Awesome info! Thank you all! Definitely leaning more and more that direction.
My parents had a beautiful barn for about 10 years before they started their retirement plan. Last summer they severed off the house and barn (stalls were easily taken it so it could be marketed as a big shop), sold it for a pretty penny, and are now building on the half of the farm that they kept.
Instead of building another barn they chose to put in 3 stalls and a grooming area shedrow style off the side of the shop. Thereās a small paddock with a run in right beside the stalls so if the vet or farrier are coming the horses can get turned out, but are nice and close to the stalls. Horses spend the majority of their time in the 10 acre field with a run-in. Weāre in Ontario, but the horses are boarded during the winter (Nov-Mar) when my parents are away so there isnāt that much concern about vet/farrier trying to get things done in the snow.
Considerations
- Even if you go with the run-in itās really, really nice to have stalls and a grooming area. Even if you can just use gates to convert the run-in into stalls. You never know when youāll need to confine or separate a horse.
Iām also in the camp that says ālet horses be horsesā. But the convenience of a barn for storage and tacking up is undeniable. Find a way to merge the two and youāll all be happy!
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Woodstock- The Amish prefabs are too low. A center aisle is amazing, BUT a nice stall run in with a 12ā over hang and a nice ittle 12x24 tack room would be prefect. I had dutch doors on mine in VA. The barn was in the center of the pasture and fence ran perpendicular to the ong side so I could rotate fields based on which set of doors were open. Also a great design if one is on rest because it can see the other friend no matter what field they are in.
Mellsmomāonce I add a 10ā or 12ā overhang Iām dealing with footers or pole barn structure-- so no longer portable and no longer cheap (and requires a building permit and punches through my blacktop pad that Iām trying to preserve and use). Once I add that front overhang- Iām priced up to only about $7,000 less than a center aisle barn. No joke.
I think you should forget the barn, forget the run in, and build a garage. Make sure it is large enough for RV parking with a tall door. Then, use it as a barn. If you have the budget, design it as a garage with its own bathroom and shop sink which you will use as a bathroom and wash stall.
That way, you will have a marketable structure which will add value to your property. You can call it RV parking, a shop, a boathouse or a detached garage and it will be much more attractive to buyers than just a barn. If you donāt want it to look like a garage, call it a carriage-house styled garage and use that style of architecture.
If that is too expensive, build a carport as above, to accommodate an RV, and use that as a run in. With very little work you can later clean it up/sweep it off and market it as a multi-car carport, boat parking, an RV carport, a covered play area, or an outdoor room with a fireplace, grill, tables and other seating. Think about where to locate it so that it works for those purposes as well as for your horsesā comfort. Who knows, you might want to kick out the horses once in a while, clean it up and decorate it for an outdoor party.
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I had a hay shed so only need the horse shelter. I put in a pre-fab run-in and then added a roof extension to better protect from wind and rain. I also put in a removable center barrier and put gates on it. So, it works as a two stall shed row barn or I can open the gates to make it a run in shed. It was positioned about 16" from the fence so I put additional gates up that closed against the fence most of the time. When needed, those gates connect to the gates on the shed and became a large run-in shed with a small paddock in front. Worked like a charm, in fact, my two home breds were born in it.
Woodstock - my prefab Amish barns will be here tomorrow. Come to my neck of the woods for a visit if youād like. 
I ordered three barns - 12 x 24 with 8ā lean to. Two barns have 12 x 12 stalls (four stall total), one barn has a wash stall and tack room. The will be arranged in a U. Ordered from Sunset Barns. Sunset barns has been wonderful to work with, and very forgiving of the weather delaying delivery three times now. We dumped a small fortune into gravel to create a solid space for them to finally be able to deliver.
Though it sounds like you have the dry lot area now, when we talked before it seems like you really wanted an area to lock the horses up in (a stall). And you might find you really want that on the smaller acreage.
I started with something similar to Syreinoās, but PeteyPieās suggestion is a great one! I have a 10x32 prefab shedrow with two stalls on either end- Dutch doors open both to the barnyard and out the back to the paddocks of each stall, with a smaller center stall for everything else. I can jam a months worth of hay in there along with my tack locker and some tools, but itās not perfect (and was never been expected to be a long term setup). I live in New England so being āoutsideā to do barn work can suck BUT for the budget I was working with and the short time that I had to get the horses home after the stumping & excavation were finally done, the shedrow has served its purpose.
My plan has always been to build off the front of, build over, or add onto the existing shedrow to have a grooming area, park equipment & have hay storage (so the storage stall can become a proper tack stall). Having started with the shedrow bought me time while having a serviceable area for the horses, and now I know what I really want in the space I have to work with. For me, itāll be a large ātruck garageā with an overhang for a grooming stall adjacent to the shedrow. The shedrow can always be moved or removed (which of you go that route can be a good thing) but whatāll be useful to me for storage now will be an asset as a nice outbuilding, garage or workshop for future property owner.
