What do you mean by base?
I just mean to prepare the ground, grade, drainage, packed down, etc. Before you put stone dust, cement, pavers, or your footing of choice down.
Similar to an outdoor arena, kind of.
How much pasture do you have? We put up loafing sheds in the pastures. Voilaā¦no stalls to clean at all. I do have stalls and there are times that I do use them. That being said, the two I have at home are retirees. Putting them up in stalls at night is not necessary.
Thats not necessarily true about grass. My friend, an equine vet, has a run out for each of her five stalls. They start out as dirt the width of the stall but as they extend further (the center stall goes straight out, the side stalls go out towards the sides, she had enough property to do this) they become grass. There are two electric strands separating the dirt from the grass allowing them to be on grass for part of each day, then she can cut them off from grass and they still have the dirt portion and their stall. As a vet she is insistent that their mental health and soundness benefit from having run outs.
And an indoor wash stall with hot water and heat lamps makes bathing possible for most of the year in our area. Plus itās useful for wound care etc.
My point was simply that the OP needs to plan for the worst.
I never expected to have a horse that would make it such that I could not leave my paddocks open during the day.
But I do. And thankfully I have the ability to simply close gates at the end of the runs so there is no place for anyone to get cornered.
Not trying to be a Debbie Downer. Just giving the OP some information to keep in their mind so when they are planning their set up they know all the options.
I am glad all your horses like to loaf about together. I wish mine did.
@trubandloki Point taken & understood.
When I first planned my barn I posted here asking about keeping my first 2 geldings as described.
It was to be my first experience having horses at home, so I polled the BB.
I got several āOMG NO!ā replies w/cautions about horses cornering others in stalls & took those into consideration.
But as my 2 were already turned out in a group w/o problems, I took the chance & fortunately for me it has continued to work.
The 1st 2:
Current Herd:
Please consider the fencing between run outs. If horses will be able to interact with each other over the fence, then it should be electric or something rigid with either spaces way too small for feet to get through or big enough that feet can easily get through without injury. Runs should also be wide enough so the horse in the middle can be outside and not be touched by either horse if it wants to be left alone.
If many horses will be using a single run with access to several stalls, I suggest installing sliding doors in the diving walls of the stalls. Keep them open when they have access to the run and nobody gets trapped in a stall. This has worked really well with my little barn in the pasture.
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I only have one whelsh pony atm so I dont have to worry about that. I do plan to separate each run with āfire escapeā doors. They wouldnāt be connected to their turnout pastures.
You can find the exact measurements for the area with this:
https://www.daftlogic.com/projects-gā¦lator-tool.htm
This one works for distances, how many feet in a fence.
Good to figure how much material you need to build fences:
https://www.daftlogic.com/projects-google-maps-distance-calculator.htm
You donāt have to sign in for the basic tools, they are free.
I love my runouts. The only thing I donāt love is that if the doors are open and a big rain storm blows in, depending on where it comes from, all the bedding in the stalls gets soaked.
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Could you add weather strips or screens on the doors?
Beautiful! You have plenty of room to build loafing sheds. Mine are 24ā X 12ā with a hay rack at each end so two horses can eat separately. Works really well and I leave mine out 24/7. Easy to clean with the tractor bucket, if you have one.
My two have big stalls with 12ā x 24ā paddocks that open out onto a larger turn out area. The vast majority of the time they have access to the larger paddock area. They wish they had 20 acres or more but that isnāt a possibility unless I manage to come across vast sums of money. However, I think they have it quite a bit better than many horses.
I love having my stalls open to individual turnouts for each horse. My sweet but very hot trakehner mare did much better mentally having access from her stall to a runout which led to a small pasture. In the winter I used the vinyl strip door curtains. I attached the mounting bracket which held the strips to a removable board for easier set up and removal. They worked very well in keeping the stall warm in the winter. My tip for those is if you are removing the curtain as a whole piece like I did, is to have them stored so the strips would hang or lay straight and flat. One got bent in storage and never did flatten so I hade to replace that strip. I always wanted to try the screen curtains but never did.
One of my stalls had an overhang outside of it which helped keep the stall shavings drier in wet weather. It acted as a āporchāĀ and my gelding liked to hang out there. My horse in the stall without the overhang would track in snow and mud and the stall would require more attention to cleaning to keep the bedding dry. I started using a mat similar to the coir mats for trailer ramps at her door to āwipe her feetāĀ which did help.
I like the others suggestion of prepping the runout area to prevent deep mud. I used a geotextile fabric that is used for driveway construction with a gravel/screenings combination on top that packed down but still allowed for drainage. It required upkeep about every three years. I really like some of the grid interlocking products that are available now and would look at those if I were to redo it and could handle the cost.
Good luck with your project!
