One of my best friends (who I’ve known since I was 13 and she was 12 – poor thing has survived 2 decades of me and lived to tell about it) just acquired her own little farm. That’s the kind of life-long goal that we often talked about when we were kids, so this is a pretty big “dream come true” moment in her life and seems like a long time coming. The only difference is that we used to talk about having a pony breeding farm, and uh… I’m pretty sure that’s off the table.
It’s been fun though, and interesting, to talk things through with her as she decides how she wants to develop her property. She’s starting pretty much from scratch with the horse facilities, so there have been lots of discussions about barns and turnouts and riding areas and jumps (and yes, XC fences!). Within reason of course, because sadly, unlike we planned when we were kids, she is not independently wealthy yet.
So, out of curiosity, if you were starting with say 10 acres and building up your own horse property, how would you do it? And just to take all the fun out of it, pretend you’re on your normal, regular person’s budget. How would you maximize your dollars but still make a good, usable facility to fit your needs? What things would you put as higher priority and spend more money on versus things you could live without?
For those of you who already have your own place – what are the things you wish you’d done differently? What are the things you’re really glad that you did?
breedrideevent.com 
My husband and I just bought a tiny farm (5 acres) where we live with our two horses. For us, Fences came first, and it was a priority to divide it up into multiple pastures and a dry paddock, so we could graze on rotation and have a place to put a horse that needs to be off pasture for some reason. Shade/shelter is also big, but we were lucky that there was a run-in already. It really needs to be upgraded so we will head there next. I don’t think we will ever build a proper barn (not sure I need one with two horses) but I think it is important to have a place for the horses to get out of the elements. Next on our list is more infrastructure for our pony-associated stuff. We have two sheds, one we bought and one that came with the property, but we still have so much stuff that needs a home, so ample storage is a must! Finally, on my list is a sheltered area with cement and cross-ties to be able to work with the horses. The farrier and vet will thank me when I get that done. On the bright side, we have so much spare material from the various projects I think building jumps will be easy now! 😉
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We recently had friends build a barn on their property, and they have a few cool features that I really liked:
– They built the barn without a ton of beams running across the ceiling to minimize webs, rodents, and birds
– Their aisles are these rubber bricks, so the horses don’t have to even stand on concrete
– The horses have porches! Instead of a traditional long, skinny run they built an overhang off the back of the stalls, and then gave each horse basically another “stall” off the back so they can go in and out, but even if they need to be on stall rest, they still have more room than just their stall.
– The porches open directly to a dry lot, which then opens directly into a larger grass pasture
I will say that I think it’s pretty cool when you can basically just open and close gates to turn horses in and out. Makes it faster and easier, plus a less horsey person can assist without actually having to handle the horses. I also like the idea of being completely fenced in, so if a horse does get loose they aren’t 110% free to roam the neighborhood.
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Fencing, fencing, fencing. Invest in GOOD fencing right from the start! Start with a good lay out, think about any future use (dry lot, lay up paddock, etc), start with good materials from the get go. This is not the place to go the cheap route, because in the long term, you will just spend more. Remove any dead trees before the fencing goes up Get that fencing up and then work on establishing a good grass. Have the soil testing and start working the ground to support the grass. Get that established NOW, before any horse ever steps foot on the property. She needs to think about how she is going to rotate her pastures to keep them from getting over grazed, so that goes into your fence planning as well.
Water source…I have not lived in TX in eons, so I do not know about access to county water or if she will need to have a well drilled. She needs to think about the location of her water source and the location in which she will be using water (pasture troughs, etc). Will she need to lay underground water pipe to get to those locations or will a hose reach.
As for the barn…gutters…put rain gutters on it. Seems like a simple thing really…but easily over looked or pushed to the side. The washout that occurs, even on the best graded and draining property will set you back and possibly damage your barn/foundation. I wish I had listened and installed gutters from the start, instead of waiting almost 10 years.
