We’ve been trying to make a decision about the horse barn for about 2 years now. It needs a lot of work. It’s well over 60 years old, if not more, and it’s a converted hen house, as the farm was owned by an egg farmer before my dad purchased it in 1972. Dad gutted the building and put in 10 stalls, a tack room and feed room. It has a loft, and it’s done a good job housing horses over these years, but the ceiling is low, so it’s always limited us to horses at around 16 hands or smaller.
The barn now needs a lot of work. The wiring needs replacing, the roof’s in very bad shape, and the foundation is showing signs of weakness as well. Plus, it’s got the wear and tear of nearly 40 years of horses, meaning a number of stall boards need replacing, the aisle floor is chipping, the feed room needs insulation replaced and so on. We have been patching it together, but I’m secure in my job, and we don’t have children to educate, so we’ve decided we can swing another payment.
We're going to talk with some building contractors to see what it would cost to put up a four-stall barn with feed room, tack room, storage and a loft. We decided against an indoor arena, because I simply can’t take riding in the extreme cold anyway. And, except for rainy days, we can ride April through November, possibly longer, in our outdoor arena.
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