Building a horse stall

I am new to this animal owning. We bought about 10 acres in the middle of September of last year now right about the time it started raining and not sure it has stopped since. In fact it is raining again today. The Brazos river has come out of its banks 4 times in the last 4 months, we have received rain falls in the amount of 9 inches one weekend, 10 inches in another storm, and 17 inches in a storm about 2 weeks ago. All together we have gotten close to 49 inches in the last 4 months. Those hard rains don’t include the 1″ and 1/2 ” rains we have receive all along the way.

After a phone call from a dear friend asking if we would adopt some animals and much discussion with my family to do so i took on the responsibility to build some horse stalls so that my daughter could have these animals before Christmas. I started this blog by saying that i had plans for building a stand alone stalls outside my covered area but with the rain i had to change the plans and build them inside my covered area. In the long run it worked out probably better this way because it came down to the last weekend and i was still working on them and was able to do so in the dark and rain because of the covered area. I will say this: i am not a contractor! I am not a farmer or rancher! I am a golfer who tries to do things that are not ordinary. I guess taking on the task of building a barn would be that in a nut shell.

After much consulting with friends and neighbors I started to build the stalls. Decided to build them out of wood since i couldn’t get a welder and figured the learning curve would be too great to get it done with metal and i was running out of time.

The best laid plans are always ones that can be revised. Which by the way I have done now several times. Changing the way a gate opens. Moving a gate to allow for better flow for the animals and for better working area so we can feed them more easily. I have made it taller as well to protect against the rain and wind. However with it being wood i can remove the planks in the summer to allow for better air flow to keep them cooler. I also made it to where if the bottom board gets rotten i can remove it with another board. I originally wanted to make channels with metal so the boards could slide down them and i could just replace a board when needed but again the metal and the welder were not available. I believe i have done the best job i can for my knowledge, available resources, and time that i had for completion. The animals seem to enjoy the stall and the area i created for them and it is a work in progress still. I will say that i have been working on many projects and have spent some money on materials for them. But every farm needs certain things and one in a chain to hook up to your tractor. It has come in handy many times over.

Here are a few pictures of our animals and stalls. Please don’t be to critical i did my best.