I always had this idea I would have stalls open to the outside and let my horses wander in and out…mistake. What do they do? They hang out by the barn, not IN the barn..and create a dry, messy area by the barn. Might not seem like a big deal until winter or it rains for 10 days straight, then you have knee deep mud. I have since fenced off the barn from the bigger pastures. This also created a nice size pen in the event I had one on limited turnout, or even needed to put the dog up for some reason.
I have almost 11 acres and it was completely untouched when we bought it. These are just some of the things I wish I had done from the start. Fencing is a nightmare and will be constant work no matter what, but choosing a good product now and installing it properly from the start will save a lot of aggravation and $$$.
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if i ever build a barn will you be my consultant? this is great stuff
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How could I forget grass! Establishing and maintaining the pasture has been our biggest investment and learning curve to date. When we bought our farm it had been completely over grazed and ruined. I feel like a grass farm that happens to have horses sometimes! 🙂
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I wish we had some of those Big Ass fans. They take away the need for individual fans and help reduce the nuisance insects. I also think having hot water in the barn is super convenient. A friend built her barn from the ground up (about 10 years ago) and although the aluminum framed stalls won’t ever really rust, the horses can really beat the crap out of them because the metal is on the softer side.
Hay storage- i do not have a loft and I actually prefer it. I have my hay stacked on two layers of pallets. I don’t have to lug it into the loft, buy or maintain a hay elevator, and then toss it down to feed it. Saves so much time.
Hope she finds her barn building painless and exciting!
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Why the two layers of pallets (as opposed to one)? Have you found any downsides to putting the hay on pallets (creatures maybe?)? I’m the friend in question 😀 and I’m thinking of taking over the carport for hay storage. I was thinking of putting down a layer of pallets and then the hay. Curious on your experiences!
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I decided to do 2 layers of pallets for added security. I’m in Michigan and when the ground thaws the moisture can come up and mold the hay. You might not have that concern in TX. I haven’t noticed any creatures- skunk, raccoon, etc. on or under the hay and the barn cats keep the mice population down to zero.
After we put our pallets and hay down a friend suggested to sprinkle salt down on the ground, then pallets and then hay. This supposedly keeps any moisture away from your hay. I’ll have to give it a whirl next year.
The only downside to pallets is that they can be tricky to get the first layer of hay on. I found it a little awkward trying to man handle hay and navigate the pallets. Other than that, I really enjoy the set up. I helped a friend load 1000 bales into her loft and was very thankful for my ground level hay situation.
Congrats on your new place!!!!!
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The hubs and I are building a farm on 20 acres. Since we will be living on the property (and are currently crashing at the in-law’s house), our first priority is to get the CO on our house. Next priority is fencing and run-in shelter. Then the barn itself and building the arena. To me, a good layout is worth the investment of time and consideration. My husband get frustrated when I’m supposed to be handing him a hammer while he’s installing windows and I’m on the porch planning our manure pile location. We are planning on boarding a couple of horses to help enable my horse addiction and most folks in this area just want a place to park their retired horses or a peaceful place to hack their pleasure horses. We can do that as soon as the fences and shelters are up. We want the pretty plantation look from the road, so board fences up front but electrobraid in the back to cut costs for now. A big thing we are stressing is that we are not going into any un-leveraged debt for the horse stuff. We are perfectly happy moving slowly and adding/improving things as we go. Too many folks want it all perfect at once, turn-key. That’s not usually a possibility on a normal budget (and paying cash for it – so painful). My husband is teaching me how to use his power tools to turn $30 of materials into $200 jump standards 🙂 It’s not nearly as intimidating as it seems. Additionally, we are converting the upstairs of our garage into two 800sqft apartments. That way, we can offer layover board or a barn manager residence to help offset costs.
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I have nothing useful to comment since I don’t own a farm…my parents did and I did enjoy how it was set up. It was simple though, stalls in barn and that was it. No tack room, no storage for bedding or hay (THE WORST) and no riding arena. I did like the wooden fencing, lasted 18 years and still going strong!
