1964-Voice Of The Tennessee Walking Horse 1964 March Voice | Page 24

TO BUILD A
STABLE!
STABLE CONSTRUCTION
Professional, amateur or pleas­
ure rider . . . your stable is the
most important factor in your horse
activity, with the obvious excep­
tion of good horses. Our approach
to an article on stable construction
will be to outline the basic neces­
sities of a good stable and to em­
phasize several money-saving fac­
tors which can be applied to sta­
bles in general.
Construction of a barn to stable
horses has many variations as there
are always many determining fac­
tors which govern the end result.
The primary concern is expense.
Seldom does a stable end up cost­
ing as little as the original estimate
of the builder. Your writer has as­
sisted in the construction of three
different stables; a three stall plea­
sure horse barn, a twelve stall
training barn with a covered riding
hall and a 24 stall show horse barn
with most of the trimmings. This,
in my estimation, follows the ex­
perience of many others in the
horse business. We start small and
grow as our interest increases. If
we had known some of the basic
fundamentals of stable construc­
tion from the beginning we could
have saved ourselves a lot of time
and money.
Before beginning construction of
a stable one should consider the
following factors: 1) Specific Pur­
pose; 2) Location; 3) Design; 4) Uti­
lities; 5) Expansion. Let us discuss
24
construction of a stable with only
the basic facilities for working and
caring for good horses, show or
otherwise.
SPECIFIC PURPOSE — Before
planning your stable you should
determine the specific purpose for
which you intend to use the barn.
If you plan to work and train show
horses, there are several basic ele­
ments that will have to be in­
cluded that are not absolutely ne­
cessary for a barn primarily to be
used for pleasure horses. This will
change the cost of your stable con­
siderably.
LOCATION —If you are a trainer
and intend to make the horse busi­
ness your profession, the location
of your stable will have a definite
bearing on the success or failure of
your operation. If you are an ama­
teur or pleasure horse rider you
will be more interested in building
on your own property as opposed
to a location where the general
public and passing traffic can ob­
serve your operation. For the pro­
fessional, to be located on a high­
way or other similar traffic artery
is most important. It is true that
this will not help you make top
horses but it will help attract the
interest of the passing public and
provide plenty of word-of-mouth
advertising for you.
DESIGN — A stable should be
outlined as to the projected need
before considering expenses. You
should first decide what you would
like to have at the best and then
see what it would cost. From here
you can fit your stable to the
amount of money you have to
spend on construction of a barn.
The commonly accepted basics of
stable design are as follows: 1)
STALLS—All stalls should be at
least 12’xl2’ square and should be
lined at least 4’ high with 1” oak
or other similarly strong material
2) SIZE OF STABLE — Using the
12’ measure as your standard size
stall, you can then decide how long
your stable will have to be to ac­
comodate the number of horses
ou plan to have at the start of
your operation. 3) WORKING
AREA — Plan to include in your
stable a suitable area to work on
your stock. You will need a cross­
tie area where they can be groomed
and where a farrier (blacksmith)
can work without being in close
quarters. This area should have a
concrete floor. You will also need
an area where your stock can be
washed in summer. This should
also have a concrete floor with
planned drainage. 4) TACK ROOM
— A well organized tack room can
be a real asset to a stable opera­
tion. It should include brackets for
hanging bridles and halters, racks
for saddles, several utility cabinets
for working tools such as chains,
show boots, heel boots and other
regularly used items. Your tack
room should also contain a small
first ad kit. 5) RIDING HALL—If
you plan to train show horses, whe­
ther you are a professional or ama­
teur, you will need a riding hall to
work your stock in poor weather- A
riding hall should be wide enough
to easily turn a horse around. If a
rather limited operation is planned
(12 stalls or less) it is advantageous
to plan to put your stalls, tack
room, working area etc., all in a
row along one side of the barn and
to let your riding hall run the full
length of the structure. If you plan
a larger structure it may be advisa­
ble to put stalls on both sides and
run the hall down the middle. At
any rate make the hall as long
and as wide as possible. 6)
COOLER (Automatic Walker) —
This is a most important piece of
equipment in a training barn. It
will replace several hired hands
and will pay for itself many times
VOICE OF THE TENNESSEE WALKING HORSE