Friday, April 25, 2014

Hello, Farm Builders!

After a lifetime of riding and 15+ years of horse ownership, I have finally had the amazing opportunity to bring my horse home. Midway through the construction process, I am learning more all the time and thought maybe others could benefit from my experiences. So, the purpose of this blog is to spread useful information on how to construct and, eventually, manage a small horse farm. Or, to help you learn from my mistakes! I hope you find it useful.

For privacy reasons I will be somewhat vague about my location, the particular service providers I use, and costs. However, if you send me a direct message about these things I may be willing to answer them. That is some of the information I found hardest to obtain when planning, and I hope to be able to help others out.

Since I have already gotten started I will have to play catch-up with my posts for a while and hope to make them topically focused, i.e., a post on wood finishing, a post on arena planning, a post on barn plumbing, etc.

Enjoy!!

8 comments:

  1. You said if we had any questions to message you privately. How can I do that? I would like to ask you some things. I am in the process of getting my small farm and I love your barn. Please let me know how to contact you privately.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for your compliment, I love my barn too! You're right, there was no way to contact me. I added an email address to my profile, so if you look in the upper right corner of any page you should be able to click on "View my complete profile" and then on "Email." I'm happy to offer whatever help I can!

      Delete
  2. great blog - please keep it up. I am just starting to lay out my small horse property (in iowa) and find your blog helpful and informative.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks so much! I'm very glad it's been helpful! :-)

      Delete
  3. I just found this great blog! We are starting to look at properties and this is ever so helpful in the event we add any horses. Our girls ride now and we lease-but good golly, this looks like a lot of work:)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Haha, you are right, it is a LOT of work!!! Most of the time I enjoy it but every once in a while I wish I boarded again. Honestly I recommend continuing to lease as long as possible. It limits your risk/costs and can also give your girls experience on multiple horses, which is so incredibly valuable! Plus as they grow and improve, different horses may suit their needs better. Good luck and thank you for reading! :-)

      Delete
  4. Just binge-read your whole blog....thank you SO much for your incredibly detailed and helpful posts! You're a great writer, and it's so exciting to find someone else out there who is a do-it-themselves-er like me. I currently board my horse but my husband and I just closed on a piece of land we plan to build a small house and a one-or-two-horse barn on in the near future. So of course, I am nerding out, reading absolutely everything I can find about building and managing the small barn/farm. Our land has an old hay field on it, which needs some rehabbing...it has been cut on for many years without anyone putting anything back into it, so getting good quality pasture and hay going there again is going to take some time, and work, and money...Anyway, I am so appreciative of your detailed posts. Your place is beautiful and you can see all the sweat and love you've put into it. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you so much for your very kind compliments!! :-D I'm so glad my blog has been helpful to you. As you can see, it is definitely a process but you will get there! Best wishes to you!!!

      Delete