My BO just bought a 70acre farm and is in the middle of restoring is and making it the bomb.com. However, she IS independently wealthy and spares no expense. Literally, the outdoor had to have been near 6 figures. That thing is huge and has state of the art footing and all that jazz. Plus a brand new starter-Prelim XC, 30 new stalls with 30 more to go….I can’t even grasp it, its baffling. The mats alone in our 30 stall aisle+stalls had to have been like $10k…GAH
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Don’t have my own small farm but have friends who do so thought I’d chime in. I have heard and seen a lot from them over the years!
#1 issue to consider after fencing (I agree with what Caroline says in that department, for sure – buy the best you can) is manure management. You’re going to have 50# per horse per day and it’s gotta go somewhere. Check local regulations and have a proper disposal plan in place before any horses show up. You don’t want to start a manure pile only to find out they’re not allowed, or they have to be on concrete, or yours is too close to the barn/shelter and invites every fly in town. Spreading makes stall-cleaning MUCH faster and easier and bonuses are free fertilizer for your pastures/no pile, but again, make sure spreading is allowed and you have the acreage to do it. My one friend wound up spending thousands of dollars relocating, building a containment system and hiding her pile after the fact. 😦
Another friend shares a tractor with a neighbor, so when your budget is tight either sharing or bartering equipment is a good thing to check out.
Good luck to your friend and how exciting for her!
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Excellent points on regulations around manure. Thank you!
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7 acre farm, three horses, dressage rider, and had the farm almost 20 years. My biggest advice would be to spend the money and build things correctly the first time. Wait longer to do stuff but build it right when you do build. Layout, and pasture management from the get go are really important but building things correctly with quality materials are pretty important as well. Otherwise 5-10 years down the road you are replacing stuff that doesn’t work properly and/or is broken thereby paying original slightly cheaper cost plus more expensive replacement cost. Double cost yeah! Ask me how I know. That said, with our own labor and a husband that is handy, I have a reasonable little horse farm that doesn’t cost any more than a slightly nicer house in the ‘burbs. I would love a large indoor and all weather footing outdoor but make do and have been able to see my horses out my kitchen window and ride most of the year in the Midwest.
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We purchased our 5 acre property last fall and love it!
Things I like that we have done:
* the grooming rack! Wonderful for the farrier and vet and our own use.
*installed more lighting in the barn
*brick pavers throughout the barn aisle – floor was dirt when we bought the farm
Things i would do differently, had I known:
*got more quotes and researched more before having our outdoor dressage arena built. Contractor did a poor job and my husband is spending all his time and $ to fix it. Drainage is a problem, unlevel, etc.
*put geotextile fabric down under rock for heavily traveled lane between barn and turnout pasture. Horses create a muddy mess very quickly. Husband is on this project as well.
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your friend must be on cloud nine – congrats to her!!! i might be an odd one out in that having my own farm isn’t actually super high on my ‘dreams’ list just bc i love urban living and am satisfied with the convenience of boarding. all the same tho, if i had to do it and start from scratch, i’d probably start with the horse’s living situation. turn outs, sheds, fencing, stalls, and storage. maybe bc i already lead a lifestyle of hauling out for basically every damn thing (ugh), i’d feel like the crazy awesome riding facilities would be able to wait until i had the horses’ basic care needs covered. but then obvi i’d need some baller arenas and xc fields haha
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also omg my little avatar changed?!? i had grown kinda attached to him… this one is… well. kinda special?
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We have three horses on sixteen acres and every day I come home and pinch myself that I get to live on my little piece of redneck paradise. She’s not much to look at but it’s functional, set up for Lazy Girl Horsekeeping, and MINE.
