Shutters for the Barn

Update 5/18/16:

Well, it took me a whole year but I finally added vinyl board and batten shutters to the barn! I bought them at ArchitecturalDepot.com and they were very reasonably priced! I really like the way it looks, much less "naked."

Original entry:

To me, the aisle side of the barn looks like it's missing something. When the windows (which slide from the inside) are closed, it's a bit better because they have six panes with white trim separating them. However, the windows are really only closed in the dead of winter. This is what it looks like most of the time (there are four windows total but I cut the fourth one out because the wash rack is in front of it):

How can I dress this up? Black shutters to match the house?

(Side note: Hmm, that photo makes it look like my barn is pitch dark inside, which is not the case. In fact I hardly ever have to turn the lights on in spring, summer, and fall. I guess it's just a contrast issue.)

Mock-ups of contrasting trim:

From left to right, above:

    A) Trim outside the frame

    B) Trim overlapping the frame

    C) Original

From left to right, above:

    B) Trim overlapping the frame

    C) Original

From left to right, above:

    A) Trim outside the frame

    B) Trim overlapping the frame

Yes, the black lines are duct tape. :-D

Double Rainbow Over the Farm

This is the kind of sight that makes all your hard work worthwhile!!!

If you look really closely on the right side of the horses you might be able to see the tiny gray blob that is the donkey.

Dividing a Stall for a Mini

Since I have a three stall barn and what I affectionately refer to as "two and a half horses," it was handy to split up the third stall so I could still use it for storage. The mini donkey, Dominick, has the back half of the stall with access to the dry lot via the Dutch door. The front of the stall contains two pallets for short-term hay storage (I typically bring in 5-6 bales at a time), a tub of PDZ, a few bags of bedding at any given time, and of course a container of donkey treats. Dominick has more than enough room in his 6x12 stall, and I get to keep my hay and other stuff out of the aisle.

This project required the following:

• 4' mesh livestock gate from Tractor Supply
• Pressure-treated 4x4s, one long enough to span the width of the stall plus another to act as your gate post and overhead support (if needed)
• Pine 2x6s
• Three different types of metal brackets to anchor the ends of the 4x4s (to each other and the wall) and the 2x6s (to the 4x4s and the wall). You may find them in the decking or fencing materials section labeled as post caps or post to beam brackets (for the 4x4s) or fence brackets (for the boards). They look something like this:

The gate was the most expensive component, but if you're handy you could build your own wooden gate. I think the total cost for all the materials came to around $100.

This is what we did:

1. Measure 6' from the back wall on each side wall. 
2. Measure the width of the stall between those points and cut a pressure-treated 4x4 to fit.
3. Secure the base 4x4 to the side wall at each end, using the metal brackets.
4. Hang the gate on one side wall. We had to buy extra long bolts to reach through the kick boards of both stalls, secure them on the other side with nuts, and grind the ends down flush with the bolts to make it safe for the horse next door.
5. Position the next 4x4 on the latch side of the gate, and secure it vertically to the horizontal 4x4, using one of those post to beam brackets.
6. The vertical 4x4 will lack stability unless you anchor it to either the ceiling or the wall, using a cross-beam. We used a board to anchor this one to the wall at the front of the stall, leaving plenty of room for us to walk under without ducking. This stabilized the vertical 4x4 completely.
7. Measure and cut the horizontal boards to fit the gap between the vertical 4x4 and the far wall. Mount them with the fence brackets. The wall will need additional support, so add two diagonal boards and probably also one vertical board in the middle. These can most likely by attached with simple wood screws. Now you're done!

When the boys are inside, this is often the first sight to greet me when I walk into the barn, usually accompanied by a loud bray. :-) Instant cheer.

Slow Feeders and Hay Nets

Ideally my horses would be out 24/7 but with limited pasture space I can't afford to do that, so they spend 8-15 hours off the grass, depending on the season. To make this easier on them and me, I have tried a variety of slow feeder options. There are two main reasons to use a slow feeder:

1. Slowing hay consumption. I hate the thought of my horses eating all their hay in an hour or two and then standing around for the rest of the day. It's not healthy and it leads to boredom, which tends to make horses destructive. So, everyone has some sort of device to slow their hay consumption down. 
2. Containing hay waste. Hay fed on the floor or even in an open tub on the ground tends to get dragged or dropped around the stall. It then mixes into the bedding, which makes it unlikely to be eaten and makes stall cleaning more laborious. Most of the slow feeder options also contain waste in some way, even if just by reducing the horse's ability to take a giant mouthful that can then dribble out of his mouth as he walks around the stall to look out the window or say hi to his neighbor.

