Where are some of the most amazing barns/indoor arenas/facilities?

[kdavies]

I am in the process of designing a new indoor area and barn and am looking for inspiration. What are some of the most amazing indoor arenas/barns that people have been to or seen? Anyone have any pictures of websites? What are some of the best things about a top notch facility? I am designing something functional (horses are the number one priority) but also very aesthetically appealing. I am in a northeast lUS ocation . . . . but am also interested in seeing beautiful barns and facilities from all over the world.

Someone gave me the book Ultimate Horse Barns (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Ultimate-Horse-Barns/Randy-Leffingwell/e/9780760324417/) which is what originally got me started thinking about the most amazing barns.

I've seen in the TB barns in KY . .but am more interested in sporthorse barns/indoor arenas.

Kim

[eponacelt]

I LOVE riding in Lauren Sprieser's indoor. Big windows down the long sides, mirrors at the far end, and just a lovely building overall. And the footing. The footing is TO DIE FOR.

She posts here as dressagediosa and her website is www.laurensprieser.com I think there are photos.

[woops]

google lancasters barns

[nachohorse]

I just opened a facility that i spent 5 years designing so i totally understand. The end product is a 24 stall barn with an attached 100x300 indoor and 200x200 outdoor. Hoover builders helped us with our design.

[Ainsley688]

There's a barn where I live that is owned by a family that has *I believe* around 6 barns on the island. This one barn, Misty Meadows, is AMAZING. All brass and mahogany stalls, LOTS of light, a laundry room, common area/lounge room (both look like something out of an apartment). It's HEATED in the winter, :eek: never gets below 50 degrees, and has surround sound in the indoor so you can jam out while you're riding. It had a clay-based sand footing where dust does not exist, and did I mention the whole thing is mahogany and I *think" white oak with brass trim? haha.

It's also connected to the main house, and forms a U-shape with the middle of the "U" a courtyard with an in-ground pool and lots of landscaping. It's amazing, and it's one of my favorite places to ride. Simply gorgeous. And heated.:lol:

[kdavies]

Thanks for the replies.

There are also some beautiful barns/arenas pictures on http://www.kingconstruction.org/ - King's Construction in PA.

Still looking for more outstanding barns . . . .

[europa]

The Leone Farm

http://www.lionsharefarm.com/lsfacility.html

[Mary in Area 1]

I'm pretty pleased with our farm. Check it out at www.pirouettefarm.com (http://www.pirouettefarm.com)

[Seal Harbor]

Did you see the pictures of the indoor at Grand Central in the Ultimate Horse Barns book? They give dinner parties in there! The rest of the farm is just as fabulous as are the owners - Robin and Paul Greenwood.

I want that indoor. Well I want the whole farm but.... at least I can visit.

http://www.hunterponies.com

[lilypondlane]

Hilltop Farm in Colora MD -- absolutely gorgeous!

[pines4equines]

In our area, Old Field Farm is really making a name for themselves with their beautiful facility. I'm sure they have a web site and they are currently building a new indoor. Probably the largest in our area.


Also Falkirk Farm is fabulous, kinda like Gladstone...Todd Minikus is working out of there...

[ybiaw]

The Leone Farm

http://www.lionsharefarm.com/lsfacility.html

:) I know their barn manager!

[ThatIrishTemper]

http://www.fieldsandfences.com/facility.html

I love going to shows at this place! It's gorgeous. And has 4 show-size outdoor arenas besides the massive indoor.

[ybiaw]

http://www.fieldsandfences.com/facility.html

I love going to shows at this place! It's gorgeous. And has 4 show-size outdoor arenas besides the massive indoor.

LOVE F&F. It's awesome to show there, indoors or out.

[KPF]

I take lessons at a really nice place (and, as a bonus, the people are really nice, too! :D). It's absolutely gorgeous and I loff riding in the indoor.

www.springvalleyfarm.net

[Seven-up]

The Leone Farm

http://www.lionsharefarm.com/lsfacility.html



There's a BAR in there!!! That's my kind of place!:cool:

[MunchkinsMom]

Years ago, I boarded at an arabian show farm, and we called it the Hilton for Horses. This was in Cromwell, Connecticut. They used to have a website, but it is now under different manangement and I don't live in CT anymore, not sure how to find it.

