Looking for a bit of advice. Have a 3 year plan/contract with my daughter regarding horse ownership. If she agreed to do certain things concerning learning about horses and their care, riding lessons (for pleasure, not show) and help instructor by cleaning/grooming, mucking stalls etc..., we would get her a horse. And yes, I realize I will be helping out with chores as well, but she does understand the distinction between someone who enjoys horses and someone who loves horses.
Will be building the barn this fall or next spring (more likely in spring as I want to get it done right and not rush into the process). Initial thought was 24'x36' would be fine, 3 stalls, tack room, either loft or ground floor room for hay, and a small work room for me. 3 stalls because other daughter is 8 and while not interested in horses now, I should plan as if she will be at some point. extra stall is just that, extra. Barn would have its own electric meter and water meter.
Am I thinking too small here? More I consider it, the more I think I should be going with 30x40 (and I am trying to keep cost reasonable). 2 years ago I have a 30x40 pole barn/garage built (dirt floor at time), 10 foot sides walls, slider on back side and 2 garage doors and it ran slightly under $8,000.
Hi paul about 10 years ago we built an 24x36 barn placed into a hill it has concrete foundation with 10 foot ceiling on first floor and 10 foot second floor for hay loft we installed 5 stalls
dirt floor and has worked out great . we use some of the loft for storage.cost was about $ 20,000 any questions just ask
EDT
24x36 is not near big enough in my opinion. I would go 36x36 at a minimum and 36x48 would be ideal.
Here's why:
1. If you are going to be keeping a horse in a stall go for a 12x12 stall if you care about your horse. I don't care what the books say I'm talking real world exp.
2. You need a minimum of an 8-10' alley to be able to groom the horse, saddle, wash, etc.
3. Unless you put in a loft you will need to store a minimum of 200 or more bales of hay. That will take up about a 15x12 area if you have a high ceiling.
4. You need a tack room. It's nice to keep the tack away from everything and nice and cleaned up. Minimum size in my opinion would be 12x12.
5. Now if you want a space you can see there isn't much left.
I would concrete the part that won't be part of the stalls. I would also put in a wash area with a drain and run hot and cold water to the area.
Materials for the barn alone would be about $5k. Concrete all depends on if you do it yourself of sub it out. Figure $2 a square foot if you sub it out. Stall cost will depend on if you buy the pre-fab. ones or build them yourself.
Thanks. That is the type of info I am looking for. Had already decided to go w/12x12 stalls....hence I quickly realized 24x36 was fast becoming too small. As I figure at most to have 2 horses (and only if youngest decides she is interested), am I right in thinking having an 'extra'/third stall is not a bad idea, or is this overkill on my part?
Am likely not to use loft for hay due to a slight handicap, so room for that on ground level is a must (plan on 10' sidewalls on structure). Hot & cold water already in plans.
On your walls I would at least go with 12' walls. I've done the 10' walls and I wouldn't go back esp. with horses. A couple reason are that you can't ever get on a horse in the barn or risk getting your head hit. If you have at least 12' it's unlikely that would happen. Secondly if you want to stack hay then you will have more vertical room and save space in the barn. Third if you ever want to bring hay in to unload, tractors, equipment, etc. then you will be wishing for at least a 12' barn. My recommendation would be 14'.
Good point about sidewalls. It was first thing I thought of when building pole barn for my tractor, but never entered my mind when thinking about horse barn!
Paul I did find that big is never big enough my horses stay out all year except during the winter i have built 12x12 x10 height houses with three sides for all of them they only stay in barn during winter nights . an extra stall is good we used ours for hay and food when we go away and need a horse sitter the only bad side is now the wife had room for another horse. And now filled that stall we have no extra stalls now .good news is no more room for any more horses
5 stalls 5 horses [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img]
EDT
Ps. paul i put wood inside the concrete in the stalls gives a littel air barrer between wood and concrete and a littel safety
Yes it would be great like cowboydoc said too have esp or countrybynet to learn my mistakes [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img]
I agree w/ alot of what is said here. Here are some of qualities I feel are most important in a horse barn from my experience.
1) 12 x 12 stalls, 1' gravel base, 4" stone dust, rubber mats
2) 10' isle, concrete w/ finish that's not too smooth
3) 10' ceilings minimum.
CowboyDoc is right about 10' ceiling being too low if you want to get on your horse in the barn. However most barns ban mounting horses in the isleway as it is generally the last place you want to have a wreck. The pros do it all the time though. In a small barn the need for mounting a horse indoors is minimal and if you don't plan to do it 10' is absolutely perfect IMHO. Another thing to consider that living in a cooler climate those grain fed heaters do a much better job of taking the edge of those bitter cold mornings in 10' barn [img]/forums/images/icons/wink.gif[/img]
For a small barn w/ 12x12 stalls there are several types of configurations. Of course there is the center isle barn which would have a 34' (12x2 + 10' isle). You could also go with a wise 12' isle on one side and stalls on the other giving you a 24' wide building. This sounds like what you were originally thinking and I've seen some really nice small barns built this way. This would probably be the cheapest configuration for 3 or 4 stalls. There is also the center isle barn where the isle run perpendicular to the roof line. This would give you a 24' (4 stall fronts) or 36'(6 stall fronts) building width. I never cared for this configuration w/ the doors on the sides of the barn, but with this configuration you can have some loft space that doesn't span the center isle if you want to keep the isle open. Also I prefer sliding doors on the stalls and on the building, although some would recomend against the latter if you get a lot of snow.
We have a 24' x 36' barn, consisting of three 12'x12' stalls and one 12'x12' tack room with a 12'x24' center aisle. A hay loft is above the center aisle. Attached is a picture I took of our center aisle. The door to the tack room is to the left. As you can see, there's plenty of room to tie 2 horses. If I had to do it over again, I'd make the barn 36'x36'.
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