Thanks 
It is beautiful but that style of construction is very expensive and in retrospect I would have just built a nice pole barn. I love having the big barn doors with the windows for natural light even when the barn doors are shut. My electrician did all LEDs for lights which has been fabulous.
2dogsfarm: I don’t think I will formally attach my future indoor arena to my future barn just because I want to keep dust out of the barn. But I could easily build a little connecting entryway between the two. They’ll still be two separate buildings to control any dust, but yes, in the winter I won’t have to go outside! On that note, I’ve looked into some of the synthetic footing options (no dust and won’t freeze!) but of course I’m a very long ways away for that decision anyway.
Good thoughts on the lighting as far as enclosed structures. I definitely want good lighting above each stall but on a separate light switch. I will have skylights to let in as much natural light as possible. And I’m leaning toward no hayloft so there will be tons of ceiling height. I can make the top of the tack room and feed area have a “ceiling” on them and can then double as a space to put items into storage not often used.
Bluey: How big is your wash rack? Most of the floor plans I have googled have 12x12 size. I wonder if thats a good size or overkill for a wash rack?
Your barn is beautiful!!
I like 10-11’ wide for a wash rack. Set the knobs and the hose attachment and anything breakable into the wall if you can. I don’t want horses to be able to turn totally sideways in cross ties. If you have draft horses, then you may want a larger one.
One idea that helps keep our barn reasonably bright even during the dark winter is that we installed off white metal roofing material as our barn ceiling. It gets power washed every year and never needs repainting Also helps keep birds from nesting in the rafters.
Our windows are 4x4, and are set up to slide into pockets when open. There is grillwork on the horse side and a screen (we have dread biting bugs!) on the outside which is taken down in the winter. We have front stall walls at 4 feet and walls between stalls at 5 feet all with grillwork above. As someone else mentioned, intermediate walls and grills are set in “u” channel so they can be slipped out if necessary. Oh, and stall doors are sliding rather than swinging with a yoke in the grill because I like having heads pop out to say “hi”.
Thank you!!
We also use the top of the tack/feed room ceiling (under the barn roof) for storage. Our barn is close to our home, so we didn’t bother with installing a bathroom.
But, one of the custom barn builders we interviewed before building, when showing us one of his jobs, mentioned that the barn powder room (no shower) was not connected to a complete septic system, just a large septic tank (no drainfield). He said that worked well, in a private barn with light use, with relatively frequent pumping.
Kinda made it something like an porta-pottie, only with a china toilet, real sink and faucet. The powder room looked like a regular one in a home.
Exactly what I was envisioning Bluey!
Well I guess I would have some questions for our plumber then Jarpur. Or maybe if we did something other than a traditional toilet. But it’s really not a big deal just going to the house. Did that growing up, no problem. And since “growing up”, I haven’t had a toilet at all!! I just go in my horse trailer, which is currently my “barn” as that’s where I keep all my horse stuff.
We have a handicapped accessible bathroom, so we can have horse events eventually.
It sure has come in handy when we have kids practicing especially, because they come with parents, siblings and other family members and numbers and kinds of those needing a bathroom ads up in a hurry.
You don’t really want that kind of bathroom traffic in your house.
I don’t ever plan on having any type of event at our place. If it would ever happen, it’s easy enough to get a porta potty for the day.
Or make it double ended and then you can pull in forward from either direction. No backing!
1 Like
I don’t like indoor arenas attached to barns, not only for the dust factor, but because I think horses in stalls rest better when they can’t see or hear their stablemates working in an arena so close to their homes. A barn manager once told me this, and in the years since then, riding at barns with attached as well as detached indoors, I think she was right.
I’d build a separate insulated and heated shop even if it’s just heated as needed via a woodstove. It doesn’t have to be big, just enough to fit the tractor or skidsteer. You will be SO HAPPY in the winter to have a space to plug in batteries, dry blankets out, mix feed and work on your equipment.