It was a Morton built barn/indoor arena. The stalls were on one side, center aisle style with access to the indoor in the middle (sliding door to keep the heat in the barn), with 36 12x12 matted stalls, automatic fly sprayers, automatic waterers, windows on all the exterior wall stalls, a heated wash stall with hot/cold water and a sink, a grooming stall, feed room, office with a window looking into the indoor, a huge tack room for the trainer, and a seperate tack room for the boarders. Upstairs was a hayloft with drops to all the stalls, a viewing lounge/kitchenette, two bathrooms, and a washer and dryer in a seperate closet. The indoor had shredded leather footing, and a round pen in the indoor itself. There was an overhang on the barn side for shade with benches (great place to sit and chat in the nice weather), big access doors on either end of both the stall area and the indoor arena. They also had a garage off the indoor, for tractor/spreader parking. Oh, and the grain silo, since with that many horses, they bought feed in bulk. And large coat closets in the main entrance for us to hang our coats. The main entrance had beautiful doors to come in and a small chandolier.

I honestly could not think of anything that they needed to add to the farm to make it more enjoyable, both for the horses and the humans.

[tidy rabbit]

Scion farms... I guess Pam Grahm is there, I thought she built a place but not according to this website....
http://www.pamelagrahamshowstables.com/

I rode in a George Morris Clinic there and this place is so completely over the top its rediculous.

[murphyluv]

There's a barn here in SW Va that is called Bent Tree Farm- they have hackneys, friesians, some saddlebreds. Breed a lot of them, mostly the hackney ponies.
BEAUTIFUL barn. If you google them you'll get an article about barn fires- the old burned down and I saw the new one a few years ago. WOW WOWOWOWOW.
I heard it was one of the most expensive ones on this region.
Anyhow, they don't have a lot of pics on their site, but I'll describe it. I don't remember how many stalls, I think 20-30? All centered in the middle of the barn. Around the edge of the barn is a track for driving the ponies in crappy weather. There are also large areas on either end for lunging or long-lining. You can go all the way around the barn. Rubber footing.
THEN around the stalls is a brick patterned walkway that you step up onto from the footing. There is also a hay/bagged shaving storage in the loft above the stalls- accesable by stairway. Stalls are barred on all sides so horses can see each other. Some stalls are not- they have a few stallions.
They have a gorgeous show tack room, and an office/award room- looks like a lounge with all the trophies and whatnot displayed- with windows out onto the barn. There is a work tackroom, and also a "vet room" as well as a feed room. Those do not have windows. All are in the middle of the barn.
The icing on the cake is the carriage barn. Holy crap. All the carriages and carts are displayed like in a museum. I don't know if she drives ALL of them- I believe some are more just what she has collected- antiques. There is a covered walkway to get up to the barn- to work horses during bad weather.
There is a large outdoor ring with rubber footing, and also two other barns, one is used by a dressage trainer and another I believe might be some broodmares.
The place is landscaped to the nines, and some of her most favorite horses are buried in the front, with a horse sculpture in the middle.
Very lovely person, the owner. She keeps all the ones she retires on the property, loves her horses. SHe also has a gym on the premises that some friends have been to for yoga workshops.

[dressagediosa]

I LOVE riding in Lauren Sprieser's indoor. Big windows down the long sides, mirrors at the far end, and just a lovely building overall. And the footing. The footing is TO DIE FOR.

She posts here as dressagediosa and her website is www.laurensprieser.com I think there are photos.

Thanks, eponacelt! I love riding in it too :) It's the sort of indoor that wouldn't do well farther North because it's not well-insulated, but in Virginia that's a good thing.

There are photos on the farm website at www.spriesersporthorse.com, and some fun construction photos on webshots at http://good-times.webshots.com/album/561035228aiMEek. And I think our barn is very pretty too, although there's a few things I'd do differently if I was to ever build one - the barn was here when we bought the property, the indoor we built.

FWIW, OP, if you're considering using King Construction I'd recommend against it. They do excellent work but they have some leadership issues that made the process very difficult.

[Evalee Hunter]

Similar thread with additional ideas:

http://www.chronicleforums.com/Forum/showthread.php?t=177742

[twohotponies]

My daughter used to show here: www.svequestrian.com
This is a tb farm but very beautiful: www.ballenavistafarm.com

[kdavies]

Thanks for all the responses!! Some truly amazing barns out there.

Anyone seen some spectacular barns overseas? Europe?

