# Pasture Shelters



## CAM (Jul 16, 2007)

I know some have posted photos of their pasture shelters in the past but I can't remember if anyone had something for their minis, or big ones for that matter, that are EASY to assemble and inexpensive. We have had so many problems (read: big $$$) with our new home that we need to limit the dollars going out right now yet we need some winter shelters for the horses. We have trees for shade and barn access from three pastures but four of our pastures need shelters to protect from the cold, rain, snow and wind of winter. I am hoping by starting early, we can come up with an inexpensive pasture shelter for both our big and small horses well before winter hits. Any ideas?


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## lilmiraclesfarm (Jul 16, 2007)

Depends on how much your looking to spend, but we have those hard plastic car ports for shelters.

Edited to show you the inside. I'm not sure on the size. I know its longer than our 16ft cattle pannel. Its round toped so snow slides right off. It worked really well through winter and held our 4 horses with room to spare. I leave the front zip door unzipped and flapping and the horses learned to walk right through it. I also believe this costed around $300.00. My boyfriend and I built it ourselves. It wasn't too hard. We also bought rubber mats and put down.


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## Chamomile (Jul 16, 2007)

We use cattle panels, bent up in the air between t-posts with a tarp stretched over the top. My horses love theirs! I'll take a few pictures tonight and post them. I know that Marty also uses this type of shelter. Maybe she'll post on here too!


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## Marty (Jul 16, 2007)

Hey Deb!

Me too. I need a couple of run in sheds before winter.

The best thing I can tell you is to go ahead and build them out of pressure treated wood, using 4 X 4 's for posts and ruff sawn plank boards from a mill if you aren't fussy. I hate tin or metal roofs with a passion, but we priced them VS using tar paper OSB and shingles and it comes out to be nearly the same cost.

The only other suggestion I could make is to get one of those pre built car ports and board up three sides. Around here they start at $565. delivered and constructed. Not sure how they will work if having to hold up a load of heavy ice or withstand high winds.


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## littlesteppers (Jul 16, 2007)

Like this??


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## Kootenay (Jul 16, 2007)

I bought a Canadian Tire 8x8 4 wheeler/car shelter for just under $300.00 Canadian, but i'd advise with that style that you attach plywood to the insides around it, or you'll have a shelter full of holes thanks to the minis  .

Here's a couple pictures of it when it was new and pristine



: .

Shelter Pictures

**Have to add---it stood up to our heavy, deep snow with some light brushing off with a broom, or the flat end of a shovel skimmed up the inside of the roof to get the snow sliding**.


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## CAM (Jul 16, 2007)

littlesteppers said:


> Like this??


Are they sturdy in the wind and how do they hold up with snow? I have seen a lot of versions of this shape of shelter online. My biggest concern is putting something together. My husband and I aren't exactly the most adept at things of this nature.



:

Barnbum,

We had something like yours at our old place and it was very sturdy but they were fairly expensive for materials. What did you use to make yours?

Marty,

I remember seeing you post something like littlesteppers posted in the past. Are yours the same?

Edited for spelling error


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## Marty (Jul 16, 2007)

I made this from 2 cattle pannels, some metal tee posts, 2 tarps, and lots of bungies and wire

I had more people stopping to see who I built the guest house for :new_shocked: :new_shocked: :new_shocked:


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## Marty (Jul 16, 2007)

Mine is an eyesore because I didn't get any help with it

First you lay out your panels on the ground, side by side and over lap them by 1 square

Set your first set of posts (3) so that they are in the ground by no less than 1 1/2 feet

My posts were all set in crooked, but if you do them in a straight line, it would look a whole lot better

Make your middle post come right where you have done the overlap

Set your posts on the other side the same way

Walk your first panel up on the outside of the post and start wireing it to the post.

If you let go of that panel, it will kill you, so hang on!

Bend it over to meet the other posts, putting it on the outside of them

Wire them to the posts as far up as you can go

Set your next set of posts (2) because you are using (1) at the middle for the overlap

Walk your next panel up and bend to meet the posts (2) on the other side

Now, wire your overlaping panels together

I just did and over and under "sewing" type thing with the wire

It will be about 5 1/2 foot high in the center

By a tarp that will fit it, and use wire in the tarp holes to secure it to the panels

That won't be enough to keep the wind from getting up under it. They will give way eventually so that's why I added lots of bungys on top

I used some extra fencing across the back and used an additional tarp for that

It's easy to just use some clips and flat back buckets in there for feeding

It's pretty hot and nasty in the summertime but for winter, it's pretty cozy especially when you add bedding


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## CAM (Jul 17, 2007)

Marty said:


> Mine is an eyesore because I didn't get any help with it
> 
> First you lay out your panels on the ground, side by side and over lap them by 1 square
> 
> ...