Things I love:
My fences. I ran Electrobraid and it is worth it’s weight in gold (but does not actually cost that much!). It was easy to run and very little maintenance. I spray weed killer on my fence lines maybe twice a year. I’ve had trees fall on it and it pops right back up into place. Plus, if I catch a wild hair and decide to change my layout, it’s easy to take down and put right back up.
My runs. I built 40′ runs off the back of each of my stalls that opens up into the bigger pasture. I’m super duper lazy so I didn’t want to have to catch, halter, and lead three horses twice a day every day. I holler, they run up into their stalls, shove their faces in the feed buckets, and I walk to the end of the runs and close the gates. Job done.
My waterers. I put automatic waterers in my stalls and I looooove them. I don’t have to stand there with a water hose all day and fill buckets and they never run out of fresh water. The only downside to them is that it can be hard to tell how much a horse is drinking.
Limited solid walls, barn fans and shade cloth. I live in Florida and it’s hot more of the year than its cold. I built my barn to not have a lot of solid walls so any little breeze comes through. I also put ceiling fans over each of the stalls so they have constant air movement. Then I hung shade cloth on the west side of the barn to block some of the setting sun. My barn is airy and cool 90% of the time. Love.
Things I do not love:
Hay storage. I did really good at planning for horse movement and horse trailer movement and tractor storage and all my stuff but I did not think about hay. And I feed both rolls and squares which takes up a LOT of room. One day in the future, I’ll probably build another pole barn somewhere on the property to store hay in, but for now, we make do with what we got. I have been known to put square bales in the house when it got really bad. Sorry hubby.
Barn drainage. I literally have a river that runs through my dirt floor aisle when it rains hard enough. It has cut a riverbed and everything. When it’s REALLY bad, it overflows into my stalls which is AWESOME. Luckily I don’t really use my aisle for much beyond taking horses in and out of the barn (all tying happens in the stalls or at the horse trailer parked next to the barn). If I had it to do all over again, I’d have brought in some dirt and built a pad for it first. There are corrective actions being taken that have helped some but until my husbands Super Shop gets finished, we kinda have to deal with what we got.
Good luck!
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Congrats to your friend! I have never owned horse property, so any advice I might have would be completely useless.
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Congrats to your friend! I have zero desire to ever have horses at home, so I will be a lifetime boarder. I’ve been in plenty of barns in my life, but none of them had any extra special features that I can remember off the top of my head, so anything I’d suggest is probably something your friend has already considered. I’m sure whatever she does will be awesome! 🙂
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i will be perusing all these comments. i have a barn pinterest board. i want to have a place to retire runkle to eventually. for some reason i think that needs to include an indoor as well but there you have it
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Geography is a ginormous consideration with all things horse farm. I grew up on 20 acres in Eastern Montana and now live on 10 acres outside of Fort Worth. Some things translate, but many do not. Different types of ground make some things easier and some things harder. Our place in TX is on solid limestone. There is no digging holes easily, but there is also no worry ever about foundations being disrupted (unless there is an earthquake!).
* Water is a huge issue.Where will you need it? Is there a well? Do you need more than one well? Where will it be? My parents place had 1 super duper deep well and pipes at least 10′ underground that went to the house and barn. Never ever had a pipe freeze. We have one well with pipe running to the house and barn and we have to turn off the barn water when it freezes to avoid broken pipes. This results in hauling water during freezes. Seems like not a big deal, but one winter with more than one freeze spell and you’ll be glad you planned for it. Now we have a 100 gallon water storage in the new barn (which is super insulated and has yet to actually freeze even when temps stayed below 30 for multiple days) to use when we have to turn off barn pipes.
*Fencing is second. I agree with other posters, invest the money the first time. In Texas you have cheap and easy access to oil field pipe. Done well these fences are easy on the animals, not horribly expensive to put up and last forever. We don’t paint ours because it just causes more work later and doesn’t look all that great in our opinion. My parents had pipe fencing in Montana and they also never had any issues with maintenance or horse safety.
