12/01/2025
I feel like a number of my posts lately have been much like episodes of "this old barn".
Truth is, if your barn is over 5 years old, you likely can relate. Something, somewhere is "wrong". 😜
Our barn was built in the mid 90s. The site was originally an old farm and the highest point is where the old farmhouse sat- across the driveway at the front of the property. When the main barn was built, water shed between the barn and the house and down the hill. Then the small barn was built and that forced the water to split around it (or it intended to). Then the manure pit was added that also impeded flow.
So when the snow thawed a month or so after we moved in we discovered that not only did a "river run through it" in the small pole barn (garage), but also UNDER the indoor arena. The frost melting actually caused great big, moving, sink-hole like mud pits to form. I darn near lost the UTV , the drag, or both a couple of times! 😭
Luckily for us, what little remediation we could perform with the funds we had left, plus regular use solved THAT problem (knock on wood and crossed fingers. 10 years in can I not cringe every spring?) ..but the damage to the arena base left scars. It's getting close to needing a total reconditioning just based on age, so I guess that's added to "the list", in the "eventually" category. 🥴
So recontouring the driveway has helped with surface flow. And the addition of some tile and french drains has largely helped the "just under the surface flow"... except for 1) toward the front of the yard and 2) during epic rainfalls.
Fortunately, flood level epic rainfalls have only happened twice in 10 years- but during spring and fall you can stand in our front barn yard and HEAR the water running under your feet. 😳
Now that I've written a novel establishing the WHY and WHERE of our moisture problem, I will admit- the worst decision I've made was going from the deep litter stalling style I'd established when we moved in, and digging my stalls out and installing liners. End of the world level bad decision? No. But now I'm intimately aware of why there were layers and layers of rubber stall mats we removed from the stalls when we moved in. The ground becomes saturated and there is nowhere for stalls to drain (until it freezes or dries) necessitating a LOT more bedding. Honestly, this was still a problem when our stalls were deep litter, but we just attributed it solely to horses being in more. Ha! Now we know better. 🫣
So where does that leave our latest project? The new tack room floor? It means the marine grade plywood flooring was shot. The pressure treated boards had rotted in places. The amount of moisture trying to respirate up out of the ground to then condense on the underside of the floor- particularly where objects sat? Epic. 🤮 Underlayment only works so far- rodents (even the cute tiny mice) are destructive. It lasted a decade... so thats pretty good, considering. So we ripped up the old flooring, dug out where dirt had pushed in around the floor joists from the arena and surrounding stalls (another major project that's going to end up in the works. Sooner rather than later...stay tuned) and opted to lay down thick rough cut as flooring. The gaps this will provide for airflow- 👌. Air, in this instance- just like urine spots in a stall- is your biggest ally.
Unfortunately, I imagine it's also going to represent an increase in realative humidity.... so if I love my tack, Im going to have to consider damp-rid and a good fan system. It's never-ending. 😮💨
Pics as soon as I reorganize. (The fun part!)
Thankful I took at least a year off of horse showing. The money I've saved not underwriting other people going down the road has been able to go straight back into the barn... not to mention the TIME to get to those projects. Unfortunately, not horse showing at all isn't practical when you're primary focus is show horses.... so expect some changes in that regard as well. 🤷♀️
Until the next episode of .... ✌️✌️
