Aimee and her family live on a 5-acre lifestyle block near Auckland with 2 dogs, 1 cat, chickens, sheep and 2 x ponies. She recently finished building her new Settlers Stable so read on to find out more about her experience with Outpost Buildings.
What were the reasons you needed a new horse stable?
“Our ponies were being grazed at another location and during lockdown last August, we decided to bring the ponies home to avoid the travel. Then due to a change in circumstances at that facility the decision was made to bring them home permanently.
Unfortunately, August and September 2020 in Auckland were one of the wettest 8-week periods on record and the ponies made a huge mess of the paddocks. We knew if they were to remain at home, we needed to sort out some shelter and yards before the next winter, both to save our grass and to keep the ponies healthy.
Having had them grazed at 2 different facilities offsite, we knew what worked and what didn’t. Many weeks were spent designing and thinking about what we actually needed, and we began the process of getting quotes for both custom build stables and quotes from Outpost.” said Aimee.
Aimee chose Colorsteel Grey Friars roofing for her stable and has painted it with 2 coats of woodstain to make sure the timber stays looking great.
What was the main reason you choose Outpost?
“It became clear pretty quickly that not only was the Outpost structure more cost effective, but it could be customized further to meet our needs. Rachael (from Outpost) was absolutely amazing with her efficient replies to endless questions and pricing. She also gave us the contact details of builders Bruce and Sean who are highly experienced with building Outpost structures as well as both qualified builders. They too were a pleasure to work with and we appreciated the recommendation from Rachael at Outpost. It was a no brainer to choose the Outpost option once we had a cost estimate from Bruce the builder.” said Aimee.
Has your Outpost Stable met your expectations?
“Fast forward 4 months and the build is now complete, and it has far exceeded our expectations. It’s light, spacious, cool for the hot summer months and dry for the wetter months.
We added the gated yards onto the front of the stables for added space for the ponies to move around and extended the size of the horse tack room to match that of the stables. We also added a 5000L water tank to capture the rainwater from the roof area and use for the ponies water troughs and washdown areas.
I would highly recommend Outpost to anyone considering a horse shelter or stables, their can-do attitude and willingness to customize to meet our needs made this process seamless and cost effective. But the best thing of all…the ponies love it too!” said Aimee.
What site preparation and flooring did you do for your stables?
“Whilst our site appeared reasonably flat, it did have a slight slope with a 1m fall which needed to be dug out and built up to make a flat surface for the foundations to be laid.” said Aimee.
Pictured above is the building site before they started site preparation.
“The surfaces of both the stables and yards caused me many headaches with a lot of differing opinions in the equestrian industry. We have a 21 year old pony with arthritis so we needed to be careful with what we decided to protect this joints. In the end we went with compacted lime in the stables and yards as this is a soft free draining surface which helps control the smells from within the stable. It’s also better on the joints for an arthritic pony than concrete.” said Aimee.
Pictured above left is the excavation of the building site to get it level and then above right shows the site with the lime laid and compacted.
On top of the lime within the stables Aimee laid equine rubber matting to stop the lime from mixing with the wood shavings as well as being more comfortable on the ponies’ feet. Wood shavings are used in the stables as bedding for the comfort of the horses.
Aimee laid concrete in front of the tack room for the washdown area. There is a retractable hose mounted on the fence which makes bathing a breeze as well as gives easy access to clean out the stables and refill water troughs. The washdown area also provides a good flat surface for the farrier to work.
Pictured above is the Horse Stable with the roof cladding in progress.
“We positioned the back of the stables against the prevailing wind, so they were protected from the cold winter winds. This did however mean that we couldn’t see the ponies from the house.
As we installed lighting in the stables and tack room, we also installed some power points and installed a camera that connects to the house wifi that we can access from our mobile phones. This means I can keep an eye on them during a stormy night or any other time we please. We very quickly caught both ponies lying down sleeping which is the ultimate test and clearly shows they feel both safe and comfortable! Attached is a screenshot from the stable-cam showing Maestro having a nice laydown.” said Aimee.
Settler 2 Bay Stable with Tack Shed
The stable that is featured in this blog is pictured below and has 2 horse stalls with a handy tack shed.
Size: 9.6m x 3.5m x 3.5m high at apex.
For more information on this Stable click here
Call us for more information or an obligation free quote on 0800 688 767
