The Horse Forum banner
Status
Not open for further replies.

We're buying a farm!!!

2K views 14 replies 13 participants last post by  Smilie 
#1 ·
My fiance and I have been searching for a smaller piece of property to rent where I can keep and ride my two horses and haven't had much luck. We sat down and talked to a realtor and have decided just to go ahead and buy! I'm so excited! But I have a few questions:

For those of you who have your own facilities and have bought/built your own barns what have you liked and what have you wished was different? We will be primarily a hunter/jumper farm, but will be open for other disiplines as well.

I will eventually open the farm up for a few boarders and training/lessons. Does anyone have any advice on boarders?

Lastely, we are trying to come up with some name ideas. I like the idea of keeping it with the hunter theme but I also like the idea of naming it after my first horse, Lakota (show name- Lakota's Dream) She is a thoroughbred cross that I rescued 5 years ago and she is one of those special horses that you'll just never be able to replace. In the summer time her coat turns into a beautiful mirror silver color, so I was playing around with the idea of something along the lines of Silver Horse Stables/Farm or Silver Mare Stable/ Farm but my fiance isn't a fan. Some other ideas are:

Gen127 Stables (after Genesis 1:27)
Hunters Chase Stables

And that's all I've got so far!
 
See less See more
#2 ·
I just recently found out they name barns. Fifty years of calling them what they are "barn". I guess that would get confusing to some. So I recently picked a name for mine. "Welcome to my nightmare". I borrowed it from Alice Cooper. Seems to fit, but you won't find a black mare out there.

As far as boarding goes, pick your boarders carefully! I've ended up owning horses I didn't want. They get left here and not maintained. Have to sell them at a loss to cover feed. One lady came out after months of neglect wanting her horse, hahahaha. I told her to go talk to the sheriff, that's who bought him.
 
#4 ·
Congrats on buying a farm. Can't help you out with boarding questions because I don't have boarders. As far as some of the things you would want your barn to have:

Convenient frost free hydrants (even in TN)

Safe electrical outlets where folks can plug in a stall fan in the summer or heated bucket in the winter.

Wide aisles with safe footing.

Large tack room.

My step daughter boards her horse and works off part of the board and is always talking about having to lead the horses to and from the pasture. I would hate that! My barn has corrals around it then I can open gates to whichever pasture I want them in.

If you are going to be boarding I'd also want to add a bathroom. You could either incorporate into the tack room or have a separate lounge area.

Big enough barn yard for parking and trailer storage.

I'm sure there's a lot more things to consider but those are what came to me first.
 
#5 ·
Not only a frost-free hydrant, but an insulated water reservoir. We are having a horrendous time this winter with pipes bursting all over the city. And on top of it, the water management company has stopped delivering cisterns on demand as they are also freezing and bursting.
 
#6 ·
I'm going to go back to basics and think you are, may be building from the ground up.....????
Up is the word!
Raise your barn elevation a few feet, yes feet above grade.
It will keep you from flooding with heavy rain/snow run-off in springtime thaws and helps to catch a breeze in hot sultry summer.
Consult with your ag building department about best direction and location to place the barn to catch winter warmth and summer cooling breezes. Barns are best situated high on the property for a variety of reasons.
Make your layout work friendly not just pretty....
To me a must is perimeter fencing along with paddock fencing so if someone should get loose the animal is kept safe on your property till you get your hands on them and secured.
Make your gates wide enough to walk through leading a horse safely {4'-6'} besides having drive through gates able to open very wide {16'} so large deliveries of hay, a large trailer and such can maneuver though safely without taking your fencing down...boom!
Make your aisles wide enough to drive a large tractor or quad pulling a trailer/manure spreader through....also makes a safe passage of two horses side by side without touching possible.
Electric outlet at each stall so no extension cords need using to clip a horses face or hang a "sealed" motor cooling stall fan.
I am not a fan or automatic waterers although many like them I prefer "old-school" and hanging/filling water buckets in stalls so I know how much if any water is consumed. Water hydrant centered in the barn aisle or several hydrants so not having to drag huge lengths of hose now needing coiled on a aisle-way.