There are many varieties of slow feeders out there. I have tried three different ones that I will discuss here:

1. Small hole hay nets
2. Nibble Nets
3. Slow Grazer boxes

1. Small hole hay nets

Just like a regular hay net but with smaller holes to slow down consumption (and maybe reduce the risk of entanglement). If you already own regular hay nets, you can also try double bagging the hay in those so the holes overlap.

Pros:

• Inexpensive (although in my experience the under-$10 ones would break within a few days, SmartPak's $16 one is quite durable).
• May be easily repaired, depending on what breaks and how handy you are.
• Allows chaff to fall out.
• Contains waste somewhat but not as much as the Slow Grazer.

Cons:

• Doesn't allow for eating in natural head-down position, at least not without increasing the risk of entanglement.
• Hooves and legs can get stuck in the holes.
• If hung high enough to prevent entanglement, allows hay particles to fall into eyes.
• Not very durable, and a poor choice for horses that are hard on equipment.
• Some horses have a tough time emptying the net completely.

I never used a net for my mini-donkey because he has teeny tiny hooves and legs and I was worried he would get stuck. I stopped using these altogether after my giant warmblood yearling got his leg stuck. Thankfully he was uninjured other than a skin rub because the hay net eventually broke. My poor non-horsey mother was watching the whole thing in a panic but didn't know how to help safely, and called me in tears. For her mental health as well as my own and of course the safety of my horses, I couldn't use these anymore. It surprised me when it happened because the holes seemed way too small to catch his big feet, so I decided I couldn't be sure it wouldn't happen to anyone else either, and I didn't want to take the risk. Now I just use them for trailer rides and the like.

2. Nibble Nets

Heavy-duty vinyl sides with tough webbing in front. The horses eat through the front and you refill it from the top. They also come in different shapes and sizes, with some that go directly on the ground and some that resemble punching bags.

Pros:

• Durable.
• Very effective at slowing hay consumption and containing waste.
• Reasonably easy to fill, although I can't stand the two D-ring belt-style closures (see picture). I struggle to close them when wearing winter gloves, and can't imagine why they aren't just snaps.
• Horses can eat every bite of hay out of it.
• Allows chaff to drop out the bottom.
• Contains waste somewhat but not as much as the Slow Grazer.

Cons:

• Relatively expensive (ranging from about $50 to upwards of $100 depending on the style and capacity).
• Only certain models allow for natural head-down eating position. I hang mine at about chest level so at least they don't get hay in their eyes, but they still tend to turn their heads sideways to eat.

I bought a 9" Nibble Net with 1.5" holes for the yearling (now 2) after the small hole hay net debacle. The increased safety gives me peace of mind. Dominick the Donkey uses a Nibble Net Picnic (see cuteness below). It contains one large or two small flakes, which is about all he can eat in half a day without turning blimpy. His has the smallest holes (1.25") but he is also so small and skilled that he can empty it fairly quickly. His is really easy to fill because it doesn't have those D-ring straps. He is picky, believe it or not, but when I buy fine second-cutting hay that is minimally stalky, waste goes down to zero.

If you choose a Nibble Net, I recommend buying one size larger than you think you need (unless it's for a specific purpose, like a picnic for a mini). You can always fill the nets less, but in my experience they hold fewer pounds of hay than advertised and stuffing them super full makes them a struggle to close.

3. Slow Grazer boxes

Homemade wooden boxes with a heavy grate that sits on top of the hay, slows consumption, and drops with the hay level so the horses can keep eating all the way down. There are quite a few similar varieties and brands, but I bought the plans and grates online here and their customer service was very good.

2x4 single bale model with "lift kit" to keep the donkey out

Pros:

• Allows for natural head-down eating position.
• Virtually eliminates waste because most hay that falls out of the mouth stays on top of the grate for later consumption.
• Needs to be filled less frequently than other options because it holds so much hay.
• Sturdy and stable.
• Safer than outdoor slow feeders made with pipes that can catch legs or rust and cause wounds.