[MassageLady]

Anyone been to the WAhl Equestrian Center?
It's aka Double G Farms in Sterling Il.
A friend is looking into buying it.:D

[unbridledoaks]

Always thought that http://www.devonwoodec.com was nice!

[OTTBs4Ever]

Well, if you have a couple million to spend in your budget, check out Clinton Anderson's Setup. Oh, and it's for sale! http://www.downunderhorsemanship.com/ranch/

[Erin Pittman]

Check out some of the stuff designed by Blackburn Architects - beautiful stuff! We met with them to discuss building an indoor ring at the University of Maryland and were pretty amazed at some of the stuff they've done!

http://www.blackburnarch.com/equestrian.html :eek::eek:

Some things I liked about their designs
For indoor arenas - lots of natural light; both from skylights and from side doors that could be raised, which also increased ventilation - for a good example, click on portfolio and then New River Farm Arena. The arena was actually "sunken" so that the roof line wasn't overpowering at the farm.
For barns - vaulted ceilings with skylights and lots of vents - airy and open with good ventilation
Look under "portfolio" and then Sagamore Farm - they used the old barns and completely renovated them to make gorgeous barns!!!
They have also done a lot of stuff with photovoltaics on south-facing roofs - one farm near us is using them and will apparently be putting in enough solar panels to provide power for the whole farm. Expensive now, but a pretty cool way to reduce future costs. When we met with the architect, he said that that particular farm could expect to pay off the added expense of solar installation in (I think) 7-10 years.

When I win the lottery (maybe I should buy a ticket if I hope to win), I'm hiring them to renovate Dodon. ;)

[SaddleFitterVA]

I'll second Lauren Sprieser's indoor. I take a weekly lesson there.

I've been in a lot of indoors in the mid-Atlantic region, and hers is one of the nicest. Last Frontier Farm (Sharon White's) is also a nice, open indoor. It is smaller than some, but Joe Fargis' farm has tons of windows and incredible footing.

The size with the windows, that are the most windproof I've ever noticed in an indoor, and the mirrors all combine to make a lovely ring. The footing is fantastic as well. It combines enough of the best features to make it wonderful.

For functionality and footing, there are farms in MD that I've been to and ridden in. With mirrors and lovely facilities.

But, I love windows...so all my favorite indoors include lots of natural light and often are almost "covered" arenas during the summer since once the windows are opened up, they have fantastic ventilation.

[JSwan]

This week or last weeks issue of COTH had pictures of barns that were - oh my - fab fab fabulous. The indoor arena was palatial.

[MsM]

I visited a fabulous barn some years ago, but dont know the name of it. I was there to see a Walter Zettl clinic (there were very few auditors then).
The barn was in NY state, somewhere north of Salem, as I recall (or don't). The place was lovely in a very horseman-friendly way. As I recall, most of the stalls had dutch doors so the horses could look out and there were numerous grass paddocks. The inside was beutiful with lovely wood and hardware, numerous grooming stalls, etc. The barn was in a T shape and the indoor ran along the top of the T. It appeared to have glass garage doors along the opposite long side that could be raised in warm weather. There was an outdoor jumping and separate dressage arena.
It seemed like a well-thought out, beautiful setup - unlike some of the mansion/barns which are more about impressing visitors with chandaliers than about being a great barn. Except...if you had been there you would remember one thing - they had huge figurines of African Animals! :eek: Lifesize colored statues of giraffe and elephants. Wonder whether the horses reacted when they first saw those!

[medhorse]

I visited a fabulous barn some years ago, but dont know the name of it. I was there to see a Walter Zettl clinic (there were very few auditors then).
The barn was in NY state, somewhere north of Salem, as I recall (or don't). The place was lovely in a very horseman-friendly way. As I recall, most of the stalls had dutch doors so the horses could look out and there were numerous grass paddocks. The inside was beutiful with lovely wood and hardware, numerous grooming stalls, etc. The barn was in a T shape and the indoor ran along the top of the T. It appeared to have glass garage doors along the opposite long side that could be raised in warm weather. There was an outdoor jumping and separate dressage arena.
It seemed like a well-thought out, beautiful setup - unlike some of the mansion/barns which are more about impressing visitors with chandaliers than about being a great barn. Except...if you had been there you would remember one thing - they had huge figurines of African Animals! :eek: Lifesize colored statues of giraffe and elephants. Wonder whether the horses reacted when they first saw those! Was it Cogi Farm (sp?)