I’m going to use this thread to kind of chronicle what I did/built when I bought a 5 acre parcel that was not set up for horses. It’s going to be a “living” thread where I’ll just update as I go. I won’t include all the house and landscaping upgrades, just the ones that are relevant to horses. Target date for bringing horses home: June/July.
The property has an existing 40x60 pole barn on it. The barn has electric (poorly done, almost zero lighting) but no water. From the side door of the house, it’s 70 feet to the man door of the barn. The barn was built around 1995.
The barn posts were rotting at the surface, so I contracted out a company that installs heavy duty metal sleeves, and pushes them to the footers with a tractor. I emptied the barn, and they had it done in about 3 hours. Really cool process.
I have my fencing materials on site - I’m putting a 4’ no climb perimeter on a mix of t posts and wood posts. There will be a line of hot tape somewhere at the top, I’m going to try for 5’ but that may look funny, we shall see. I’m torn between renting the post pounder and doing the work myself, and hiring someone to come pound them. We will see what the money situation looks like come March when the weather is better for pounding - that will be the deciding factor. For my H braces, i elected to go with Kencove quick braces that have a screw in bracket - I didn’t want to deal with giant drill bits and pins. I also will use their cables as the brace wire, with a sleeve. I’ll be able to run nearly all of my no climb on interior runs, so the horses won’t be getting into the brace wire. Still, their little choker loop seems safer than tensile wire.
I will be building a 14’ lean to off the east side of the barn. The front 30 feet will be hay storage - I will install a 9x9 overhead door on the front. The back 30’ will be the run ins, which will be able to be converted to stalls. The lumber delivery is due mid February.
What I am building now - a loft for storage of fence parts and things I really don’t want to have to make room for on the ground level, but need on hand because: horses.
First, temporary lighting. Next, a ledger board on the back wall. 2x12x20, attached with 3/8" lag bolts.
Next, remove a knee and some truss bracing for the header (yes, it will be fine, I’ll reattach the knee and the truss bracing will sit on the header, fret not you structural engineers), and dig a hole for the post. Set the post.
Notch the post. Realize that you set the post .5" off where it should be. Sigh, and remind yourself you’re not a carpenter, grumble grumble, it will be fine structurally but won’t look as nice. Dang.
Set the first layer of headers on the posts. Hard to see with where the temporary lighting casts the glow.
Today the second layer of header will get glued and screwed, with it overlapping the center joint to give stability.
The end goal: the right side will be tractor and garden storage underneath hence my wanting the clear span from the center post. The left side will be a tack room and a grooming area.