Cons:

4x4 double bale model for the pasture

• Very expensive (between $100-200 per box including lumber, hardware, and grate) and somewhat time-consuming to assemble, but can be a fun project if you like that sort of thing.
• Not as labor-saving as I'd hoped. To prevent hay from getting packed so tight that the horses cannot pull it out, I have to fluff it manually. I hoped that I could simply drop a hay bale in there but it quickly becomes difficult for them to eat, so now I add an armful of flakes more frequently and pull them apart with my fingers.
• A bit of a struggle to fill sometimes until you get the hang of it. I figured out how to prop the lid of the 4'x4' open with the grate for filling, but it still requires a lot of heavy lifting compared to a hay net.
• Takes up a lot of space in a stall. The 2'x4' model has a footprint slightly larger than that and it's also tall enough that buckets can't really be hung above it. I worry sometimes that my horses might lie down in their stalls less because they're crowded by the feeder.
• Needs to be cleaned out regularly and protected from rain if kept outdoors, or the chaff and hay at the bottom will get moldy. I am thinking of upgrading my wood floors to a fine mesh with wooden supports, so the chaff can fall out, but I would still have to clean underneath the feeder.
• Heavy and difficult to move on one's own.
• Horses may chew on wood if you let it sit empty and they get bored. This hasn't been a problem for me but I could see it happening. It also may be a bad choice for cribbers.
• Some people worry that metal grates will attract lightning or cause wear of the front teeth. Two out of my three equines carefully pull the hay through with their lips and never bite the grate. The third one is an aggressive hay eater with wonky teeth and has worn the finish off the grate, but the dentist found no signs of unusual wear. I plan to keep checking and replace his metal grate with a Nibble Net sheet if needed.
• If you have an aggressive hay eater like I do, the banging of the metal grate against the lid of the box can be loud and somewhat annoying.

The list of cons for the Slow Grazer boxes is deceptively long, and glancing at that you'd think I might not still be using them, but I am. For outdoor use in a pasture or dry lot in the winter, it's hard to beat because of the convenience and waste reduction. I have a 4'x4' in the pasture, a 2'x4' in one stall, and a 2'x4' in the dry lot attached to the barn. The 4'x4' is on a gravel pad so the horses don't have to stand in the muck, and they wasted basically no hay this winter, which is a wonderful thing. The only problem I ran into is that my dominant horse would not allow his younger brother to eat at the same time as him, even with 16 square feet of hay surface to choose from, so they took turns sort of. On super cold days or when the ground was covered in snow, I would hang a Nibble Net on the fence so everyone would have something to munch on at all times.

 I actually built one 2'x4' extra tall by using wider pressure treated boards for the base (2"x12"), so Dominick the Donkey can't partake but the horses can. It is kind of sad, but he would be obese and unhealthy on free-choice hay. He does think the box is a good scratching post though.

This is how I prop it open to fill it. No question which one of the two animals is the brighter bulb:

Mirrors for an Outdoor Riding Arena

I didn't initially put mirrors into my farm budget. I had boarded for several years at a place that didn't have them, and they seemed like a luxury, especially for an outdoor where weather damage could easily happen. However, I did end up getting them installed and couldn't be happier. I immediately felt like my position improved and I was able to see the ways in which my horse was crooked, etc.

I wanted real glass mirrors rather than the acrylic type, because I've seen acrylics with such bad distortion that you don't even know what you're looking at. I got a quote from an equestrian mirror specialty vendor online that was, no joke, $30,000 for a 66' wall of 4' high mirrors!!!! And that didn't even include the frame. Obviously that was out.

I also considered using mirrored closet doors and building frames for them to slide into, after reading that idea online. It was intriguing but I was worried about how the MDF etc around the mirrors would hold up outside, because it's really not meant to get wet. Also, unless you luck into them on Craigslist or something, they aren't cheap, and I wanted a whole set of matching ones.

What I finally did was contact a local general glass and mirror company that was well-reviewed on Angie's List. The price they gave me was only twice that of the closet mirror idea, which was great. They had done one or two previous arena mirror projects before so they weren't specialists but had some idea what they were doing.

I'm not handy enough to build the massive frames myself, so I asked the Amish guy who installed all my fences if he'd be up for it. He is reasonably priced and super easy to work with, and it is basically just carpentry work plus post driving, which fence installers are really good at already!

The mirror company provided the fence builder with a working design, and when it was in place they came to install the mirrors.

After doing some research I chose to leave the mirrors free-floating in the mounts rather than gluing them to the plywood. I was concerned about the plywood swelling and bending with changing moisture levels, and causing distortion in the mirrors if they were glued to it. If you don't glue the mirrors do make sure you get ones with safety backing.