Regarding the prefab sheds, you can request taller ones. We have runin sheds that are about 1 foot taller than standard, and they have Dutch doors on the back. I had initially designed them with the idea that we might one day combine them to make a raised center aisle barn. But, we ended up liking them as is so instead we waited until we were ready to build a separate barn.
Woodstock - May is not that far away, so I would figure out which barn/shed option would work best long term for you and do that, as either will be an investment. I think either way can work very well for the horses. Center aisle barns are especially nice for the humans who care for them ā when the weather is bad.
When we moved to our current farm, we had a blank slate (land, no fencing or barns). We started with runin sheds with varying details. They are 12x36, with Dutch doors on the back (and 8 foot back walls). No overhangs. One of them has dividing walls (one removable; one not removable but with a grill), making 3 ābays.ā We installed 2 gates on this one, so that we have 2 stalls if needed for layups. The shed is set on a fenceline between 2 fields. One of the fields also has a dry lot pen coming off of one of the stalls that measures 24 by 80. We ran electric and waterlines to the sheds so they have lights and fans, an autowaterer and a hydrant.
The sheds work very well. Much better than I anticipated, so the āshort termā plan became several years, and we are only just now building a center aisle barn. In the meantime, we added another 12 x 24 shed for hay storage, and made an outdoor wash rack to bathe the horses when weather allows. The horses are very happy with the setup.
Anyway, we are building a small center aisle barn now, which will be complete in the next couple of weeks, and I am pretty excited about it. I donāt think it is necessary, but very nice to have, especially for our farrier and vet (both of whom are very good sports but itās not optimal to be out in the elements in all seasons). Eberly Barns built all of our barns, and I am very happy with their work, which had a lot of customization.
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scrbear11ā how super exciting!!! If youāre so inclined to share pictures- I canāt wait to see the set up!! And Iād love to take you up on your offer to visit and see them IRL. So glad to hear that the Sunset folks have been good to deal with. Iāve been talking with them and also the gentleman that owns Eberly (met with him in person back in September and got to see run ins and shedrows in various stages of assembly- very cool- I liked him and thought he would be good to work with).
Woodstock VERIFY that they can and will make and ship a taller/longer building. At one time, they would not. The stalls in my barn now are 8ā tall and I build a new stall for my 16 hand horse because the 8ā was just too cramped looking.
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Iād do the run-in for three major reasons:
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The longer Iāve had my horses at home, the less I use the barn! Especially if you are planning on a dry lot already, it will save you so much time and labor and offer so much more flexibility in your day if they can spend as much time possible outside. I added a dry lot with run-in shed after a few years of doing the turn in/turn out thing every day and itās been a revelation.
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Since you arenāt planning to keep the property for ever and ever, a run-in will make the property more flexible than a barn, or at least be less of a cost that youāll never recoup.
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Even if you end up building a barn one day, a run-in is always nice to have! You can turn your horses out knowing that if bad weather unexpectedly strikes, you donāt have to worry about them. (Mine stand outside in thunderstorms and only use the shed if the weather is both cold and wet, but it does give me peace of mind year round.)
Somebody probably already suggested this but as an in between option, what about a run-in shed with a small enclosed area at one end for grain/hay/tack storage? I know you say you have the garage nearby but seriously, every step counts in daily horse care!
Or maybe a longer run-in than you think you need so you can enclose one end as a grooming stall or for lay-up?
Our barn from Eberly, delivered in December, has 10 foot side walls. They wonāt do that for a runin because the peak would be arountb12 or 13 ft tall and it needs to fit under bridges etc en route. But they can add about 1 foot of extra height even to a run in shed.
Have you looked at doing a metal building? The ones you see people using as carports or fully enclosed as shops?
We are on 10 acres but currently only have a 2 acre pasture fenced. I had a similar debate after getting quotes on a small barn. I looked into the Horizon structures but found them to be overbuilt for what I wanted. We purchased a metal carport with just the roof and have built two 10x12 stalls into it with plans for a third. It has an 8 foot covered aisle that will be used for the run in. We can also remove the divider between the two stalls for a larger run in area. I will post a picture once I can get on my phone.
The next step will be fencing the area around the barn/run in for a dry lot that will connect to the 2 acre pasture. Then we have 5 acres we can fence as well for more pasture.
Long term we want to move to more acreage and build a larger barn. We felt this solution works well for us right now and in the future since the structure is not fully permanent we can move it to our new property as a run in. Or leave it if the new owner wants it.
Thanks All!! Youāre continued wisdom is really helpful!