* Our realtor told us when we bought the place to build the barn we want. Don’t be cheap and just get one up, take the time and invest the money in what you want. We had a crappy old barn that was usable when we moved in, but finally built a new one in 2012 and it is the love of my life (behind my husband of course). It makes tack storage easier (no more moldy saddles). It safely and comfortably houses 4 horses. We did concrete aisles with sand base with rubber mat stalls. Drainage is easy. Horses aren’t standing on concrete when in the stalls. We recently added very generously sized runs off 2 stalls and a paddock of a third and they make life SO easy. Hurt horse? No problem, can stay in a stall. Vet says they can be in a small area? Great, just open the stall to the small run. Limited to paddock turnout? Put horse in stall with small paddock. I can keep mine “locked” up for as long as necessary and they are never in a situation where they can’t at least trot a bit in their runs. Plus, they have all learned to go potty in their runs so I don’t even keep more than a bag of shavings in their stalls and usually don’t have to clean them. I also second the gutters advice. You take them for granted when you have them, but you curse yourself for not adding them when you don’t have them! I also would say that the more insulation the better. My barn stays at least 5-10 degrees cooler in the summer and the same amount (if not more) warmer in the winter. I also have ceiling fans above each stall to keep ponies cool, but they like them most for keeping the bugs off of them. One thing we did “extra” on our barn that I LOVE is added a covered porch on the front. It has 3 monster fans and definitely helps keep the whole barn cooler in the summer. We also use it for entertaining because I’d rather have a party in my barn than my house!
* We don’t have an arena, just an area where we have dumped sand and are encouraging grass to grow for a riding area. I show hunters, but don’t jump much at home so am not terribly worried about have the world’s best footing.
* There really isn’t anything I wish I had done differently. Taking the time to live on the property a little while will help to make better decisions about where to put things like barns, houses, pastures, etc. We were lucky and had great perimeter fencing when we moved in so have only had to work on pasture fencing and some buildings.
Congrats to your friend!!!!!
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How do you store water in the barn (in the 100 gallon thing you mentioned)?
And can you elaborate on the area you dumped sand and encourage grass to grow? Literally, is that all you did? How much sand over how much area? How’s it working out?
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Right now it is just a 100 gallon water tank sitting in the empty feed room on a table inside the barn. This is the only unfinished room in the barn, but since the whole building is crazy insulated (all the walls, the ceiling and all the doors) the water doesn’t freeze. We bought the tank at Tractor Supply or something like that. We water 3 horses, 7-15 goats and 65+ chickens easily for a few days with 100 gallons. Eventually the water tank will be mounted high up inside the feed room (the walls are 14′ high at the shortest with I think a 2′ pitch. If you are in Texas I would also recommend a tall barn. It really helps with climate control) and connected to a water source to fill before the “cold” season. When the feed room gets finished it’ll be heated and air conditioned so there will be zero chance of it freezing and we’ll run pipes to each stall to make filling buckets easier.
Our property is mostly on top of a limestone hill and the previous owners had too many animals so it was pretty overgrazed and therefore has lost a lot of topsoil. What has worked well for us (so far) to help get the grass growing is to overseed for winter rye grass every fall. We have dumped 1 semi load of sand (I’m not completely sure how much that is, I think 10 yards), spread it around at my riding area and will overseed it for rye pretty soon. I’d like to get a total of 8 semi loads (so 80 yards) of sand in my riding area, which is an uneven shape and has some trees. Roughly 150 feet by 100 feet. We have found, with our soil, that seeding with rye helps the summer grass grow better. Most grasses remove nitrogen from the soil and rye adds it back. We also mix in some composted manure pretty frequently. Growing grass in an overgrazed area takes time if you don’t have the $$$$ to just dig/dump topsoil up, use a seed drill, spend lots of $$ on seed and then hope it rains. We recently bought a subsoiler to super duper dig up the pasture before we plant winter rye.
