Designing a show barn. Need advice.

[kizzyandana]

Hey guys,

for the last 3 years i have been building a business plan for a Horse Show rental facility(also other programs when not booked for shows), with some other non horse related seasonal events as well, i.e halloween mazes during all of october. The only thing left to do is the 2d and 3d model to present to the loan agency’s however i would like your opinion on what is needed or not or where things should be placed.

Here is what i designed for the main barn. I will post what i have designed as a layout soon.

http://fav.me/d6y3qfq
if link doesn’t work let me know threw pm.

[clanter]

The doorways into the structure are not standard widths… make them even 2ft intervals 14’0" or 16’0" not 13’8" and 11’8"

What is the sidewall height?

[fourfillies]

I’d second that for all your dimensions. Stick with standard dimensions. Looks like all your stalls are 11’1", consider a standard 10 or 12 feet instead. Increases the cost of supplies and labor. More so than I ever would have thought before I did a gut and renovate of our barn.
Also, what is the arena in the center to be used for? Depending on the application it may be small.
One other thought, for the number of stalls you might want to add another wash stall or 2.

[Calvincrowe]

Is the arena in meters or feet? If feet–way too small to be useful. What type of riding will you have there? Will you have boarders or just have it available for shows? Will you have other storage for hay outside of this building?

[Bluey]

[QUOTE=Calvincrowe;7314061]
Is the arena in meters or feet? If feet–way too small to be useful. What type of riding will you have there? Will you have boarders or just have it available for shows? Will you have other storage for hay outside of this building?[/QUOTE]

I was wondering about that, maybe it is for saddlebreds?

I have seen some very small arenas they were showing in, or large arenas with about half the middle blocked out.

[shadytrake]

Definitely not enough wash racks. We have 3 WR and 6 dry tack stalls with three more coming. And that is just for our boarding barn.

[airhorse]

Arena needs to be about 3 times the size it is currently.

[Calvincrowe]

OP-are you in the Vancouver, BC area? I’d say you need to have stalls 12 x 12 minimum for a boarding situation, unless you have attached paddocks. Definitely need grooming stalls, and I’d put the tack lockers more evenly spaced to match up with the stalls, or do tack rooms on either side. Make sure you have plenty of water and electrical outlets.

I’m still a bit confused on the purpose of your building though: is it a rental facility that will only be for shows or is it a boarding facility, that will host shows?

[Ambitious_Kate]

How big are the stalls? They should be at least 12 x 12 for public rental. Smaller is ok for small horses or ponies, but you need it to accomodate larger horses too.

I agree about the wash stalls. There should be more, and possibly some grooming stalls besides what I assume would be cross ties for aisle work. The interior arena is small. If you don’t make it large enough to accomodate a legal dressage arena, you are cutting out a large chunk of your potential business, and your potential financial people are going to want to know why.

[kizzyandana]

the program itself that i used has the stall length automatically at 12x12. I didn’t change those, and as for the arena it is not in feet, i put it in meters. I think. The entry ways and doors will be 16 wide, the program was just being ridiculous, and i was getting frustrated with it.

The area in the middle where the arena is is actually two with a sliding wall to make the two arenas into one large arena, it when not put together it is mostly a warm up area for ground work, when combined it is a warm up area for jumpers. For a program i wish to design and start they might be used for one on one riding lessons if the paths to the outdoor paddocks and indoor arenas is to icey. As i live in Northern Ontario.

Its just for shows, and or clinic’s. It is also for barns that are remodeling and have no room for their horses so they can stay on the property while the remodeling is done. I might have horses that live their year round but there won’t be more then 7 horses for the program i want to design other then my own, who won’t be in the main barn when shows are booking the property.

And yes their is a seperate building for shavings and hay on the property design.

The height of the walls is going to be 14ft high, so that a tractor can come in with good clearance.

