Horse shelters

[Toohard]

Horse shelter question.

Got paddock up back with tin shelter in it that measures 3.2m x 4m. 3 walls. Open side of shelter faces east. Paddock has no trees in it. Tried growing them in it and now have large collection of sticks as no matter what tree guards I use they always find way of getting at them.

From what I have seen while I've been sitting there 'watching', the horses seldom use the interior of the shelter. They use it often to stand outside on downwind side of it to shelter from wind but only seem to go into it to hide... from flies, farrier, etc. I stood inside it on hot summers day and can understand why they don't go into it then.

Have to cut paddock in half. 'Un-managable' the way it is. So one side has old existing shelter, other side will have no shelter.

On 'no shelter' side I was thinking building something with 2 sides not 3, plus roof. So would be open on the west and east sides. So they can walk through it rather than into it? Walls be say 14ft long...14 ft apart? Make walls out of timber not steel so cooler in summer? Paddock will have 2 horses max in it. Horses are rugged in winter. Winds here pretty strong from the south in winter and the north in summer.

Suggestions as to what to build? Or build nothing?

[Triple V]

G'day Paul,
Easily the most used shelter shed that I ever saw was something like that, just a long, wide flat roof with a solid 'copper log' thickness pole on each corner...basically a large rectangle that was wide open on all sides, but there wasn't any prevailing wind there that I can recall.
They seemed to use it a lot more in the summer to get out of the direct sun than they did in the winter to get out of the bad weather/wind/rain.
Maybe knock up a shelter like that and have a detachable wall which you could move to one side or the other depending on the time of year and the prevailing wind?
You could even go up market a bit & make it look really flash with shiney brass wingnuts to hold it all in place. The sky's the limit. ;)

[teecee]

Suggest simple windbreak.
Horses will lose most condition from the cold wind so protection from the south is the most important.
Building a fence 2.7 - 3.0 metres incl in ground poles at both ends with a central post connected with rails.
Filling can be from Corrugated iron , timber or windbreak netting over, supported / attached to deer fence netting.
Rain never hurt anyone let alone horses so a roof is not necessary.
By not building at the corner of but in the centre of the paddock or at right angles to a nth / sth fenceline they can have shelter from the northerly by utilising the "Backside of the shelter