Substantial post-installation tweaking was required to make the mirrors fully functional, and even now they're not perfect. The trouble with using wood posts is that they are not 100% straight and will bend and flex over time. It's also difficult to drive posts into the ground with minute precision. Since the mirrors are so large, small amounts of deviation in the angles can make a big difference.

• Vertical angles: The mirrors are set 4' off ground level. I read and was told that at that height they would not need to be angled, but upon installation I saw that they did need to be tilted back/up to be visible from farther away. The fence builder routed out the front edge of the frames to allow the bottom edge of the mirrors to slide forward.
• Horizontal angles: Due to some variation in the posts and frames, the mirrors didn't end up exactly perpendicular to the long side of the arena. On one side you could see far beyond the edge of the arena and on the other side you could be on the track and not see yourself. The fence builder adjusted the frames again and also put sealant in one corner to hold the mirror at a different angle. It's not 100% perfect but much better now.

The mirrors have been up for over 3 months now and look just as good as the day they were installed. Hopefully that continues. Some people will tell you you can't put mirrors outside, but my trainer has had them for 20+ years and only one has had to be replaced.

Update 4/26/15 - Here are a few pretty spring pictures of the end result:

Building an Arena with Limited Space

The last major project for us was building the outdoor riding arena. At first glance my space is not that limited because I have 9 acres, but it's a weird sprawling layout with several existing buildings and hills and multiple driveways, so there were really only three options for the arena. Two of them would require me to give up current or future pasture space and move or replace my run-in shed. Here are the three options, more or less to scale:

After a lot of thinking I decided that I really did not want to do #1 or #2 because I only have 4 acres of pasture right now and site #2 could be fenced in the future, plus #2 could only be about 175' long. I also wasn't crazy about having the ring basically adjoin the pasture because riding the older horse would probably send the younger horse into a tizzy. Far better to have some distance from the pasture and be closer to the barn! So I ended up picking site #3.

Site #3 was where the old cinderblock stallion barn was. It would have cost more to remodel it into something safe and useable than it did to have the Amish build a totally new, airier barn, so we demolished it to build the ring. Here's the barn being torn down (under the close supervision of a curious coonhound!):

You can sort of see in that photo that on the far side of the barn the land drops off towards the trees. (I wish I had taken some better "before" pictures.) The elevation difference between the far end and the near end was at least 10 feet (??), which is pretty substantial.

My amazing contractor, who is a horseman and engineer with tons of ring-building experience, took a long look at the site before we went ahead with it. Between the existing fence, the line to the sewer drain field, the property line, and the large grade we were cutting it really close. He needed to do everything very precisely to be able to fit in my standard dressage arena (66'x198') plus the swales needed for drainage. Thankfully he's really good at what he does. Here are some pics of the work in progress:

Below are some after pictures. I love it!!!!! The 3-board fence at the far end was definitely necessary with the huge drop-off (see below). I rode without it for a couple months and trying to really ride those far corners properly was a little unnerving, especially since my horse is so spooky. Now I feel quite secure.

Here are some photos that illustrate how much cutting and filling had to be done to make this site level (and why riding at the far end without a fence was a little unnerving!).

By the way, the cutting and filling did not cost me extra except for some topsoil and water that was trucked in (because we hit a dry spell during construction). As my contractor explained it, he has to strip the topsoil and move the dirt around no matter what to level and compact it, so the cutting and filling isn't that much more work.

Managing Water in the Winter

I'm in the mid-Atlantic region so our winters aren't as bad as further north, but this has been a cold one for us and cold weather does sometimes present challenges, especially if you're caught unprepared. The focus of this post is water!

Keeping your horses drinking in the winter is huge. Hot water in the barn helps a lot! I have a 10 gallon water heater that fits under the sink and produces enough warm water to give three horses at least one warm bucket. (I originally wanted a tankless heater but the plumber said it probably wouldn't produce enough hot water to meet my needs.  When it's below 30 degrees, I fill one bucket with warm water when I bring them in from the field between 4 and 5 pm and a second bucket when I do night check around 9 or 10 pm. That encourages drinking at two different times and keeps the buckets from freezing longer at night. (Bucket cozies are also helpful.)

