Your Horse Barn
©
2007 Cherry Hill
Do you want to build a horse barn
or remodel the one you have? Do you know where to start? You're not alone. Many
people get bewildered by the many choices and decisions they are confronted with
when planning housing for their horses. That's why we wrote the book, Horse
Housing, in which we explain many of the options you have, from flooring to
lighting, so you can make the right choices for the comfort and health of your
horses and your horsekeeping situation.
But many horse owners
are too busy to read or are more visual and would rather get information from
video rather than from a book. So, we've just finished a 4-hour, 2-disc DVD called
Your Horse
Barn. It has much of the good information that the book Horse
Housing contains so you can make good decisions about roofs and windows, the
aisle and your tack room, feed room and wash rack. Plus you get a detailed look
at Cherry Hill's barn that we built mostly by ourselves here at Long Tail Ranch.
We go through every corner of the barn, inside and out and show you what we did
and tell you why we did it that way.
Here are a few excerpts
from the DVD, Your
Horse Barn: Planning, Designing, Building :
Getting
Your Horse Barn Built
One
of the first things you have to decide when planning a horse barn is who will
build it. Basically, you have four choices:
- Buy
a modular or pre-manufactured barn to be delivered and set up.
- Hire someone
to take charge of all or part of your barn project.
- Act as your own contractor
and hire the construction workers and tradesmen.
- Build it yourself from
scratch or from a modular barn package.
The method
you choose will depend on how soon you need the barn, how much time you have to
spend on the project, your budget, and the extent of your construction ability
and experience... read
more...
Stall
Size and Number
Stalls are the horses' dorm
rooms inside your barn. When planning your barn, the main things you need to decide
about stalls are:
- How many stalls you need.
- How
large the stalls need to be.
- The type of floor the stalls will have.
- What
to cover the walls with.
- What type and size of doors to install.
NUMBER
The number of stalls you need depends on how many
horses will require stabling at one time. If your horses live mainly outdoors,
read
more...
Heating
If
you live in a winter climate, you might be thinking about heating the entire barn
or at least a room or two.
Ask yourself this question: "Is
the barn primarily for my comfort or for my horse's health". You may want
to work in the barn in your shirtsleeves during the winter, but your horses dress
for winter in the fall and can't take off their coats till springtime.
Horses
are generally more comfortable - and much healthier - living either outside or
in an unheated barn. as long as they are protected from drafts. When it gets really
cold, say below 0 degrees F, it is healthier for a horse to wear a blanket and
have plenty of fresh air than to close the barn up tight and blast him with a
heater.
When a horse does require additional warmth, say because
of sickness or injury or to dry off, an infrared or radiant heater or a well-protected
heat lamp can be used to warm the animal without heating the entire barn. Learn
more on the DVD...
Happy
Trails and Good Luck with your horse barn ! 
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