Moving to a few acres just outside of Houston, TX and trying to come up with small stable/barn ideas. Ideally I’d like to have no more than 2-3 horses (currently have one and a retiree) and am thinking of a simple shed row type of barn. We have a large storage area for hay, tack room etc so just needing stalls and possibly small storage area. All pros/cons, must haves, etc appreciated! Thinking shed row since it’s so hot and humid here.
https://www.chronofhorse.com/forum/f…e-your-picture has some good discussion and photos. I like fatappy’s setup - there is a link in that thread with several photos showing the semi-enclosed breezeway, plus a floor plan.
Our place came with a four-stall shed row with dutch doors opening to 8 ft. overhang. Over time, we have added a tack room and covered hay storage. The best change was replacing a failing tar paper roof with white metal; the temperature drop in the stalls during the summer was amazing!
Do you really need a barn and stalls, or would sheds make more sense for your needs?
Sure will make it easier, more time to ride if you don’t have to clean stalls.
Here is our shed row, made by a company in Texas, Deer Creek Stables
https://www.deercreekstables.com/
The stalls have grills on the front and between stalls, window on the back side.
Now with a paddock cover
I have no stalls, not even a shed type set up and I still can’t find the time to ride 😂 always fixing fence. Granted I have 3 wild horses running around on 20 acres and neighbors cows getting in all the time.
What I was originally looking into was a 36x36 type set up, with three walls. Almost like a big run in shed and I could divvy it up into stalls if need be, was recommended on the forums instead of building an actual barn set up since all mine live outside 24/7. I was quoted about 20k for that by a local pole barn building business.
Where we have the horses now probably won’t be a long term permanent thing so we always go back and forth on dumping money into it.
I was super turned off after watching my 5 year old goto town on the pile of wood logs we have… I can only imagine what we would do to a wooden barn!
Id do 12x12 open shelters with pipe pens if you don’t need to stall s horse but that would probably be as expensive as a shed row set up.
We have an 8:1 pitch on our roof with a 12’ overhang. The pitch is great when it snows. In summer, air circulates well at the top of the stalls and the overhang helps to keep it all cooler.
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Thank you for sharing the link to that old thread. Many times over the past few years I have recalled the cool 2x4 flooring that @Blume Farm shared, but I couldn’t remember who shared it nor the topic of the thread. I have saved the pictures now.
Here is my carport turned shedrow barn - currently open but will close in the back and sides (leaving aisle open) in the future!
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-6h-RD_DNZ9D6AiT_kvw_rcnTLR7mTs6?usp=sharing
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Awww - @Scarlet Gilia thanks for still liking my barn :). I sold it last year which I am still sad about.
It was a great space - I loved that everything was at my finger tips. A key for me in the Memphis humidity was making the side walls so high. I hated the look at first but it grew on me by the first day of summer. Enjoy the planning process. It was so much fun to create!
@seabreeze – I’ve been fascinated by Blume Farm’s 2 x 4 flooring since she posted about it. I also love her " ‘gussy-uped’ run-in shelter” where she used that flooring; what a beautiful, well-ventilated building!
@fatappy – if I ever build a barn, I will certainly consider the ideas you came up with!
Your set-up sounds a lot like mine, I buiLt a 3-stall (more stalls more horses!) shedrow barn that i LOVE. It catches the prevailing SE wind—I’m 30 miles north of San Antonio, so not far from you. In fact, my horse are turned out 24x7 and they LOVE to hang in the barn. I love my feed room, I love my washrack—I’m happy to tell you more or even have you visit. My emal is bam@savinggraceranch.com and my time is at your disposal.
I have a U shaped shedrow. Three barns total - 12 x 24 each. Four stalls total, tack room, wash stall. Hay storage is a separate carport. (Our insurance agent was much happier about having hay storage be a separate metal building!)
The barns are pre-fab, 12 x 12 stalls (really 11 x 11 with the kick boards in) and a 10’ overhang. The initial idea was to enclose at least one corner of the U to make a covered breezeway and use that corner as a run-in. But time and funds prohibited that.
On the to-do list will be enclosing the open U to make the courtyard area completely enclosed. This provides a little more security and allows me to let the kids out to wander while I clean stalls if they have to be cooped up for bad weather.
I LOVE MY BARNS! The horses love the barns too. They seem much more relaxed. We leased a center aisle prior to moving to our own farm, so I’ve had both.
The downside of the pre-fab shedrows is that the roof is lower, so they do get hot. I purchased large barn fans to hang in the stalls, that has taken care of that problem. The overhang definitely cuts down on weather getting in the stalls. We’ve had some torrential rains and the stalls have stayed dry.
The other downside is the the footprint is large, especially the layout I have. The pad our barns sit on is 46 x 68. (12 x 24 barns with a 10’ overhang).
I used to live in Hempstead. I built a 24 x 52 shed row barn with 10 foot side walls. I had 3 14x14 stalls and a 10x14 tackroom, which left a 10x42 aisleway, and a 10x10 grooming area. The walls were made from 2x12 wood planks. I had runs off the back, which were the BEST idea. Barn had lots of ventilation, and did not heat up as much as the metal barns.
