Pretty self explanatory-what is the size of your outdoor shelters in the field? How many horses do you have using them? In what size field?
I have always thought ~12 wide, adding 12’ of length per horse, and it’s what we’ve done for our fields. Most are 12x24.
What about your farms?
Thanks!
Mine is 10’x24’ divided into 2 stalls, for 2 horses and a donkey. It works, but I’d rather it be bigger.
Ours is 12’ x 24’ for 3 horses. I’m thinking of adding a 2nd shelter since my older mare gets pushed out.
I have several different sizes. The smallest is 10x10 (roof is 12x10) and the largest is 10x30 (roof is 12x30). Right now, pastures are occupied by either a single equine or a pair.
In the two pastures I have that don’t have trees, I’ve increased the amount of shade provided by the shelters by adding one or two shadecloth “walls,” which the equines really seem to like. My biggest shed has 2 shadecloth walls on one end and 2 board walls (1x6s, 2" apart) on the other end. The equines stand in the shadecloth end all the time and I rarely see them in the middle section, which has no walls or in the end with board walls.
We make ours either 12’ x 27’ or 30’.
What determines the size is the size of the metal sheets first.
Then that 12’ is the widest we can haul on a flatbed trailer down the highway if we want to move some.
12’ is deep enough for horses to get out of the weather in there, but not so deep to pin one far down in there that can’t get out.
Also, deeper will leave the back part more musty and moldy and wet, the sun won’t get all the way back there as easily.
If we want deeper, we can add a hinged type overhang we can, once in place, attach back up, to give more protection.
The length depends on the sheet metal sizes and we have made a few shorter ones for a neighbor’s goats, etc.
Longer than 30’ is harder to cross tie down to haul without needing to make the frame stronger.
The number of horses depends on how they get along.
Some horses will fight everyone and be the only ones under there, others may pack in there like sardines and all happy.
Each of my fields has a 10x20ish run through shed. One long solid wall, other long side is the fence. In one field, I’ve put a divider up splitting it in half, and added gates so I can close those as small box stalls. I feed the two horses on opposite sides of the divider.
12’ wide by 16’ deep with a couple foot overhang. One mare, one donkey and one mini donkey.
As the mare is expecting, next spring the donkeys are getting their own dry-lot and shelter.
My run-in (which is part of my barn) is 16’ deep x 36’ wide. Total overkill for my hony, but better too big than too small, right?
(16’ deep was suggested by my former BO - I’d originally planned 12’ and would have made my stalls a little bigger, but she advised that deeper was better, since I planned on using the stalls only occasionally.)
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