Also consider snowblowing in your layout. It’s tempting to spread buildings, turnouts, troughs etc out in an aesthetically pleasing fashion but a nice efficient layout so you have minimal clearing of pathways and are unable to get stuck more than a short ways from the barn is optimum. You’ll definitely be hauling feed, hay and water on sleds at least occasionally so so consider how far you’ll have to do and how many gates you have to open and close in the cold. And it’s important not to have your roofs shed in front of your doors (unlike the moron who designed my house!!)
Bury your waterlines deeper than you need to!
1 Like
So, you’ve never been attacked by your lunch half an hour after you got back to your barn and had to get rid of it, one way or another, suddenly and with no advance warning?
There was a post about that several years ago in a thread about whether or not to install a bathroom in that OP’s barn!
And Bluey- is that a giant span culvert used as an indoor? I’ve always wondered how that would work! Was it much more economical than a similarly sized building or coverall?
That is a picture from the internet, I don’t know where it is.
Our neighbor had one of those and used the back part for a round pen to start colts in the winter.
He added sand over the concrete and it worked wonderfully.
He had a few stalls in the front part.
We have one of those also, is our shop and hay barn.
We added a long overhang on one side and have stalls under there.
That is our quarantine barn.
We didn’t put any stalls inside it, but under the overhang.
Those buildings are cheaper than rectangular barns and some come with so many feet of straight wall also, mostly the roof curved.
Not all places with stalls connected to the indoor are dusty.
Arenas are dusty if they are not kept watered properly and stalls will get dusty if you put them where prevailing winds will blow any dust from the arena to them, not away from them.
We have that setting under a covered areana.
One overhang on a long side has our wash stall, tack and feed room.
Stalls shortly will go there and that side has never had any arena dust there.
We have a 5" pony wall and wind screens above it in the opposite, North side that prevents wind just blowing straight in there.
As far as horses stabled where they can see more of what is going on, some trainers say horses are happier where they have some immediate privacy between horses, but can see the action out there out the front and with runs off the stalls.
I expect it would depend on the horse, some may like privacy, others thrive with more stimulation.
Even in very busy stables, there are plenty of times there is nothing going on, for some peace of mind, like at night.
I think there are trade-offs to any we do, up to us to figure what will work best for us and our horses and that definitely won’t be the same for all.
I would love to do this but I just don’t think it’s going to work with the layout of our land.
Eh, I can back up just fine. I’ve had to back my trailer into its parking spot for the past 10 years. No big deal.
Well of course. I’m human like everyone else. If I can’t make it an extra 100-200 feet to the house, I’m also not going to make it to the barn.
I’ve survived without a bathroom at all for the past 6 years. Just keep some TP in my trailer.
Okay but enough TMI for the day.
1 Like
Snowrider: Hubby and I decided we will be putting up a separate shop. I don’t think we will heat it though. (But that would be easy enough to change down the road with spray foam and heaters if need be)
We will have a large garage on the house that will be heated. And of course my tack room will be heated. And while I do not plan to heat the barn, I want to have some sort of blower heater above the wash rack.
Hmmm. Here’s an idea: design your barn so that the wash stall is in the heated area. We have a 10 year old stall block attached to a 110 year “old barn” which includes a former carriage room (now feed room), tack storage, grooming/ tacking up area that includes a wash stall. A big sliding door separates the “old barn” from the new which is closed only in the winter because the old barn is heated to 45 to keep the plumbing from freezing. The vets and farriers love it on frigid days and so do we!
1 Like
Around here, there’s not much for showing in the winter and I don’t clip my horses (since they live outside 24/7). So if it would be too cold to give them a bath, then they don’t need a bath! The option for a little heater in the wash area would just be if I need to take care of a wound in the dead of winter. Fingers get cold quickly when you need to change bandages in -20*F. (Ask me how I know…)
Of course, I’ve considered in those rare situations that I would probably just bring my horse into the heated garage off the house!! So maybe a heater over the wash rack would be unnecessary anyway.
