# Help, We need ideas for shelter



## pseank (Feb 22, 2010)

My Wife and I built our home on my father inlaws small horse farm of 25 acres 10 years ago. He gave my wife a saddlebred foal and then me a QH. They are not purebred. Anyway, he was of the belief that all he needed to do was outlive his barn, fencing and pasture. Well he did. Now we will have approx 19 acres with about 4 acres pasture. The barn is close to collapse. Recent snow load scared the bejeezers out of me. He left 3 horses 2 of which are old and merely lawn ornaments and our 2. This leaves us with 5 horses and a limited income to care for them. We do not want to have the old girls sent for dog food, but we cannot afford a barn to support 5 horses. We plan to sell one horse and take care of the other 4 until the 2 old girls go the the great plains in the sky. Does anybody have good ideas on possibe temporary shelter, and also on hay storage. We use 6-700 bales a year with 5 horses. We would love a barn with 3 stalls but enough shelter for 4. They stay turned out all the time. We also need to fence. I love the safe fence electric but welcome ideas. Thanks for any ideas


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## maura (Nov 21, 2009)

An aluminum carport, the kind you see advertised for $600 or $ 700 dollars, works perfectly for hay. For a little more money, you can close in the sides and ends. If you need to lower cost, close the sides and use tarps to close off the ends for now.

As for a barn, I would either build a large run in shed for now or put up supports and a roof on the footprint of the size barn you'd eventually like to have - just the poles and roof. Finish the side that faces the prevailing wind if you have the money. That's adequate shelter for now, and a place out of the rain. You can make stalls as needed with livestock panels (metal corral panels) and finish the rest of the barn as you have money and time.


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## ShutUpJoe (Nov 10, 2009)

They have temporary tarp shelters, you can get them at tractor supply. They aren't expensive and they are pretty sturdy. The only problem is some horses won't go under them.

Can you rebuild your old barn? Use the wood to rebuild it? Or is it bad wood? You could look around for someone who wants an old barn torn down and use some wood from it.


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## pseank (Feb 22, 2010)

The old barn was built as a milking barn in the 20's, it is a cool barn but they ran out of funds and or tin and part of the roof was roll roofing. The roof is rotted, the second floor is rotted and worst of all the barn is on property that when my father in laws estate is finaly settled it likely will not be on our property so we gotta go another route. Thanks for the response


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