Horse shelters...

[QuarterCowGirl]

I'm in the market for a permanent horse run in/shelter. I need something that will keep my horses out of the rain, give them a shady place to stand in the summer heat, and keep the snow off their backs in the winter.

Right now it keeps pouring rain when I'm not home and although Whisper and Milo can go in the barn; I have the field fenced off so the older two have no shelter whatsoever. I feel soooo guilty.

So I've been searching around for someone that builds them or sells them in my neck of the woods and the only place I can find is the place where I bought Whisper from and frankly, I don't want to deal with them again.

I want it to be wooden - I'm trying to stay away from steel.

Could any of you point me in the right direction? Thanks!

[Slim Pikkens]

Home Hardware in our area builds sheds and will deliver as long as they don't exceed legal width, which might be 8' but they will tell you.

[Berry]

We have lots of cedar on our property and so have a ready supply of long cedar posts. We had the fencing guys install four 16' corner posts when they fenced in the pastures last fall. Cedar posts were used for bracing by bolting them together. We added a steel roof and covered the shelter inside and out with barn board. Total man hours: 70, but my husband was mainly working alone. Many things would have gone much quicker with another set of hands. Total materials (remember we had our own cedar posts) $900 or so.

Overall dimensions are about 10' x 16'.

Now that he's done one, the next ones will go quicker. He's got a one foot rise for a 10 foot drop on the roof and we think that it may need a centre brace. We'll put a steeper slope on the next ones.

Our fencing was all done by Shur Fence out of Drumbo. We had them give us an estimate on building the shelters and they quoted around $4500 or $5000 each, but they'd have them done in a day or two by their crew. System fence sells the shelter kits, with or without metal cladding (i.e. you could buy without metal and clad in wood yourself), but they are pretty pricey too...they do have prices in their catalogue which you can access on the web.

Here are a few photos (You have to look around the horses to see the shelter! I wasn't actually taking photos of the shelter.):

The structure:


Completed outside:


Inside view:

[Slim Pikkens]

With summer bugs, you're horses will be happier if you hang heavy canvas across the front with a split in the middle. It needs to hang barely brushing the ground. The dark shed will deter the flies from entering. Add a battery operated Konk up good and high and it will be better yet. (voice of experience with nw ontario biting insects)

[Berry]

Originally Posted by Slim Pikkens

With summer bugs, you're horses will be happier if you hang heavy canvas across the front with a split in the middle. It needs to hang barely brushing the ground. The dark shed will deter the flies from entering. Add a battery operated Konk up good and high and it will be better yet. (voice of experience with nw ontario biting insects)

That sounds like a great idea. Thanks for the suggestion. You are right that they would love to have shelter from the bugs/flies/mosquitoes. They have shade and a windbreak now but they are always frantic to get back to the barn if we leave them out too far into the evening when the bugs come out in full force.

What do you do to keep the canvas from flapping and flying in a strong wind? You must use something to weight the bottom? I guess if the wind is that strong though, the bugs will not be a problem and you could roll up the canvas?