If you could set up your dream equestrian estate. What would you want?
How would you go about designing your dream farm?
I’m interested in all ideas: barn design, arena design, pasture design, anything and everything.
Are there any websites that help with all this?
Would that not depend on what you want to do with your horses?
There is not one size fits all to what we do with horses and how to manage for that.
Need more information to answer.
It would entirely depend on what you want to do. That’s the point.
I think it is sometimes easy to get wrapped up in our own ideas about horse keeping or the ideas of the discipline we know.
My idea of a “dream farm” has changed considerably over my lifetime.
Gone are the days of wanting a huge facility with tons of stalls, arenas, fence lines, etc. Soooo much work.
Now my dream farm includes things like a setup with Dutch doors so I don’t have to lead horses to/from the pasture, ample shelter so I can leave the horses out 24/7 worry free, weatherproof storage for a winter’s worth of hay, and mud free footing for high traffic areas.
@Texarkana really nailed it! Dreams are fluid! We started 30 years ago with the idea that we would have a facility that had “hunters, jumpers, and fine driving horses,” --that’s what our business cards said! Wow did that change! We morphed into dressage, 3-Day, Reining, WP, and currently Mounted Archery!! And as our dreams changed so did our facility and how we use it. The CC course became conditioning hills; the dressage area became a reining arena, the driving carts were sold/traded for dressage equipment —the draft horse died and a cutting/sorting horse now lives in his stall. Thinking about getting that boy a herd of cows!
Since we’re talking “won the lottery”:
Enough pastures that I can rotate so the horses have grass whenever the weather is good, plus nice big shelters so they can live out unless the weather gets really bad.
A nice barn to bring them in when the weather does get bad with drop down hay chutes.
Lots of electrical outlets!
A double size outdoor (one side for dressage, one for jumping). Same for the indoor.
Heating in the indoor!
Built in stall fans.
XC schooling field.
Lots of hacking area
If I won the lottery, I’d really go to town, but I think those are my top items.
Heating in the indoor!
well I would prefer air conditioning, its 107F today
Put the barn, house and arena on the high points of the property. And plan carefully how and where you are going to store all the equipment that you don’t know you need. And plan hay storage unless you have a feed store that has a reliable source of good hay all year round. Yes you will need all this storage and it has to be accessible and out of the weather. I wish I had realized that when I planned my place. Buy pasture and buy a good piece of property. You can always build/ upgrade a house or barn but you are stuck with the property you buy.
I don’t know where you are but… when you look for property… don’t look during a drought. Go look when the area is having heavy rains and flooding. Those are surprises you don’t want after you build.
If we’re talking about winning the lottery…
10 stall barn
Aisle fans
Stall fans
Heated Tack room
Feed room with a sink
Bathroom
Washer/Dryer
Grooming stalls
Wash stall with hot/cold water
Place to store hay
Place to store equipment
Indoor arena with mirrors and a viewing room
Outdoor arena
Gallop track
Some place with hills
Ample pastures with run in sheds and automatic waters (heated for winter)
Smaller turn outs for horses on restricted turn out
Round pen
Sprinkler system
Video system
Heated driveway/walkways so I don’t need to shovel/plow
Land for trail riding
You beat us, our record today is 103, we were 106, ugh.
If a barn is there, I will take whatever it is.
If building one, it will be as much metal as possible.
After being in two barn fires and seeing what happens in those the whole burns down, I would just not want but the least possible wood in a barn.
In human rooms maybe, but in the horse area and stalls, metal most places.
There is enough fuel for fires with bedding and other, no need to add with lofts and hay stored there.
Ideal would be a separate barn for supplies and bring just, say, a 21 bale bundle of hay at the time with a skid loader to the main barn.
Lofts take air movement out of more open barns and whatever is there tends to be full of molds and pollens and other hay dust.
Throwing hay down in stalls adds to the dust and, with a loft and so minimal ventilation, too much dust floating in the air.
Another important feature is that stalls have a back door to a wide enough run, best if with some overhang outside.
Horses are happier if they can move in and out of a stall, at their convenience and most do enjoy part of the day in, part out.
No horse heads into the aisle, that results in horses at times of excitement learning to bang on doors, to “reach and touch someone”, etc.
Lovely as that looks when you walk in and all horse heads stick out and look at you, beautiful pictures of that we can see in every brochure, living with the ensuring head shaking, weaving, banging for attention and the rare horse that tries to jump out excited, maybe that is not worth it.
