Run In Sheds for REALLY Windy Spots

[AppJumpr08]

Hi all, I’m in the process of redesigning my run in to better suit the weather conditions at my place (the first was built right after I bought the place and I’ve now been here almost 8 years and have a much better understanding of what weather conditions I am dealing with), and I’m curious to see what others have come up with. I have LOTS of wind. And therefore wind-driven rain and snow. My property is also very open, so my main paddock has zero tree cover to help break the wind from any direction.
I’ve toyed with the idea of building more of a barn structure with doors that can be open or shut on whichever wall suits the weather best, doing a standard three sided shed with an extended porch area out front, and installing wind break walls outside the paddock fence (though I think those would be a SERIOUS process… my ground gets quite wet in the spring, and with wind gusts of 30-40+ miles per hour a pretty regular event (in the winter, weekly… summer maybe monthly), I’m not sure I the walls would stay upright without setting posts seriously deep and probably concreting them in.

Soooo… what works for you?

[Bluey]

We are in one of the windiest places in the US.

Our sheds are portable and we anchor them on each corner by drilling a post hole, dropping a bigger chain with a piece of metal like rebar or an old big bolt across at the bottom and concreting that in with three concrete mix 90 lb sacks.

Then we bolt or weld the chain to the corner.

We have not had any of those to tumbling but one, in a tornado, that we had tied to some fence posts, before we started concreting in a chain as described.

If we would not need to move the sheds, then we would concrete posts into the ground directly.

[AppJumpr08]

Thanks, Bluey - I was actually thinking of your posts about the wind you have. I’m less worried about securing the shed to the ground, as it most likely will be a pole barn type structure, but how to actually lay it out… doors, design, etc.

[Eleanor]

We are like you in the no trees to cut wind and we live in a very windy area. What I have is a run in and in front of it is a three sided wind break if you looked down on it from the top it would look like a Y. It is great for my horses they can stand on what ever side they need to get out of the wind. If I had to start all over it is for sure the way I would build another wind break.

[fordtraktor]

Don’t build it to where the prevailing wind blows into the opening, obviously. That will blow rain and snow right in and cause lift on the roof. Also, you want to look at how the snow drifts. Here, East facing is best and south works. I have one of each, and a southeast facing one. They all work fine but snow can wrap around into the ones with southern exposure, leaving a couple inches of snow in one side. That rarely happens with any significance in the completely east facing one.

i put them that way because it fit the land I had – sometimes you just have to do the best you can, especially in a small, somewhat holly field with no high, flat area.

[danacat]

My farm is in the Hudson Valley ‘Wind’ corridor (NY) so you can imagine! One of my 24/7 turn-out paddocks (where my 3 geldings live) is out in the open – no treeline wind break. Their shed is stick built (pole barn style) – very substantial with an asphalt shingle roof.

It’s three sided – appox. 38 ft. long and 14 ft. deep with a 2.5 ft. porch overhang. The opening is broken up by a center wall section that creates ingress/egress at each end. The shed faces S/SE – and the 14 ft. depth + mini porch roof helps greatly with exposure …

…but when a North Eastern hits, snow/rain does blow into the shed openings several feet-- unnavoidable. But in normal high wind weather the shed is pretty cozy and stays dry.

During extreme Nor Easters – deluge rain – I bring the horses into the barn – overnight if need be. More for me than for them! LOL.

[Bluey]

We make our sheds 12’ wide, because that is the limit on highway travel without permits.

You can make them wider by hinging the roof for an overhang, if you want more depth and still be able to haul the sheds around in a flatbed.

We go by length on what the materials will be, most we have made were from 24’ to 30’ long, in places we butt two together to make a long shed, then only putting opposite ends on them, the middle open.

The taller you make a shed, the more protection it will provide in front of it from winds, rain and snow coming from the back.
The shorter the shed, the more heat it will keep in there, if winter protection is important.
We make most of our sheds 8’ behind, 9’ in front.

Horses tend to, the boss pick it’s preferred spot, the rest stand around the boss “bubble” and some just stand outside the sheds, even if you only have two, that may happen if the boss is very bossy.
Because of that, how horses may use sheds depends on more than size, also on how the horses sheltering there get along.

When it comes to sheds, once we think we have it all figured out, the conditions and horses change and we get new ideas, until they again change.

[paintedpony]

I can offer no recommendations for run in configuration, but do have suggestions for wind break.

We planted 400 Norway Spruce (rapid growth) in a large curve. Double row of trees with offset spacing. These trees were purchased in bulk as dry root stock ( www.pineneedlefarms.ca/ ). Arrived about 30 inches tall. I do not recall exact price, but a little over a dollar a tree sounds about right. My husband and I planted all in one day during early spring. The soil was very soft, and planting consisted of vertical insertion of a round mouth shovel, wiggling to create a 2 inch space, insert tree, step on both sides to level soil. Done! We provided no care past that point. No water, no trimming, no fertilizer.

Fast forward 6 years, and we now have the makings of a meaningful windbreak. Trees are filling in rapidly and some are more than 15 feet tall ! Up till this point we have protected them from the horses with T bar and hot wire fencing. This year, we can take down that fencing.