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On my wish list currently is gutters. And some new fences. And for the county NOT to build a road straight through my barn and half my pasture. I’m still trying to decide if I want to write about all of it. Needless to say, if they do take my place, I’ll be rebuilding on the opposite side and will have gutters. And stall doors that open completely like double doors, just in case a horse gets down or something bad happens. Ventilation and storage are key as well.
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1. Frost free water faucets. 2. good fencing and cross fencing, I prefer a solid non-climb horse fence with a hot wire on top. 3. Stall mats if you use stalls. I have stalls, with a small attached paddock, with gates that open to the field. Very easy for a non horse person to lock them up or turn them out and feed. And use stall pellets instead of shavings, much easier on the back and more economical. And it ‘s handy to have neighbor kids you can hire to clean stalls for you!!! 4. Gutters 5. Easy horse trailer parking with a turn around circle. 6. A simple somewhat level area to ride is sufficient, and then haul out to covered arenas. Unless you are rich and build your own covered arena. 7. Gravel…lots and lots of gravel. enjoy!
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Almost everything I can think of is listed above, but the thing I would add is a galloping track of some sort. I sadly don’t have one on my property and it is now too late to add it without massive expenses, but my trainer has one and it gets used all the time for everything: warm-up and cool-down, conditioning, learning the feel for paces, rehabbing a horse, you can put stadium or xc jumps on it, or even work a little dressage if you need a day out of the arena. My trainer’s is sand and can be dragged and drains really well so is good most of the year. Depending on your location maybe grass is an option. When we were looking at upgrading size to a new acreage, it was the second thing I wanted to put in after a perimeter fence.
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I’m the friend in question and it’ll have that!! The perimeter is a bit over half a mile, and we agreed from the get go that we’re making a jogging/trotting loop around the outside. It’ll be a while before we can make the footing anything nicer than dirt, but that loop is in the fencing plan.
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We bought 17 acres of pasture/woods about 7 years ago and are slowly making it into a functioning horse property. I feel like most of the important parts have been covered be previous commenters, so I don’t have much to add to that. I think no matter what you do, there will always be something you look back at later and think “I should have done that differently”, but unless you have unlimited funds to build (and potentially rebuild haha), that’s just life. Our place is slowly coming along. We just finished the arena this year, and I think my next project is going to be some sort of washrack that I can use in the winter (so insulated, heat lamps, hopefully hot water). The projects never end, having your horses at your own place, but it’s so worthwhile!
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When I was in high school we owned farm and kept horses at home. For me the layout of our arena was bad because it boardered 2 of our pastures so if we rode after horses were turned out sometimes it caused a ruckus. I also wish that we had made our storage a little more accessible.
Automatic waterer in the pasture was worth it. Will NEVER do that in a barn again.
One of my favorite things ever though was a pull through garage. We didn’t have a trailer at the time but adult me hopes if I ever have my own land that I can do that bc then no backing up the rig to park! I could talk about this forever because I have multiple farmette layouts in my head 😉
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I LOVE my little backyard barn, but it’s far from perfect in the general sense. I do think it’s quite close to perfect for me though. I have just under 8 acres, but only about 4 are usable. This makes for not much turnout. I use the riding ring and also have a paddock behind it, but the horses hate said paddock and won’t stay in it. This leaves just the ring. I also have three very studdy geldings, so they can’t be trusted alone together. All that said, if I did it over, I’d find a way to have more turnout. I have small “walkouts” attached to every stall, about the size of a stall and half. They take turns going out in those and the ring, so while they are only in the biggest area for about an hour a day each, they do get outside time besides that.
My ring is smallish, but plenty big enough for me to jump a course in. The lines can’t be more than 5 strides, but that’s not a problem for me. I hate my fencing. I have a round split rail fence that while very pretty is horrible in terms of function. It breaks easily and is not that easy to repair. I’m replacing it hopefully later this fall or early next spring with something yet to be determined. I don’t event, so the lack of cross country space isn’t an issue. I also live less than a mile from a few entrances to state parks, so there is plenty of access to trails nearby.