In reality, we have to decide if we want to have a barn for the horses, or for ourselves to play house and care for horses and the barn, as much as or in the place of riding these horses more.
Unless someone has staff to keep beautiful barns in pristine shape, we have to find a way to be practical and beautiful at the same time.
Ahhhhhh I have it all planned out based on the lottery winning size :lol:
If I won enough to build a small personal dream farm but probably still need to keep working at my job:
15 acres
2-3 acre pond
Four stall barn, 42’x48’ plus a 12’ overhang/porch on all sides (total 66’x72’). 12’x16’ stalls, 18’ aisle, 12’x16’ indoor wash stall, 12’x16’ tack/feed room. Honestly having actual stalls is probably a bit over the top, but I want to be able to completely enclose them in case of hurricane. Most of the year they’ll just use the 12’ overhang as run-ins. Each stall has its own dry lot that connects to a 2-acre pasture.
Euro curved stall fronts.
Big-@$$ ceiling fans.
10’ side wall height for the lean-to, open eaves (no loft), hip roof, skylights.
20’ track (just grass) around the property perimeter for hacking.
75’ covered round pen.
Full size dressage ring with mirrors (covered too, if the lottery’s big enough).
All to myself. Ah, the dream…
If I won an obscene sum and could retire my non-horse day job:
50 acres
Two ~10 acre fields for pasture boarders, each have two 25’x25’ run-ins
15 acres of other turnouts, various sizes 1-5 acres each. 25’ wide grass track around half of property for hacking.
A handful of small dry lots for restricted turnout needs
Full size dressage ring, covered, with mirrors, skylights, and covered seating/viewing area
300’x300’ grass jump field also visible from viewing area
75’ covered round pen
I’ve got two barns drawn for this one, IDK which one I’d go with. One is ten stalls, one is 16. IDK how I’d choose, I love them both. 12’x12’ stalls, the 16-stall barn has four oversized stalls. Tack lockers, feed room, separate lounge with bathroom, six wash racks, 18’ aisles, always 18’ aisles. I’m also considering 21’ aisles but that seems a bit excessive. There’s only horses on one side of each aisle. 10’ side wall, stalls have windows, also no loft, skylights.
Euro curved stall fronts.
Big-@$$ ceiling fans.
Separate buildings for hay, bedding, and machinery storage.
12’ paved entry drive, all the way to the barn, with a large turnaround
Custom front gates
Property perimeter privacy bushes.
In both scenarios, I would have water spigots at each field, but I personally hate auto-waterers. I want to be able to monitor how much the horses are drinking.
Both, of course, ample barn lighting and outlets.
I’m torn between no-climb fence with top electric (NO BOARDS! I hate board fencing!) and the Priefert metal pipe fencing that uses wood posts.
I prefer ceiling fans, but I’d have outlets available so that if there’s a non-sweater we can put in a high-velocity stall fan in the summers. But I don’t plan on making those standard for all. Turnout AM and PM will be the standard schedule. Yes, even for show horses.
Oh, I like this idea! Good one!
I love that one too! Hadn’t even crossed my mind to heat a driveway/walkway! Thanks for playing, eveyrone!
Ahhhhhh I have it all planned out :lol:
Option one, keeping my non-horse related job:
15 acres
2-3 acre stocked pond
Four stall barn with 12’ lean-to on all sides, 12’x16’ stalls, 18’ aisle, 12’x16’ indoor wash stall, 12’x16’ tack/feed room. Each stall has its own dry lot that connects to a 2-acre pasture.
Euro curved stall fronts.
Large ceiling fans in the barn aisle and overhangs
10’ side wall height for the lean-to, open eaves (no loft), hip roof, skylights.
20’ wide grass track around the property perimeter for hacking.
75’ covered round pen.
Full size dressage ring with mirrors (covered too, if the lottery’s big enough).
Option two, horses 24/7:
50 acres
2-3 acre stocked pond
Two ~10 acre fields for pasture boarders, each have two large run-ins
15 acres of other turnouts for stall boarders, various sizes 1-5 acres each.
25’ wide grass track around half of property for hacking.
A handful of small dry lots 50sq for restricted turnout needs
Full size dressage ring, covered, with mirrors, skylights, and covered seating/viewing area
300’x300’ grass jump field also visible from viewing area
75’ covered round pen
Octagonal barn, twelve 12’x12’ stalls and four oversized stalls, six indoor wash stalls, 18’ aisles.
Tack lockers, feed room, separate lounge with full bathroom and commercial washer/dryer.
10’ side wall, stalls have windows, also no loft, skylights.