As for outside, if you can have an electrical outlet near your water source that will save you lots of time and effort. If you're installing new water lines, ask the plumbers to drop some appropriate electrical wire in there, even if you're not sure you'll install an outlet right away. It's always better to have it for later! I did that then bought this outlet intended for landscape lighting from Amazon and wired it. It's been extremely useful since the temperatures dropped. I put the 5 gallon buckets away and set a 16 gallon heated water tub on the ground, so even the donkey has access to water that's kept above freezing. They especially need extra water outside when they're eating mostly hay. I was worried the yearling would step in the tub or try to play with it and yank the cord out, but so far so good. It's a lifesaver! Another alternative is an automatic waterer designed for cold-weather use, but I don't have any personal experience with those yet.

Remember to remove your hoses when they're not in use. I have a very short one (5-6') at the pasture hydrant and I just detach that and set it on the ground, pointing downhill. Even if it feels stiff or crunchy in the morning, it's functional right away because it's short enough to drain completely. In the barn, I have a longer hose that I keep coiled in a large but lightweight Rubbermaid container that used to be my traveling tack box until the lid was chewed by someone else's dog. When I'm not using the hose, I store it in the tack room in the container. The container keeps the water that drains from the hose off the tack room floor, and it's easier to drag in and out than a loose hose. I've seen other barns put hoses in the sink during the day but I wanted mine out of the way.

Relatedly, have a plan in place to keep your pipes from freezing in very cold weather. Insulate your tack room walls and floor if possible. If you do that, pay a little more for higher-quality windows intended for use in insulated rooms. My tack room has insulated walls and an upgraded window, and I have not had to use a heater yet to keep the room above freezing (the possible fire hazard makes me nervous). Tonight will be in the single digits so I will stick a shielded light bulb under the sink where all the pipes are and maybe leave the sink dripping too.

Outdoor Wash Rack Design

If you're trying to make the most of a small amount of space, you may not be able to do an indoor wash stall. For me, that's not so important anyway because I rarely bathe in the winter so the most I need is a place to hose off muddy legs. I decided to convert part of the old house foundation adjacent to the barn into a wash rack by adding a fence and posts for tie rings. Here are some design tips:

• You can make do with a small space! My wash rack is 12' deep but only 8' wide. My long-bodied 17 hh warmblood can walk in and turn around. I always turn him clockwise so that his head can swing over the fence rather than towards the barn, and he has no trouble maneuvering. If you are trying to fit a wash rack between two solid walls, however, you will probably need a minimum width of 10'.
• Consider leaving gaps in the fence big enough for a person but not a horse to fit through. I did not like the idea of being trapped between a panicked horse and a solid barn wall, or even a low fence, so I left 18" gaps in either back corner. This is narrow enough that even a yearling will probably not try to squeeze through, but I can escape if needed.
• A lower fence is easier to reach over if for some reason (like not wanting to get squished) you need to work on the horse from the outside. Mine is only 3'6".
• Make sure your base, whether concrete or rubber or stonedust, is sloped for drainage. Mine slopes towards the front but if you have a choice it's probably nicer to have the water and debris running away from you and out of sight. Depending on your setup, you may want to put in a floor drain. For my small operation, that was not necessary and anyway the existing concrete slab is very, very thick.
• Speaking of base, wet concrete can be very slippery unless it's the right texture. If you're pouring it fresh, get a broom finish. If not, spray it down and walk around on shoes with poor traction to see what you're getting into before putting a horse on it. A relatively inexpensive solution for increasing traction is rubber ring mats, but they do tend to trap mud and manure. If you get solid mats, make sure that they are textured and intended for wet use, because some of them can get slippery!
• The fence of an outdoor wash rack can double as a drying rack for sweaty or washed saddle pads, towels, etc. Since I'm the only one riding there, I don't have to worry about someone coming along and spraying off the things I am trying to dry. On sunny days I even clip my synthetic girth to the tie post so that it dries out completely. Using an outdoor space prevents your dirty laundry from stinking up the tack room.

Some improvements I am considering in the future are:

• An over-the-fence basket for storing shampoos and tools.
• A sprayer boom or dedicated wash rack hose (right now my general barn hose does double duty).
• A shade cloth or awning.
• Rubber mats or other footing upgrade.

One thing I would like to have done differently is putting the posts for the cross-ties further back. As it is, a cross-tied horse can easily step forward off the concrete.