Here’s where I get braggy… I love my barn. Like seriously, I LOVE it. So much. My stalls are 10×12 which might be a a touch small if you have huge ponies, but they are perfect for my boys. I have a hose at every stall, so no dragging hoses around to water all the time. I have rubber pavers on the floor which I both love and hate. I love that they look pretty. I love that their soft. I love that they are non-slip. I hate having to clean them every day. On the other hand, sweeping that floor makes it so I can avoid arm day at the gym. Win? The stalls have a the Super Stall System for flooring which is foam mats covered by a rubber layer to keep the underneath clean and dry. Another love-hate for me. I love the concept. My horses are really happy having a soft bed. But the rubber covers tear. I actually have to replace some of them and they are no longer as inexpensive as when I first got them. I also use regular shavings. I’ve thought about the pellets, but they can be dusty. Also the particles are really small once the pellets open up and I think it would be a nightmare with the rubber pavers.
I have a furnace and heat in the barn to protect against frozen buckets. I keep it at 45 degrees all winter. I’ve heard people saying how that’s terrible for the horses and all that, but honestly, my horses have been perfectly healthy with it. They go out everyday and get fresh air, and we do let air in to circulate while doing chores. I’ve been planning to do a barn tour on my blog, so maybe this weekend I’ll try and put that together.
I keep my hay in a separate building that was already on the property when I bought it. It’s on the far side of the ring so god-forbid something happens, it’s not close to the barn. The barn where I boarded as a kid burned down when I was 14 which was an eye opening experience. And one I never care to relive. Having a hay loft literally fed fuel to the fire and was something I actively did not want for my barn.
Sorry, I wrote a whole novel… I could talk about my little dream farm all day!
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I was hoping you’d chime in!
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🙂
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If you did it again how would you do the stalls? Still foam with rubber on top or something different? I’m the friend in question, and I’ll probably use pellet bedding but I’m still trying to figure out all the layers in the stalls.
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I think I probably would try them again. I’m told they’ve improved the covers to prevent tearing. Also, I have someone who does stalls for me so I didn’t know there was a small rip that turned into a big one. They’re easily patched if you’re aware of the issue. I got them for my old man Rio who has had a myriad of injuries over the years. I really think having a soft floor has been helpful for him.
Honestly though, a good stone dust base and regular mats is perfectly fine. You’ll want to use a little more bedding to provide some padding though. The nice thing about the foam is you can use less shavings. You just need enough to be absorbent and prevent any rubs if you have one that’s prone to getting them.
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WOW! Stacy is a saint.
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Yup yup
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Water spigots and power outlets everywhere! Take the time to research fencing, there are so many options out there. A truly big enough area to turn a big trailer around, even if she has a little bumper pull. You never know what type of rig might arrive to deliver hay or a horse or to work on the well pump, no one likes getting stuck in a poorly planned driveway. Stalls with attached and covered runs makes stall cleaning the easiest job ever even in pooring rain.
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I would have said “no” to the Spanish Riding School manège too.
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This is fascinating! Thanks, y’all, for the comments. Hope to have my own mini farm someday.
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My advise is win the lotto… I feel like there is never money enough to do the caliber what I want 🙈
But for real, fencing and hay storage before winter. Simple overhangs in the pastures aren’t too expensive and can be built easily.
Barns are freaking expensive… Save to get what you want, don’t skimp. We have a 6 stall right now- I’d like more but that’s what I have to work with and its a nice 6 stall👍
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I absolutely adore my automatic waterers at my place. Similar to this http://miraco.com/mira-fount/. My horse got shocked a few times at the last barn I boarded at and we had to haul water all winter to get him to drink. Now I don’t worry about that. They are so heavily insulated they don’t freeze in regular winter temperatures and a small fishtank heater in each one keeps the water unfrozen when the temps drop below 15*
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