Euro curved stall fronts.
Large ceiling fans in barn aisle and over stalls
Separate buildings for hay, bedding, and machinery storage.
12’ paved entry drive, all the way to the barn, with a large turnaround
Custom front gates
Property perimeter privacy bushes.
In both scenarios, I would have water spigots at each field for filling troughs, but I personally hate auto-waterers. I want to be able to monitor how much the horses are drinking.
Both, of course, ample barn lighting and outlets.
I’m torn between no-climb fence with top electric (No boards! I hate board fencing!) and the Priefert metal pipe fencing that uses wood posts. 5’ fences.
Hot and cold water for wash racks and tack room (and lounge).
My dream farm now is very different than it was 25 years ago. 25 years of working with horses will change you…so that you realize cleaning 20 stalls, mowing 50 acres, and maintaining 3 arenas is really not all it’s cracked up to be!
But a few years ago I bought a house on an open piece of property and got the opportunity to build my dream farm, albeit with a budget. Having worked in and seen so many farms in my life I knew exactly what I wanted, the trick was drawing up blueprints and deciding how to work everything together on the piece of property I have.
What I find are the important bits are such: my house is front center of the property, my barn is behind and just north of the house so that it is easy walking distance and I can see into the attached shelter which must face south in my neck of the country. I have a hay shed separate to the barn, but close, that faces the barn and is on my path to the barn (so I stop for the hay-barrow on my way to the horses). The barn has Dutch doors on the stalls that open to a large sacrifice paddock with footing (very, VERY useful in times like right now where surrounding counties have seen 9 inches of rain - horses feet are dry…and three weeks ago when we were in a drought and the grass was dormant). The sacrifice paddock then opens up to five fields that are used for rotational grazing. Every 5-9 days (depending on the year) I just close up one gate and open another. Also, round each and every fence corner. My horses are never in a space together that has a 90 degree angle. To me, important for the “dream barn.” Also since I built the entire fence myself, I put in more gates than I thought I would use…and honestly I could use like, two more gates! To me, those are all of the characteristics of a barn that I find makes day to day chores and activity flow easily.
Love this thread. Fun to read what everyone’s different ideas and dreams would be. But sooo true. Your ‘dreams’ change over time. Years go I would have designed something for broodmares and foals but now I just enjoy my one riding horse and am more of a hobbiest. I’m building my dream farm right now. I have a small barn attached directly to the house. The tack room is heated/ cooled with bathroom and laundry. The barn has (3)12x14 stalls with dutch doors leading out to the pasture with a 12’ overhang from the barn. I’m in an equestrian neighborhood with direct access to private trail system and large outdoor arena. Perfect for me. Low maintenance. Neighbors to ride with.
@Texarkana 
I have your dream now - on 5ac & Plain Vanilla.
Ain’t nothing fancy here, but 16yrs in it has worked out just as I envisioned when I converted 3ac of bean field into barn, indoor & pastures.
In hindsight, I would have perimeter-fenced all but 1/2ac for the house & garden.
Who needs a lawn?
If we’re talking rebuild or refurbish:
Priefert-style stall fronts
Fancy armoire storage for tack, etc.
Admittedly, both would look out of place, but it’s just me here, so…
& Staff 
@a1eventing Where do you live, I want to be there! :yes:
I would have a kennel building attached to my house, and the barn would be attached to the kennel. Yes 12 x 16 stalls, leading to large overhang “runs”, leading to sacrifice paddock, then pastures. Spigots over water buckets, that somehow never freeze, hard-wired fans everywhere, wash stall at far end. Nice feed room, beautiful tack room.
And reliable barn help.
4-5 stall barn with a ton of wood and oversized stalls
High ceilings and good ventilation
Pretty tack room
Indoor wash
Stalls all open to an overhang and a nice gravel dry lot.
That dry lot opens to several 2-4 acre pastures I can rotate for grazing–at least 2 acres per horse overall.
Mature trees scattered throughout for shade.
Woods and hay fields for trails and hacking.
Rolling hills. Water… like a pond or good stream. Views if I can swing it.
Located near a place with lots of trails.
Somewhere that magically has not terrible winters or summers.
Outlets and water spigots everywhere I need them.
100x200 outdoor
80x200 indoor
Someone to do the chores I don’t like (dusting the dang barn and putting up hay). And not having to work myself so I can spend all day doing barn and property chores and riding. Also someone to clean my house and meal prep for me.
And thankfully I have several of these things in my current property. Some we’ll get someday and some won’t ever happen but I’m still happy.
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