Frost-free hydrant is a must...
A large grooming/treatment/work area with great lighting and heavy duty circuit breakers for the vet or farrier to use if needed...dang diagnostic equipment pops breakers in many barns!! :x
Locked drug cabinet where ever you place it....
A 1/2 bath is a must if you are even considering boarders or they will be in your house and you entertaining their nosiness....
Boarders...screen them carefully and remember business is business, friends is friends and the two do not cross paths easily.
In other words...no "favors" or cutting slack on when board is paid, it being paid in full nor on you fulfilling the services they pay for correctly.
I prefer a alley between my turnouts...more costly but no fighting, no marks on others horses "playing".
I also will not board my horse if no board fence is used. Fine to have a strand or two of electric but to me safety is plank fencing, seen and in good condition as a barrier.
Barb wire, forget it!! Won't even discuss it, period! It is cattle fence, not horse fence!
Stalls no smaller than 10'x12' and for average sized horses no larger than 12'x12' is truly needed...some places now go crazy.
Unless you plan on housing drafts you really don't need 14'x14' or larger stalls.
When you get to this point offering boarding services.... a message board and a chalkboard so polite public messages can be left for all boarders to see and know about happenings at the farm.
Chalkboard for farrier or vet services to be done or scheduled..easily erased as completed.
Outdoor lighting that is easily reached to turn on and off by a rider holding a horses reins...
Those come quickly to mind....

Congratulations and enjoy the journey of planning, building and filling that barn and property. :wink:

:runninghorse2:...
 
#7 ·
Congrats on the farm!

My best advice is to see if you can tour some places in your area. Take some mental notes of what you like and don't. If you really like something, take a picture of it on your phone.

Several of the best ideas I've seen were the invention of the people who built the place, not necessarily something standard or even named.

One of the coolest ideas I've ever seen were cinderblock stalls with the side walls being a gate. They can turn out all the horses and with an ATV just drive through them to clean water and replace feed. Whole thing takes the guy like 15-20 minutes. Would have never thought of that on my own.
 
#8 ·
You should look around the area you want to live in, look at existing barns, talk to barn owners in your area. Find your wind directions rain sleet snow. Find out what type of soil you will be dealing with. Clay soil is awful. I would change a lot of things, just because it would be easier for me to get things done.
if you do build from the ground up, you will be having many discussions and probably some arguements, the name of a barn will be the easiest decision!
 
#9 ·
Congrats on the farm shopping, how exciting!! Everyone has already given pretty good advice. There is one other thing. Don't forget about really good insurance, especially if you are going to have boarders.
 
#10 ·
Ditto the advice to avoid clay soil. Although my clay grows lush, gorgeous Bermuda grass, I HATE IT! One solid day of rain soaks the clay for a week, and I have to keep the horses in the sacrifice paddock (and I can't ride) until completely dry or they'll tear up the grass/footing. In the summer when we're in drought season, the clay dries as hard as concrete, so again I can't ride.


Figure out how you will dispose of manure. There will be more than you think!


Barn needs: Restroom for the humans. Enclosed tack room. Enclosed feed room. Fire extinguishers at either end of the barn, and near hay/shavings storage. Wide barn aisles. Plenty of electric outlets. Plenty of light. Easy access to water - in very long barns, hoses in the center of the barn are easier to manage than one spigot on the end with a super long heavy hose, plus they are less likely to freeze than those near exterior walls.


Stalls that open directly into individual turnouts drastically decrease time spent moving horses at each feeding.


If you have multiple pastures/turnouts, orient gates near each other so you can easily bring in/turn out multiple horses at a time.


If you plan to board, get your insurance coverage in place first. It's pricy to be properly covered, but without coverage you could lose everything. Get your boarding agreement reviewed by a lawyer before using it. Keep your boarding options simple - the more specialty arrangements you make with boarders, the more chance for mistakes.


Start with way more money in the bank than you think you'll ever need. You WILL spend it. Generally on boring stuff like broken buckets, bent gates, and gravel for the driveway.
 
  • Like
Reactions: jgnmoose
#11 ·
Sounds so exciting! We just built a barn last May-June, but it was very modest in size. Our 48 x 32 building is separated into an equipment bay (completely sealed off, but with double wide doors) and a barn area. We only have two horses and would probably only ever have three (say one was retired, but we wanted another riding horse) so we didn't need a lot of space. Therefore, I don't have a lot of advice for someone building a large boarding facility.

The only issue we've had is the water freezing. It lasted a few days before Xmas, but we haven't had a problem since. We do not have a frost-free hydrant - I didn't even know that was a thing and our plumber never brought it up. I would change that, obviously, but we've resolved the problem by shutting off the water to the barn on very cold nights (-20 C or colder). So far so good.