TO ADD LIST:

• another wash stall
  -more tack lockers
  -tacking up areas other then crossties

I haven’t figured out the configuration for the property either this is a very rough draft, flame it as you wish just dont be too cruel. NOT IN PROPER SCALE.

http://fav.me/d6y421e

[kizzyandana]

[QUOTE=airhorse;7314159]
Arena needs to be about 3 times the size it is currently.[/QUOTE]

It is an indoor warm up arena, their are two outdoor arenas and two indoor arenas that will be designed into the property.

[kizzyandana]

[QUOTE=Calvincrowe;7314168]
OP-are you in the Vancouver, BC area? I’d say you need to have stalls 12 x 12 minimum for a boarding situation, unless you have attached paddocks. Definitely need grooming stalls, and I’d put the tack lockers more evenly spaced to match up with the stalls, or do tack rooms on either side. Make sure you have plenty of water and electrical outlets.

I’m still a bit confused on the purpose of your building though: is it a rental facility that will only be for shows or is it a boarding facility, that will host shows?[/QUOTE]

Northern Ontario, it is a facility only for horse shows and or clinics.

[shadytrake]

I don’t ride dressage but I always thought this facility was very fancy.

http://www.midsouthdressageacademy.org/facility/

[shadytrake]

HOT water access. There is nothing worse that trying to hose a horse in cold weather with no hot water.

[kizzyandana]

[QUOTE=shadytrake;7314197]
HOT water access. There is nothing worse that trying to hose a horse in cold weather with no hot water.[/QUOTE]

The land that i am buying for the property has town hydro and power, so it will be a facility with both cold and hot water. But their will also be emergency hot water access, though it is not on the blue print it is in my business plan.

[bcody]

Is your parking big enough especially for trailers? What about hookups for LQ’s.

[Bluey]

Our county is studying building something like that.
First they did, get a consultant, that knows the details necessary for human and horse flow, building specs and all that.

Those consultants give you all kinds of ideas and tips and then you will have so much more to go by.

With such a large project, that consultant fee is peanuts, do check into that.

I know our county has checked with Priefert and ABI.
I know whole such centers both have consulted on for equestrian facilities and did an excellent job.
Both companies work with consultants and/or provide them.

There is so much in those plans that could be improved on, like keeping the right distance between buildings so firetrucks and other can attend to any disasters, size of clear span inside of buildings needed only for arenas, which would save you considerably for other and so much more.

You are starting on the road to learning so much about this and you know, that will be a wonderful road, there is so much to learn.
Start a file just for that, to keep adding all kinds of ideas and you will end up with a wonderful set up that will run so well, you will be proud of it all.

The most important part of all this is going to be where you are right now, the planing phase.
You can make mistakes in your plans, catch them and improve on what is already good.

Take all the time it takes planning and pick brains, as you are doing here and good luck with it all.

[Calvincrowe]

I’d hire an equestrian facility design firm, frankly. I don’t think something of this size and scope can be done by one person on virtual graph paper. That’s a lot of money, and you want it done right the first time. Nothing is more frustrating than a badly designed public facility–people won’t come back.

I will say that given your location, I would think you’d want a large enough indoor space to be useable for shows and clinics in the bad weather months, too.

Also…I have to ask, is there enough income involved in only having a show/clinic facility? I think about Thunderbird, in BC–a beautiful outdoor show venue, with an indoor component, too, attached to a working show barn/boarding facility. I cannot imagine that the Balisky family makes enough off the shows held there to not have another way to make money from the location?? I don’t know the answer, but I wonder if you do?

[NorthwoodsRider]

[QUOTE=kizzyandana;7314182]
Northern Ontario, it is a facility only for horse shows and or clinics.[/QUOTE]

Just curious – where in Northern Ontario? It looks like a pretty large facility, but depending on how far north you are, I’m not sure there is the equestrian market to financially support such a facility. Everyone seems to have a different definition of where Northern Ontario begins however.

[hj0519]

@kizzyandana;7314173

TO ADD LIST:

• another wash stall
  -more tack lockers
  -tacking up areas other then crossties

If it’s not going to be an actual boarding facility, I don’t really think there’s a need for tack lockers at all.