Modest Horse Barn Suggestions???

[MikePA]

The only area we've insulated, as well as heated, is the tack room. In each stall, 2 sides are solid (no opening to the outside), the side facing the outside has a Dutch door in it and the side facing the aisle has a sliding door with bars on the top half as does the wall. There's no ceiling in the stalls, they are open to the roof. If we need to, we can close and secure the Dutch doors and the doors at the ends of the aisle, but that's it. So, insulating would be impossible but on the other hand, there's plenty of ventilation. [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img] The barn provides a place to get out of the weather and the wind, but no heat, that's why they grow winter coats. [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img] Over the past few years, my wife has bought winter blankets for each horse. Why, is beyond me, since I think she spends more time looking for them in the pasture or mending them than the horses spend wearing them! Of course I keep these comments to myself. [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]

[DirtPoor]

I would like to comment on the insulation question. I was raised on farms in Iowa and none of our barns or livestock sheds had any insulation. The body heat of the livestock was enough to keep the temp. above freezing, in most instances. In the milking barns we never wore gloves although we used heated water for washing the uders. There was usually some supplimental heat in the milk house since that area was required to be isolated from the milking area.

However, if you have a horse barn that is large enough for 3 or 4 horses but actually only house 1 then tempatures could be a bit chilly without insulation.

Here in the Pac. NW, insulation (or vapor barrier) is necassary to prevent condensation under metal or plastic sheet roofing. In other drier climates, condensation may still be a problem due to the moist breath of several large animals in a confined, unventilated barn.

In some of the barn designs mentioned here, they include a loft, this along with a layer of hay bales should provide an eccellent insulation.

My experience and opinion, FWIW.

Steve

[opie744]

I have a new question, how wide should the door be?? [img]/forums/images/icons/cool.gif[/img]

[MikePA]

<font color="blue"> having an electrical outlet near enough to each stall for things like a heater in a water bucket or a fan. </font color>
A few weeks ago, before it got below freezing, I installed an outdoor outlet in each stall, close enough to where the water buckets are for a power cord to reach. Why it took me so long to do this is a mystery. This thread was the thing that kicked off the thought process that resulted in me doing this. Three outlets, 250' of wire, etc. and poof, outlets in each stall.

All these years we've been keeping a set of buckets in the tack room and another set in the stalls. Since the buckets in the stalls would freeze, we'd swap them with the buckets in the tack room. We only have 3 stalls and 3 horses, so it wasn't that big a deal, but still a bit of a pain.

With heated buckets in each stall, no more bucket swaps. Just attach the hose to the outside hydrant, fill the buckets, then put the hose back in the tack room. So simple.

I even thought of this all on my own, the barn manager, aka wife, didn't have to suggest it. Simplify life, earn points with the wife. Ah, life is good. [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img]

[mfaley]

"Simplify life, earn points with the wife. Ah, life is good."

Mike thats a good deal no matter what way you look at it! My hat is off to you.

I assume the horses dont have access to the power cord.

Mark

[MikePA]

<font color="blue"> I assume the horses dont have access to the power cord. </font color>
These buckets have a plastic 'lid' on the bottom of the bucket where the cord can be stored when heating is not needed. (I actually thought they sent non-heated buckets when I opened the shipping box since there was no cord visible) Plus the cord is covered with a coiled wire. Looks like a spring. I pulled out just enough to reach the outlet, about 1 foot.

For additional protection, I installed the outlets on the vertical post that makes up one side of the stall door. So, the outlet is facing the side of the bucket and not facing the interior of the stall. Since they're outside outlets, the box cover has the little 'doors' over each outlet. I put the cover on the box so that when the cord is plugged in the little door covers the plug. Makes it kind of difficult to plug it in, but these buckets will only get plugged in once a season. They have a thermostat in them that comes on at 35F and goes off at 60F.

[muncybob]

Those heated buckets are great! We have some inside our small barn(30X40, 2 story) for our 3 horses and we also have a large Rubbermaid 1000gal.? water trough on the outside of the barn with a heater installed...works the same way as the buckets, funny thing is 1 of our Appy's likes cold water! You can lead them to water but.............. [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[SteveBenson]

I've always been leary of putting electric inside of stalls. The way some horses chew and rub things it would take a lot to convince me it was safe. We even have one horse that is fond of sitting on water buckets and feed tubs. We had to get rubber tubs and buckets because he kept destroying the plactic ones.

We have hot water in out wash stall with a hot/cold mixer. In the winter we use this faucet and give the horses slightly warm water. We always dump our buckets in the morning (even in the summer) and refill. This system works fairly well for us. Only on the coldest mornings &lt;10F do we get any ice in the stall buckets.

[MikePA]

If our horses chewed, I'd find a way to protect the cord, probably conduit. The heated buckets are just too convenient. [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[muncybob]

The in stall bucket that we have has the electric power cord inside a metal flex conduit.....of course, this won't help when the horse wants to sit on the bucket! [img]/forums/images/icons/ooo.gif[/img]