Horse Property Makeovers
By Nikki Alvin-Smith
If you currently own or are planning to purchase an older horse property then the question of undertaking a renovation to refresh and update its features is a good idea. Farm maintenance takes a lot of time and equipment to manage, and over the course of time its very design may be archaic and have aged out of usefulness.
The distinct advantage of renovation of a horse property is not just returning it to safety and security for the horses and their caregivers, it is leveraging an added fiscal value to the property giving it more curbside appeal too.
Time Marches On
It is inevitable that fencing will become tired looking and damaged with use and abuse. It can sag and fall over or at the least be out of alignment and perhaps be broken or rotted out. Nasty nails protruding everywhere and horse chewed edges of wood boards cast more than an ugly picture, they can also cause injuries to horses. And a fence that doesn’t safely contain its equine occupants is always a recipe for disaster.
The four seasons may have wreaked havoc with the run-in shed siding paint or stain. The barn roof may be missing shingles. The driveway and parking lot may offer plumes of annoying dust during summer, a bumpy ride during ‘stick season’ and damage the snow plow a bit more each year.
Pastures may be weedy with large bare patches where grass should be and the gateways muddy and difficult to navigate, with metal gates bent and unsightly with rust, perhaps a few broken hinges that have been tied up with baling twine. Inside the barn stall grill bars may be coated with grease and rust, wooden stall doors barely tracking true, and stall window screens broken and useless.
Tips To Update
Before you begin your renovation project consider how you would really like the property to be designed. For example, you might have inherited a farm designed with multiple square paddocks far from the barn that require walking horses to and from the pasture for turnout. But to save time and labor would rather have small paddocks available adjacent to exterior Dutch doors from each stall where the equine occupants can come and go inside and outside as they please. Look at the best way to make a complete change of fence lines before you begin.
Consider who will be doing the work and how much it will cost. Will the project be undertaken over time as your spare hours allow and do you have the skill set or help to complete it? Or are there aspects you’ll want to hire out for someone else to do. Each aspect should be costed out, so you know before you start what you are getting into.
There are always cheap fixes but they don’t always last so be wary of doing something ‘temporary’ as ultimately it will need doing again. And everyone dislikes doing that so it won’t get done.
Sometimes the simplest solutions are to think outside the box. For example, as fencing delineates areas that are likely well-worn from prior use, simple things like moving the gate location can help assuage the dips and ruts in a particular spot.
Reusing what you can or recycling materials for other purposes is always a practical idea. It might be that the board fencing you have looks rough but not all the boards need replacement though adding a substantial number of new ones might not be cost effective. A different product or design might be more economical but the posts can be used. So save the posts, pull the good boards and cut them down for another purpose such as building planters for the outdoor arena or lining the walls of a concrete manure pad.
Pasture management begins with soil testing. Your local extension office or county agricultural resource can advise you the best way to do this. They can provide advice on what soil replenishment options you might need to implement to rebalance the pH of the soil to make it less prone to weeds and better suited for horse grazing.
Just throwing grass seed from the local box store on dry ground won’t do much to enhance the grass growth, and lawn seed often contains fescues and other grasses not suitable for breeding farms. Pasture grass mixes can be high in clover as it is suitable for ground cover, but clover does not offer a good diet for a laminitis prone horse. Do your homework. Just throwing lime over a pasture to kill certain nefarious weeds will significantly alter the pH. Make sure it is the right way.
Once you have ascertained the soils strengths and weaknesses (take several samples across the property as it can vary substantially). You can map out a plan for areas you want to keep grazing and perhaps where you want to repurpose an area. For example, a worn-out paddock area near the barn may be best resurfaced as a dry paddock or utilized as an outdoor arena. Just because something was set up a certain way before doesn’t mean you can’t reimagine it to be fit for purpose for your needs. And even if you’ve owned the property for years, often our needs and wants change over time.
During the upgrading of pastures look at options for pasture feeding such as equine hay feeders. Their use can save up to 30% on the hay budget, even for small square bales. Here are some tips of how to select one(s) that are safe for horses and how to manage their use.
Consider widening all access points on the farm to accommodate larger modern-day equipment. From the main driveway to the entrances to paddocks and pastures, to barn doors for tractor/UTV access etc., all entrances need to be wide enough for daily use or they are likely to become damaged and/or restrict access for certain equipment.
A new layer of aggregate spread and compacted over an existing dirt driveway and parking area is a relatively inexpensive way to improve both appearance and functionality of the driveway. Consider the size of the aggregate and its shape for use around horse areas to ensure it will not be a nuisance for snow plowing or become stuck in horses’ hooves, especially if they are shod. A layer of stonedust compacted over the surface of gravel can help assuage this problem in a cost-effective manner.
Buildings offer their own set of challenges. A home-crafted run-in shed made of T1-11 or plywood ten years ago won’t likely be in good shape now. Water may have run beneath it and undermined the pillars; the roof may be in poor condition and leak and the footing around the structure may be potholed and unlevel.
Run-in sheds are very easy to buy from stock supplies at larger modular horse barn builders and often a discount can be enjoyed if you get signed up for their newsletters where they share news of sales and special offers. With their huge inventories and large options on sizes and colors, refreshing the landscape with the practicality of placing a new run-in shed in the pasture that you can purchase online, have delivered and set in place quickly can make a big improvement to the property. And while you are shopping online, check out storage sheds for hay storage and other needs.
A new barn may be a pipedream but if you are looking at a re-purposed cow shed with low ceilings, poor air quality and bad design as the existing stabling option, maybe it’s time to consider buying a new barn and using the old one for storage purposes. It is usually quite simple to pull out dividing stall walls and refinish floors with a concrete pour to make them great storage spaces.
Shedrow barns are extremely versatile and 2-stall barns with small storage/tack rooms attached and overhangs can make super backyard stabling for the smaller horse farm or as an adjunct stabling area that can add more stalls for larger horses.
Here is some succinct advice on how to work smarter not harder, on your horse farm. Renovation is an opportunity to make sure your farm is operating on a labor-saving and stress-busting way, every day.
There are many ways to upgrade your horse farm. Don’t be afraid to explore all your options because today’s marketplace is very different from how it used to be. Much has changed. For example, customization options are extensive so you can utilize the materials and designs that work for your particular horsey lifestyle needs.
Modern building materials have changed the landscape. Gone are the days when you had to repaint or re-stain siding every five years. There are stains on the market with 15-year warranties.
You no longer have to rely on the local builder down the street or what you see on offer shed and stable wise by the side of the road. Nationwide delivery of high-quality Amish crafted barns of every shape and configuration, all set up and ready to go is now available. But again do your homework. Not all barns are equal in quality although they may appear similar at first glance. Look at wood sizes and grades, metal gauges and finishes.
And if you are in the position of buying a horse farm but there is no existing human residence or the one at hand is in poor condition, look at the options for a Barndominium build. Even if later you decide to build a new home, it can be utilized for housing for adult kids, aging parents, barn help or a short term rental to bring in income and fulfil horse housing needs too.
When you start exploring renovation and repurposing ideas there are many ways to accomplish the ultimate design of your property that you’d prefer. Free financing; multiple building purchase discounts; smaller units like run-in sheds with built in tow hooks so you can move them from place to place; color matching of siding to existing buildings on the property; almost ‘instant’ appearance on site of a new barn or shed; shopping from home.
Enjoy the process! There is a lot of satisfaction to be enjoyed in the planning and execution of re-imagining a horse property and modernizing it to meet requirements.