Great, that really helps Marty, thanks! They say a picture is worth a thousand words but my brain apparently doesn't hold that many so the play-by-play is quite helpful.



:



lilmiraclesfarm said:


> Depends on how much your looking to spend, but we have those hard plastic car ports for shelters.


Where did you get your shelters and do you have a photo? We have considered this too but what do you use on the sides to block the wind? Does the hard plastic go down the sides too? Can I ask the cost?


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## PaintedPromiseRanch (Jul 17, 2007)

here's something no one said, around here with the sun and the wind a tarp would be shredded in a few weeks, so we use garage doors. lots of people replace the old solid doors with new sectional ones, and the garage door guy has to pay to dispose of the old ones... so we have a couple of connections and whenever they get a decent solid door, they call us and we go get it. the doors can be used for side walls AND roofs. we just make sure they are anchored REALLY good because if the wind did get them, they would be awful heavy falling on someone :new_shocked:

i don't have any pics taken but if anyone needs me to i can do that :saludando:


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## Jill (Jul 17, 2007)

Harvey has made me several barns and run in sheds fairly inexpensively, and pretty quickly, too. Here are some pictures of what we have for our horses. The stalls are 8x12. The run-in shed is 12x16. The carport is lined w/ wood and is 18x21. The barns and run-in were built pole barn style. The oldest one is the 2-stall one, and it's been up for almost 10 years and is very sturdy.


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## kaykay (Jul 17, 2007)

heres ours. we bought it from port a hut. it comes with stakes to stake it down and has a vent. I love them because you can easily move them. Patches is 46" and goes in all the time.

side view (two stallions playing in the background lol)


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## zoey829 (Jul 17, 2007)

Here is ours


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## CheyAut (Jul 18, 2007)

PaintedPromiseRanch said:


> here's something no one said, around here with the sun and the wind a tarp would be shredded in a few weeks, so we use garage doors. lots of people replace the old solid doors with new sectional ones, and the garage door guy has to pay to dispose of the old ones... so we have a couple of connections and whenever they get a decent solid door, they call us and we go get it. the doors can be used for side walls AND roofs. we just make sure they are anchored REALLY good because if the wind did get them, they would be awful heavy falling on someone :new_shocked:
> 
> i don't have any pics taken but if anyone needs me to i can do that :saludando:



I won't argue about the garage doors, but our tarps last at least a year, if not more than that





Jessi


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## ibquackers20 (Jul 18, 2007)

PaintedPromiseRanch

would be cool to see what can be made from an old garage door - mine door has to be replaced and it would be nice to see what I can recycle it into.


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## Cara (Jul 18, 2007)

in the pasturs we use a small done, and we have tied a tarp to out roundpen, then to the fence, that works great!


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## joylee123 (Jul 18, 2007)

kaykay said:


> heres ours. we bought it from port a hut. it comes with stakes to stake it down and has a vent. I love them because you can easily move them. Patches is 46" and goes in all the time.
> 
> side view (two stallions playing in the background lol)



[SIZE=12pt]Which size is this one? would you mind telling us what you paid for it and any dislikes?? I think these little shelters are awesome



: [/SIZE]

Thanks for sharing!

Joy


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## kaykay (Jul 19, 2007)

I believe mine is 4x8. If you ever have an equine affair etc they are at shows and sell them on site which saves shipping. I bought mine a few years ago so they probably went up. But i think it was around 80.00. My girlfriend bought the bigger one and had it shipped. The horses just love them!! i have gone out and found like 5-6 minis in there LOL. I just love the way you can move them around. Heres their website

port a hut


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## CAM (Jul 19, 2007)

I saw that website when I was looking online and they look like the would work great for the minis. I have emailed to see what the cost is and if they can ship them to Oregon. If they are reasonable that would work for the little guys but it looks like they don't go tall enough for the big horses. That seems a popular shape for everyone's shelters too if you don't want to go with the standard run-in shed with wood and a metal or wood/shingle roof like we used to have. Now...to find something for my big horses.


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## ibquackers20 (Jul 19, 2007)

I use this for my hay but maybe you can use it also as a run in for the small guys or big guys, I bought it at canadian tire and it was under 300.00 canadian on sale. It is a temporary car port you can also buy these anchors that screw into the ground or you can drill screws into rail road ties to secure it into place. Just a thought, there is the big one and also a smaller one (I have both - one for hay and one for lawn mowers and yard tools )here is a photo of the one I use for hay - truck is not mine it was a photo I used from canadian tire :bgrin


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## CheyAut (Jul 20, 2007)

CAM said:


> I saw that website when I was looking online and they look like the would work great for the minis. I have emailed to see what the cost is and if they can ship them to Oregon.



Would you let us know when you find out?


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## Boinky (Jul 20, 2007)

how tall are the cattel pannel huts inside?


