengths.

Hay storage can be wherever you want it, but I would put hay on pallets and not directly on the floor or ground.

As as far as trailer parking, pole construction would allow you to remove parts of exterior walls to drive directly into the building for parking.

[Hej]

You might try taking a big sheet of graph paper, marking the dimensions and immovable parts of the building on it, then cutting out ‘stalls’, ‘feed room’, ‘tack room’, ‘trailer’ etc to scale out of stiff paper.

You can move all the parts around until you get what you want. You might find ideas you never thought of!

[clanter]

The main part of the building is 100x40 and 20 feet tall
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rent it for RV storage and build a barn

[fourfillies]

@clanter

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rent it for RV storage and build a barn

I was fearing that was the best option.

[pluvinel]

A local “horse breaker” has a 60’ x 60’ covered work area where he does all his work…works well for him…and he does all the breaking of youngsters for a big name breeding farm.

In crappy weather, any covered arena lets you turn out horses, do a free school…or practice collected work.

I agree that getting an architect’s scale and graph paper can let you visualize the floor plan you want.

[clanter]

@fourfillies

I was fearing that was the best option.

a 14 by 40 foot RV enclosed storage unit here cost over $350 per month… requires no stall mucking/feeding/turn out/blankets/hay

makes a pretty good income stream

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so tell me about “it has electricity” … could an excellent marijuana indoor farm

[Cynical25]

That sounds amazing! I agree with the graph paper route to see how to best utilize the space.

I would absolutely reserve an area for covered groundwork/turnout/walk-trot riding in crappy weather. I’d take advantage of every square inch for ME, not rent it out to store other people’s stuff! That would also open you up to more liability, and cost more to get the appropriate commercial insurance coverage. Plus I wouldn’t want random people on my property, potentially messing with my horses or forgetting to close my gates.

Due to potential fire hazard, I’d consider storing hay at the opposite end as stalls just to allow more time to get horses out in an emergency. But make sure the storage spot is easily accessible to the hay delivery trailers.

Really think about where all the doors and overhands sit in relation to your existing or planned turnouts and stalls. The farther you have to lead horses between turnout and stalls, the more of your precious time it wastes, the more sun/rain/snow you have to trudge through, and the more potential paths you will need to clean manure piles from. Space doors & gates so opening certain ones together creates paths/tunnels to connect to other areas - having the ability to easily reconfigure spaces really comes in handy! While you’re at it, add twice as many fence gates as you think you need - you’ll appreciate it when your tractor dies or a horse gets lose and you don’t have to walk across the entire field to get in or out.

I fully expected to add interior stalls when I moved to my place 3 years ago, but ended up appreciating the simplicity of the large 3 sided loafing shed off the back of my barn - it’s so easy to pick out manure while the horses are eating, with no bedding costs besides the single $100 load of cushion sand I added for comfort. I can easily open & close a single gate to allow the horses out to pasture or keep them in the sacrifice paddock, no need for haltering/leading/unhaltering. If I need a stall for a sick, injured, or show prepped horse, I can make a temporary one using round pen panels. I currently have a dividing gate up in the loafing shed, to provide separation while my easy-keeper inhales his handful of feed and the senior slowly eats her larger ration.

[fourfillies]

Thank you @Cynical25. I was thinking about leaving the 100x40 area open for a winter exercise area and creating stalls with runs attached that open to a dry lot and then on to pasture, essentially a shed row setup. Not a set up I’m I’ve worked with before each year I age the more attractive less unnecessary handling occurs the better. That set up would allow me to use the remainder of that side of the overhang to be a 40x20 deep run in also with direct pasture access.

[seabreeze]

I’d totally make a barn out of that. It’s already there…why not? With the height, it’ll be nice and cool in the summer!