New farm, let's build some stuff

The rest of my big projects are all landscaping related.

I’m hoping if I watch my pennies I’ll have some amount of money left over for my outdoor arena materials/grading. It’s not going to be an Olympic arena, but the good news is that I’m not going to the Olympics. :slight_smile:

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:slight_smile: Is a nice 20 x 60 a benefit? Yes. However, it’s totally possible to train all the way up in a 20 x 40 :slight_smile: You just get a little shock at the first show of the season, “Is this effing extended trot diagonal ever going end??!!!” :joy:

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I’ve plotted for an 80x170. It will end up a titch shorter, so probably 80x165 when it’s all said and done!

ETA: Whoops, mines in feet and yours is in meters, maybe?

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Excellent! Yes, mine’s in meters. Yours comes out to about 25 x 50 which is a really, really nice size. The only thing with that will be to remember to set up a line of poles 5m in from the long side a few weeks before the first dressage show of the year. That extra 5m WILL come back to try to ruin your 10m circles. lol

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The arena where I board now is 75 wide, and we do exactly what you describe before a dressage test - use poles to make the actual court diameter.

Perfect! You’ve already got the skills :slight_smile:

When I boarded at an indoor that was 25 x 45 footing area I got royally burnt the first time I took my giant (18hh) horse to his first little show. The centre line is WHERE? UMMM!!! I measured the indoor that night and get my pole act together before the next show.

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Turning the barge on the 10m is a real struggle, I feel you.

It’s so weird… Shayney can spin on a dime when she’s spooked by something, but when I ask for that centerline turn it’s like I have to build a wall out of my outside rein to keep her shoulder from blowing it. WEIRD. :crazy_face: :rofl:

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Bending properly on a 10m radius is much harder on all the muscles and brain pan than falling on the inside shoulder and rocketing through :smiley: (but that’s exactly what your outside rein is for … if you want to use it without it feeling like building a wall, shift her balance every few strides in every gait - shove her shoulders a hair this way and a hair that way while allowing room with the outside rein for the shoulder to drift. It sounds counter intuitive, but it will give you an awesome outside rein and a horse who is super balanced, strong, and takes weight evenly on both front limbs)

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I’ve always disagreed heavily with this sentiment, that owning a farm means you’ll never get to ride.
Sure, there’s always going to be things that need to be done. Doesn’t mean they need done immediately.

I had a 20-acre farm I ran all by myself, with 8-14 horses (some boarders, tried to stay at eight horses max), and a full-time non-horse job working from home. I still rode every single day.

I’m looking at getting a farm again here in the next 3-6 months, in-part because boarding 40 minutes away means I barely make it to the barn twice a week, and I’ve maybe ridden five times in the past 12 months, and I want to ride my horses. I will be riding.

You have to prioritize riding if you want riding to be a priority.

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Jingles for your hubby. :slight_smile: (Read, that this is a term used here? :D)

Feets confuse me so much :smiley: I - honestly - hate the imperial system. Sorry guys :smiley: It’s just so different.

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I think you meant “It’s just so absurdly stupid.” I’m sick of it

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It has - for me - no logic in it :laughing:

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And I can’t imagine anything, when somebody uses feet. I always have to google. Whereas I may guess a distance in meters or cm nearly correct.

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Your last statement was kind of my point! I never said that farm owners don’t get to ride. I was simply pointing out that there are always going to be things that need doing on a farm of any size, and that it’s pretty easy and extremely common to inadvertently put all those things ahead of riding on the priority list. Especially when one has a spouse, dogs, and/or children to also pay attention to and a house to maintain, that can push the riding time down to zero. Something to keep in mind as OP goes along, but mostly it was just a light-hearted reminder to give riding some importance, too.

Maintenance needs vary greatly by location, layout, existing structures/fences, horse needs, etc. Did you build the 20 acre farm yourself from scratch?

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Two walls completely insulated, ready for covering. One almost there, but ran out of spray foam.

Made a last minute cubby right under the outlet, for a phone or the pivo or the equestic clip to sit in and charge. In my designer mind the outlet would be inside the built in, but it was going to be too difficult to get it in there. Oh well, this will work fine!

Also built a manure fork hook out of some scrap wood. I’m weird about everything facing the wall, and fork tines push out so far that regular Y hooks aren’t long enough. It’s fun to build the “finishing touch” things. Makes me think I’m nearing the end. (I’m not)

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If you are covering the inside walls with larger sheets, like 4’ x 8’, measure where those electrical boxes are, or mark on the floor where and add height to the mark, so you can find them to cut them out.
Some times those get closed in and then you wonder, where were they, exactly? :thinking:

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Later on, you are going to find all of your in-progress pictures to be invaluable.

I did not do the construction of my own barn, but every evening after the work crew had left, I went up and took pictures, showing everything opened up before they installed the siding and interior walls. Almost ten years later, if I want to know where the water pipes are, or where the electric wires run behind the walls and other built-ins, and where purlins are located in stud bays, I have those pictures as references.

Last year I had to upgrade some wiring from 20A to 30A because I wanted to install a better AC/heating unit to replace the then-deceased one, and the pictures let me know where exactly on two walls I needed to cut access holes, and how to best snake the heavier wiring down into the electrical panel.

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That’s a great idea!

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in the photos include a standard 12 inch ruler (or yard or meter stick) so that it can be used to calibrate actual distance in a photo, similar to adding a color wheel to beginning of photo where color balance is needed

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My studs are 16 OC, and they will tell the tale - screws/pins show the starting location, and intermediate studs. Unless you’re wanting that for other reasons, to build something similar?

I highly doubt we’re going back into these walls, once they’re up I’ll be glad to walk away from this for… well, forever, haha.

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