Small Barn Layout and Design

There is lots of information out there on barn layouts. Cherry Hill books, for example, often have detailed diagrams of many different floorplans. However, the two main variations seem to be the center-aisle or the shedrow. I considered both of these but the center-aisle was more barn than I needed and a traditional shedrow was too open to the elements, even with a large front overhang. I also considered less traditional prefab layouts with a small aisle/work area in the middle of the stalls and other rooms (like this). After months of thinking, planning, and changing my mind, I settled on a shedrow with an enclosed overhang, which is also two-thirds of a center-aisle barn. Here's the floorplan:

I really like this design because you get the functionality of a center-aisle barn without the bulk and expense. Also, all of your stalls can face whatever direction is best in your area. In my climate I worry much more about the heat than the cold (especially since one of my horses has anhydrosis and isn't getting any younger), so all of my stalls face east to keep the horses from baking in the afternoon sun. In the summer the windows and aisle doors let a good breeze through, and combined with the shade and the ridge vent they have kept the barn 10-15 degrees cooler than outside so far. We will see how it all works in the winter, but again, I am much less concerned about cold horses here than hot horses, and I can always add another layer of clothes myself!

Here's what it looks like on the inside:

And the outside:

Here are a few tips:

• If you will consistently be approaching the barn from one direction more than the other, put the tack/feed room there. That will often be your first stop when you start your chores. With only a few horses, you can probably have one room for tack and feed together, as long as you keep it clean so the rodents don't move in (though of course that goes without saying anyway).
• Consider having one more stall than you think you need to store tools and a couple days' worth of hay and bedding, so you can keep the aisle clear. Try not to fill that extra stall with one extra horse!
• Another option for an extra stall is a wash stall. I don't bathe my horses in the winter so I decided to stick with an outdoor wash rack, but I did add a drain at the far end of the aisle with a slight slope to the concrete there in case I need it in a pinch.
• To save some space and expense, try a 10' aisle instead of 12'. 8' is cramped but 10' allows a truck or tractor through and gives you room to walk horses past each other if needed. It's also small enough that a horse is less likely to turn around in the crossties. To get a feel for how much space you need, measure your current aisle or a friend's, then use chalk or a broom handle or longe whips to visualize it at different widths. Try working with a horse or doing chores using only that width you marked off to see how it will work for you. Don't forget that a "10' aisle" is often measured from the outside of the outside wall, so the true interior width may end up around 9'6" (the same for your 12'x12' stalls, which are actually typically 11'6"x11'6").

Stay tuned for posts on how to finish the barn with plumbing and electric.

Mounting Saddle Racks on Walls Without Studs

When we started trying to mount saddle racks on the tack room walls, at first we thought the stud finder wasn't working through the pine paneling. Eventually we figured out that the tack room walls were framed with horizontal beams only, no vertical studs! I can't imagine why anyone would build a tack room that way knowing that people like to put racks and shelves on the walls, but we had to deal with it somehow. This is what DH did to solve the problem, and it turned out quite nicely! It seems sturdy enough for English saddles though if I ever own a Western saddle again I will probably put it on a standalone rack just to be safe. I would hate to rip all that pretty pine paneling after I spent so long staining it.

1. Buy quality 1" thick wooden boards to match your walls. We used 1x3 pine boards because each of the pine panel boards were about the same width (2.5" or so). Check them for straightness before you buy them. (We didn't do this so ours are a little off but I don't think anyone would ever notice but me.)
2. Finish the boards with the same stain or paint as your walls.
3. Find the horizontal beams in your walls with a stud finder, and confirm their location by tapping in a very thin nail. When you meet more resistance on the other side of the panels, you have probably found a beam. Don't assume that the beams are level or continuous--check independently everywhere you want to put racks. Mark their location with a pencil or painters' tape once you find them.
4. Take your first board and line it up over the panel board where you want your first column of saddle racks to go. Trim the ends as needed (since the ceiling is sloped, we needed to cut the top at an angle to meet the molding).
5. Drill pilot holes and, using long, strong wood screws, attach the boards to the beams that you found, lining up the board and panel board edges as best you can. It may take one person to hold the board in place and another to drill and screw.
6. If you want more than one column of racks, repeat with the second board. If you have a sloped ceiling, start with the board where the ceiling is higher then trim the second board to match the length of the first board, using a level. I find a miter saw easiest for straight cuts. See the first picture below for what your project should look like now.
7. Once your boards are in place, secure the two vertical holes of your saddle racks. Be sure to use good screws or bolts for this too.
8. To support the sides of the saddle rack, cut a similarly stained and sized board to fit the "wings" on either side (two for each rack). If desired, stain the newly cut edges. Then position the small pieces under the wings of the rack and screw the sides of the rack down.

Steps 1-6:

 Steps 7-8:

Voila! As you can see, the new boards are hardly noticeable and will be even less so once there are saddles on the racks.