Spruce may not work in your area, perhaps willow or cedar. For rapid shade hybrid poplar. You will be amazed at how quickly they grow ! They are not my idea of beautiful landscaping trees, but do provide meaningful shade in 3-4 years. For a few hundred dollars, and 5 years, you can solve many problems. Why did we not do this in 1980?

[TrotTrotPumpkn]

We get horrible wind.

My shed faces SE. Prevailing winter winds are out of the NW, with occasional east wind. Also, the sun hits the SE more. In the summer I can get a very strong, directly south wind. Even so, with a 16’ deep shed (18’ overhang), you can still get out of the wind.
Last year I built a second, smaller shed off the side that faces west. They can hang out in there if they want too. My shed is in the fenceline–if they could just get behind it, a second shed wouldn’t have been necessary. But this is what worked with my layout the best.

My shed is permanent with about 4’ of the posts underground in concrete. I also used hurricane ties for the roof (they are cheap) at the suggestion of the inspector. If I had a portable shed, I would do as Bluey suggested.

So figure out your prevailing winds in the worst weather. Then build a deep shed and give them ability to stand around all sides, and you are golden. Honestly, it’s more about getting out of the wind than anything else.

I don’t think I could live out here without a tree windbreak. I have about 100’ deep of trees and bushes on the entire north and west sides of the property. It makes winter tolerable. Definitely plant trees.

[csaper58]

OP I think you also need to consider…

How many horses will need to shelter in the run in, and how well do those horses get along with each other?

Two mares that hate each other need a totally different design than four geldings that all ‘live and let live’.

[HungarianHippo]

There’s a cool shed on a farm near me that solves a couple problems at the same time. It’s square, and a pretty good size-- I’d guess 20x20?. Oriented to true north (ie it’s not set on an angle). Has 2 entrances, both look to be 10ft wide.
One opening is on the south side at the western edge of the south side. The other one is on the east side, at the northern edge. In other words, picture a map of the USA and there’s a door in Arizona facing Mexico and another one in Maine facing the ocean. :lol:

This design protects from our prevailing North and West winter winds but still allows full shade from blazing summer sun. Plus good cross ventilation, and horses always have an alternate escape route if its’ being harassed by the boss.

[walktrot]

There was a horse care blurb on a State of Maine website a number of years ago that said run ins should face Southeast. That makes sense. Prevailing wind in the summer is southwest. Winter obviously will be northerlies. Wind will usually be strong from the northwest after a front with a storm comes through. The only thing about Southeast run ins is that they don’t provide a lot of shade, but our guys will hang out on the back side if there is room.

The BO’s DH picks up a load of old telephone poles from time to time, I assume from CMP. He has used them for the basic structure of the run ins. They aren’t particularly good looking, but they do work. Except the one where he used left over sheets of steel from the main barn construction, which got pretty mangled. They should be lined with plywood as kickboards.

[IPEsq]

Some of the farms around here have what look like mini shed row barns in that the sheds have stalls. This IMO would only work for single horse 24/7 paddocks. For multiple horses, the open sheds seem to be the best for everyone getting along. I’d also recommend a well anchored 3 sided structure. Here, that means openings to the east and south tend to work best. Even so, we had an east facing shed try to leave recently due to the speed of the wind hitting the broad side (as opposed to the adjacent south facing shed–they were not attached–whose short wall on the west held fine). The shed was stripping out of its anchor and the back wall starting to bow inward.

I tend to like the shape of Morton’s sheds probably the best, because they have a slightly peaked roof in that there’s more of an overhang in front of the shelter versus the typical run in shed with the slanted roof that’s highest at the opening.

[AppJumpr08]

Thanks, all! I know the majority of my prevailing wind comes from the NW, especially in winter, but we get at least one heavy rain/windstorm out of the south just about every winter - we’re talking the back of my south-facing 20’ deep shed has rain drops… and the same south-facing shed will have snow drifts 3’ - 4’ in it from Nor’easter blizzards. I’m not kidding when I say the wind howls. lol. I’m leaning more and more towards a barn-type shed with doors on a couple walls and an overhang… this is for my mare group, who gets along for the most part but I always like giving plenty of escape options (my winter paddock doesn’t have square corners, etc). I was just curious to see if anyone had any really cool and different designs they’ve come up with to suit their locations.

I am in the process of planning some planted windbreaks, but they will take a few years to get going, and I’d like to come up with a better shed setup in the meantime.

Thanks for the thoughts and suggestions!

[danacat]

@HungarianHippo

There’s a cool shed on a farm near me that solves a couple problems at the same time. It’s square, and a pretty good size-- I’d guess 20x20?. Oriented to true north (ie it’s not set on an angle). Has 2 entrances, both look to be 10ft wide.
One opening is on the south side at the western edge of the south side. The other one is on the east side, at the northern edge. In other words, picture a map of the USA and there’s a door in Arizona facing Mexico and another one in Maine facing the ocean. :lol:

This design protects from our prevailing North and West winter winds but still allows full shade from blazing summer sun. Plus good cross ventilation, and horses always have an alternate escape route if its’ being harassed by the boss.

LOVE this idea! :yes: