What Does Your Horse Barn Say About You?
By Nikki Alvin-Smith

If a horse is a reflection of its owner then what about the horse barn? There is an amazing range of horse barns out there and each one has its own individual ambience and design.

Did you ever think about how your own barn reflects your habits and personality? Does it say you are professional? Mindful? A good horse owner?
 
Whether you are the original creator of the horse barn and/or its custodian, your barn tells a story. Here’s a fun look at what it may reveal – advertently or inadvertently.
 
The Coloring Book
 
If your barn looks dilapidated and unkempt from the outside, then first impressions are going to be that it is uncared for and thus by association, the care and training of the horses will also come into question.
 
While a sad looking horse barn does not necessarily mean the interior isn’t workmanlike and horses well-cared for, there are signatures that will illustrate a story, whether it’s one you want to share or not. Stuff like junk and debris left carelessly around, uncut weeds/grass or mud-crusted entranceways can all lead the mind to wander and wonder – what lies inside?
 
The best way to ensure your barn does not have a great lifespan, is to leave all its maintenance needs alone. Put them out to pasture and forget about them. Eventually things will drop off, water will permeate the building and wind will whistle through the eaves. But if you don’t mind the eyesore, or the constant drip-drip of water on your tack, expensive hay supplies and bedding, leave the barn to its own devices. See what happens.
 
Keeping things painted and maintained does cost time and can cost money. But washing stuff down, tidying the yard and keeping things dust free doesn’t cost much. Hammering in the odd nail or replacing a few shingles isn’t expensive. And a lick of paint can go far.
 
 
While you may not have enjoyed the opportunity to design and build your own horse barn your inherited structure may well offer a color palette in its siding and roof color that requires repainting or re-staining over its lifespan. This can be a welcome opportunity to put your own stamp on it as well as offer some preservation of a building that will cost a lot more to replace today than when it was originally built.
 
The color of a building does matter. Not just for its overall fit in the landscape, or even its relevance with its hopefully complementary nature to other buildings on site such as the home. And color counts not just because the lighter colors offer a cooler reflective factor and make the structure appear larger while darker colored barns may look more grounded in their location but also make the building look as if it is smaller.
 
The color you choose for an object as large and material as a horse barn also indicates your own nature.
 
Typically blues and green are peaceful colors, though blue may look out of place unless the barn is sited close to water. Darker colors and ones that mirror the landscape in which they sit automatically look more as if they belong – and like an artist’s brushstrokes cast a sympathetic eye in the mind of the beholder.
 
 
Meantime reds and oranges or bright yellows will certainly ensure the barn stands out wherever it is sited offering a bold statement not many people (or their neighbors!) will like to live with. Though red oxide is a traditional color that breaks the rules.
 
Softer light yellow and creams are considered inviting colors, while the neutral grays and beiges with white accents always look sophisticated and traditional. A timeless choice.
 
 
Darker colors like black are often a newer popular choice for a horse barn. With a color accented trim, black barns are reminiscent of the tobacco curing barns of the South, where their dark color helped to increase the interior temperature in the building. But whatever color you choose, know its limitations and pluses before you set it on the surfaces of a structure. A bit like showing a big-moving horse like a warmblood versus a smaller more elegant breed like the Arab or Thoroughbred, errors will be magnified while correct work or choices will be enhanced in appeal.
 
When building your barn or repainting it, consider spinning that color wheel but know what the result will do to change the overall impression of the building. Know beforehand what you want it to say both functionality-wise and aesthetically.
 
Does Your Barn Exude A Professional Personality?
 
The simplest way to let your professional horsemanship star shine is to keep your barn neat and tidy. And clean!
 
We’ve all heard the jokes about how the barn will be spic and span while the homestead or house may not. Pride in keeping the barn in good order is more than just a wish to make a good impression. It’s a matter of horse health too. And for horse owners that is usually the priority. And not just because it is the right thing for our horses, but because we enjoy doing it.
 
Good horse care will always involve providing a clutter free, dust and fire hazard free, and clean stall environment. Blessed with fresh air and a clean bed to sleep on most horses are perfectly content without any more bling than that. But of course a barn needs to work for the human contingent too. Practical issues such as insurance considerations, energy costs and the like all factor in to the equation.
 
 
Of course leaving water hoses snaked out down the aisleway or lying about outside on the grass ready for ingestion by the family lawn mowing tractor is always an option. After all, why put something back where you found it. Why not leave it as a tripping hazard.
 
A cluttered mind is often a disorganized one, and that translates to overlooking certain tasks or simply forgetting to do stuff. If you are trying to attract new boarders to your barn, a messy aisleway with chewed wood stall doors and dust everywhere doesn’t say, “I care about stuff and take good care of it, and that will include your horse if you bring him here.”
 
Familiarity with our own barn can also cause us to become complaisant with issues we know truly need resolution. The faucet that leaks; the sliding door that sticks; the hole in the middle of the stonedust stall floor that we keep excavating when mucking out.
 
The labor of love that is horse care, can be arduous and even unpleasant to accomplish. Clearing dead flies from window crevices, deep cleaning manure-stained kickboards with a scrubbing brush and plenty of elbow grease or showering your hair in cobwebs and dirt when cleaning light fixtures and high beams are not jobs for the feint-hearted. Barn work is messy work and have you noticed the big chores always seems to need doing when its either a boiling hot humid day or a finger-numbing wintry one. And just like housework, just when it is all done and looking lovely someone or something comes along and messes it up. Like dog art on your screen door. You love seeing it but sometimes wish the glass could stay perfect and pristine a little longer than five minutes.
 
There are ways to make cleaning and horse care tasks more cost and more labor efficient. And given how hard it is to get good barn staff and keep them the topic is worthy of keen consideration. Even as a backyard owner you expect that you will age up and workloads will become more challenging in the future. It does pay to plan ahead as much as you can. And that begins with barn layout and design, materials used and how they are finished with sealants and protective layers and the style of windows and their placement. Hard to reach places will always become messy spaces.
 
 
Professional stabling is also about a safe design. Doors that are wide enough, stall grill bars that are narrow enough and ceilings that are high enough all make a world of difference to horse safety and their comfort level. Stall floors that are easy to clean, and areas including aisleways that are properly finished are essential to avoid horses slipping and falling and mucking out tasks to be quick to complete as well as cost-saving on bedding.
 
A refit or resurface of a high traffic area or a new coat of stain and seal across the front stalls can make all the difference to the daily use and abuse of the barn, and help keep things easy clean.

For specialist facilities such as horse breeding farms, there are lots of design caveats to consider to ensure mare and foal safety. Retrofits such as replacing kickboards that have warped or cracked and wood that has been chewed and is a splintered surface is always worthwhile. Foals have a habit of always finding mischief and ways to injure themselves.
 

 
Tidy and safe storage of supplies is also a good indicator of a mindful personality.
Hay rounds tucked in the corners of indoors should not be placed high enough that they could fall or roll through the side of the building, and haystacks of small square bales should be properly built that protect the quality of the hay as well as the building itself from damage. A well-stacked hay supply will also help protect those clambering around on the stack to pick the hay safely. These details all say you know what you are about and care.
 
 
Or of course, you could just leave your hay supplies like this. Would you want your horse eating this?
 
 
The Personal Touches
 
 
Decorating the barn and adding personal touches can start with the hardware and move onto signage and window boxes, photos and framed works of art and of course, a splendid tack room/office.
 
Even the stall door signs can add an interesting note as well as provide valuable warning information in a humorous way.
 
 
What better place to showcase all your horsey paraphernalia and performance achievements than in the barn where it all begins and finishes.
 
 
Barns thankfully have a lot of wall space so there is plenty of opportunity to add some thoughtfully curated objects. These decorative areas are the perfect place to add a sense of humor and personal style but bear in mind moisture will cause damage if the item is not properly located and protected by plastic or glass.
 
I keep this sign I found on a trip to Bonaire for hanging on the barn office door so staff know those times when I don’t really want disturbing. Usually when I’m busy with admin tasks. It is always good to have a working space for the management side of barn life. Even if today’s portable electronics make it easy to accomplish basic workday chores while on the move, it is always good to have a quiet, private space.
 
 
You can also showcase your personality with great hard and soft landscaping choices for your horse barn. Even if you’ve inherited someone else’s barn, there’s no reason you can’t set it in a great vista that screams your love of nature or penchant for spending time sitting down with visitors and family at the end of the day in a shady spot.
 
When it comes to barn exteriors, special features can also elevate the aesthetic appeal as well as functionality of the structure. A working cupola is a sparkling example of the crowning glory on any horse barn.
 

 
The Warm Welcome
 
During my many years of travels as an advanced level competitor and professional clinician I have had the pleasure of being invited into many different barns in an array of countries. Each barn has a unique feel and each barn truly does tell a story.
 
 
Here I am in Portugal, taking a break from riding and training under cover from the sun. I was staying at the historic Stal Andre in Lisbon, and I was situated in the same rooms as the renowned Nuno Oliveria lived as a young man as an apprentice working with the Lusitanos at Borba’s barn. Things don’t need to be fancy to be functional and enjoyable and these rooms and stables certainly weren’t. Places of historic significance can be forgiven a lot, but even they need due care and attention.
 
A warm and welcoming barn is more than just a building though. It’s also about the harmony and serenity within the space and the horses and folks that spend time there.
 
At the end of the day, whether you are building new and have a clean slate or are renovating or refreshing an existing horse housing structure, don’t be shy to add your own designs and décor schemes. For us horse lovers a barn is a home from home, so why not make it as fun, functional and enjoyable as possible. But just like how you turnout yourself and your horse, how you turn out your barn does say a lot about you. So make sure it conveys the message you want to share, because folks do notice. And rightly so.