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## ropenride (Jul 22, 2007)

Just found something at TSC (my FAV store!! :bgrin ) that sounds easy, cheap and worth a try....Wedge Locs. They are metal pieces that fit over T posts. We got ours to build braces for our fences, but the brochure shows that they have other pieces that can hold 2x4's and plywood and shows pics of how to set up a shelter. I'm going to try it for the winter. The metal pieces are less than $2 each here.


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## Marty (Jul 22, 2007)

Ok guys, I may need an additional run in shelter or hay storage.

You're holding out. Don't be shy.

List some prices and post more pics of your ideas :aktion033:


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## Shari (Jul 22, 2007)

Nasco, has hard plastic Calf shelters.. depending on how tall your mini's are..that would work well.

I have had and still have one of those 12 by 21' Canvas car ports for shelters from Costco and cost $179.00. With the buckets, climbing rope to use as tie downs..gravel and sand.. came in just over $200.00 Make sure you really tie them down.

Even then..they will not hold up to super high winds like we had last fall.. 80 to 100mph winds tore one of the sheds around.

Other did ok because it was more sheltered.

Here is what we did with that kind of canvas shed. Rebar tie downs.. rebar bent to look like a candy cane and hammered into the ground so the horses could not hurt themselves. The base of the poles were put in buckets with about 200lbs of gravel in each then sand to pack up firm and add tons of weight to hold each pole. Cattle panels along each side to keep them more ridged.

I will have to find the photo and will post it so you can see.

The replacement shelter for the canvas one we lost...is a 3 sided metal car port with a high wind rating.


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## CAM (Jul 22, 2007)

CheyAut said:


> CAM said:
> 
> 
> > I saw that website when I was looking online and they look like the would work great for the minis. I have emailed to see what the cost is and if they can ship them to Oregon.
> ...


I will as soon as they email me back.







ibquackers20 said:


> I use this for my hay but maybe you can use it also as a run in for the small guys or big guys, I bought it at canadian tire and it was under 300.00 canadian on sale. It is a temporary car port you can also buy these anchors that screw into the ground or you can drill screws into rail road ties to secure it into place. Just a thought, there is the big one and also a smaller one (I have both - one for hay and one for lawn mowers and yard tools )here is a photo of the one I use for hay - truck is not mine it was a photo I used from canadian tire :bgrin


This one is tall enough for the big horses. Can you give me a contact number for them so I can see if they would ship and the cost?

Ok, this probably sounds a little "Mickey Mouse" but could you use something like 2 Powder River panels and connect them to an existing fence as the side walls with your existing fence as the back wall and then use a heavy duty canvas tarp over the top? I guess you would have to use T-posts or something to hold up the panels. And then what could you use to raise the heighth for the big horses? Just some thoughs running through my head and trying to come up with something inexpensive since we already have a ton of panels.


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## Reijel's Mom (Jul 22, 2007)

kaykay said:


> I believe mine is 4x8. If you ever have an equine affair etc they are at shows and sell them on site which saves shipping. I bought mine a few years ago so they probably went up. But i think it was around 80.00. My girlfriend bought the bigger one and had it shipped. The horses just love them!! i have gone out and found like 5-6 minis in there LOL. I just love the way you can move them around. Heres their website
> 
> port a hut



Just wanted to say about the port-a-huts, I have a couple of older small ones and I like them for in the winter but all the other seasons they make me nervous, seems like would be good lightning attractors. Also, when we have heavy rain or hail around here my minis don't like them, they get far too noisy inside.


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## Marty (Jul 22, 2007)

_Ok, this probably sounds a little "Mickey Mouse" but could you use something like 2 Powder River panels and connect them to an existing fence as the side walls with your existing fence as the back wall and then use a heavy duty canvas tarp over the top? I guess you would have to use T-posts or something to hold up the panels. And then what could you use to raise the heighth for the big horses? Just some thoughs running through my head and trying to come up with something inexpensive since we already have a ton of panels._

That would totally work with the huts


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## qtrrae (Jul 22, 2007)

My horses love the igloo calf huts, sometimes there will be several babies inside of it.






It works perfect for the stallions, there is plenty of room to lie down, here is Image this past winter with his little house.


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## ibquackers20 (Jul 22, 2007)

Hi Cam,

[This one is tall enough for the big horses. Can you give me a contact number for them so I can see if they would ship and the cost?]

I bought the temporary car port from canadian tire ,you can do a search on line and in automotive section of canadian tire,I think is where you can find it - they might ship it out or you may have a store closer to where you live.

www.canadiantire.com or

www.canadiantire.ca


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## ibquackers20 (Jul 22, 2007)

CAM , just did a search and TSC (tractor supply company )has shelters and different kinds to

http://www.mytscstore.com/detail.asp?pcID=...productID=28977

Maybe you have one near you, but it is worth a look at ,they do not have a place near me but might have one near you.


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