I need advice on building a horse barn/shelter

[hosspuller]

A thought about pasture pasture ornaments... You would do yourself and Karen a favor by adopting retired horses. Generally, they've served someone well, their training well established so months can go by and they still behave well under saddle, AND most important ... you would be giving a horse and owner a well deserved place & peace.

 

[DelSc]

Hi Eddie
Our two horses like the kind of shelters you showed. I have a two 12x12 stall barn with a tack room in the middle which is an almost identical prefab building like you showed, except the openings have doors. We almost aways leave the doors open so they can come and go as they please. We only use the doors to separate the horses when we give them grain so they dont fight over it. In my opinion, the horses like going into the shelter during the heat of the day rather than be outside, because the flies dont swarm all over their face like when they stand in the pasture. Not sure if its the same there, but if you go out into a horse pasture in the heat of the day in our area, the flies will be all over you, but if you step into the shelter, they mostly leave you alone.
Thanks
Scott

 

[DelSc]

Heres a picture of our little set up. You can see the stall doors are open (tack room door is usually shut except when were using it). The other thing we use the stall doors for is keeping the horse contained while we tack them up. These arent all our horses. A bunch of friends from a nearby barn rode over for a visit that day.

 

[hogheadCTD]

Here is my next project, I think I will modify it slightly so it only has one opening due to harsh winters. Run In Lean To Shed Plans | Horse Barn | Horse Barn Plans

 

[EddieWalker]

Is there an advantage to having doors over leaving the one wall open? We thought that we could always put a gate on the openings and either keep it open or closed, depending on the need.

Thanks,
Eddie

 

[whistlepig]

If you have doors on a run-in shed it kind of defeats the purpose. It should be a place that is easily accessible to horses. You can add gates that are easily removed. Ours is set up that way. We very rarely mount the gates.

 

[hogheadCTD]

The doors will get banged up by the horses in my opinion. I think a gate would work fine.

 

[DelSc]

I think the advantage of the run in shed over a stall (that is used as a run in shed) is that your horses are less prone to injure each other if they decide to "rough house" inside, or both go for the open door at once. Its easier to squeeze both horses out the open side of a run in shed than out an open stall door. Our horses get along really well and have been together for more than 10 years, so they are safe to turn out with an open stall. Some horses would not be safe to turn out that way, but would be just fine with a run in.

 

[whistlepig]

If you do build and it is a metal building make sure it has a wooden kick panel inside. They do sometimes kick in a shed and they can destroy metal siding quickly.

 

[whistlepig]

With boarded horses the only problem we have had is when a gelding has ran with a mare for while. When a new gelding is brought in sometimes they will fight over the mare and have to be separated. We have a gelding here now that we had to separate do to fighting over a mare. No two horses are the same.