Everything else about the barn I love, but one of the things I took a chance on were the dutch doors leading directly into the paddock. Now that it's been a few months and we've seen everything mother nature can throw at us in this part of the world, I can safely say that I LOVE them. It's so easy to turn the horses out that my 11 yr old can do it. No haltering or leading. The paddock also connects to the pasture so it's just a matter of opening another gate. The horses love the fact that they can go in and out of their stalls as they please since the doors are open for them all day. I also love the fact that I had the contractor build a 10 x 24 foot overhang over the stall doors. That means the stalls stay out of the wind, sun and snow. The horses often just like to lounge under the overhang too.

I second horselovinguy's suggestion of building up. Honestly, when I saw how high the barn was going to sit, I thought it was going to look awful. Our barn sits about 6 feet above ground level at the back (a little less at the front). But after a few loads of dirt, it all blended in and looks fine. And I have never had any flooding in my barn. My trimmer comments on how nice it is to trim our horses's hooves because they're never muddy. If it's been raining a lot and the paddock has puddles in it, the horses just hang out on higher ground, right outside their stalls, so they stay clean and dry.

Don't cut corners (not suggesting you are, but it can be tempting). We looked at steel barns, pole barns, got quotes on all those, and ended up just building a good old-fashioned wooden barn on a full concrete foundation. We put motion-sensor lights on the front and back. Seems obvious, but I might not have thought of it if it weren't for the fact that one of our boarding places had one and I really appreciated them. Two way lights so you can light up the barn from different entrances if necessary. I also agree with the outlets for each stall. We had some installed that are specifically made for barns - they come with a hinged cover that snaps on. There is even room for an electric cord to come out of the corner when the outlet is closed. I thought they were pretty neat and they allow us to plug in the heated water buckets without worrying about the horses sticking their tongues in the socket.

Manure disposal, yes. Downhill is better. Much easier to push a full wheelbarrow or wagon to the pile (I opted for a gardening wagon instead of a wheelbarrow and love the fact that I can pull it with one hand, keeping the other hand free for a manure fork). So I have one pile behind the barn, about 25 feet away, for immediate disposal, and another areas on the property that is a good 300 feet away from the barn and even further from the house where we haul out the manure every couple of months using a farm tractor with a bucket. The idea is to make a big pile each year and let it decompose. Three piles decomposing means that each year, you will have a pile that is ready for spreading in gardens, flowerbeds, etc. Give it away if you have no use for it. Again, all the manure is downhill from the house and barn and nowhere near a water course. This helps keep the flies down too.

Congratulations! And enjoy the adventure! It will be so exciting to see your barn go up!
 
#12 ·
I don't know as to how big you are dreaming, but here in our climate, boarding horses , that includes a barn and lessons, versus just some pasture board,requires both an indoor and outdoor arena, and that is where the major bucks come in.
I just have facilities for myself, thus only have an outdoor arena and barn, with that outdoor arena being useless a good part of the year.
I agree on making sure there is good drainage around your barn. We did not build it on higher ground, thus it used to flood during spring runoff, just when I needed those stalls for mares and foals!
We thus raised all the stalls above the isle height, plus installed drainage tiles around the outside, solving that problem
Agree on no barbwire, and to also use a good fencer, keeping a hotwire along all fencelines
I good automatic waterer, lines down far enough, complete with a heat tape, keeps our automatic waterer open even in temps to minus 40C
I wish I would have had a line run originally to the pasture where I have to use a floating heater, and installed another automatic waterer. Having way less horses now, it is not a big deal, as The waterer I have, is common to two pastures.
If you do install one, place it on a cement pad and add gravel around that waterer
Ditto on a secure feed room
Of course, you will need equipment like a tractor and ground groomer, for any riding arena
I think the rest has been covered
 
#14 ·
We are doing something similar. If all goes well, we will be moving to a small acreage "farm" in a few weeks. It's quite small, but already set to go with a nice 2 stall barn and plenty of fenced pasture for two horses. Wash rack, electrical, etc. Not planning to board, but I suppose I could if we had to.

Same problem, we are trying to figure out what to call the place. We are trying to come up with names that communicate something about our mutual Smoky mountain heritage. we are from different sides of the same part of the Smokey's. Appalachia something.

We are not particular about types of horses or types of riding, so it didn't occur to me to incorporate that type of thing into the name.

Good luck. I hope you will post the name you decide on.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
You have insufficient privileges to reply here.
Top