Skye brought up a lot of good points. We went with a small barn 24 by 36 ft. The 36 (long side) is open and faces South. The winds come from the NE or NW so great wind protection in the winter. Open to the south takes advantage of the sun being low in the sky in the winter, coming in and warming the the open area. The horses love standing there and being warmed by the sun in the winter. In the summer when the sun is higher in the sky the southern exposure keeps the direct sunlight out and the barn stays pretty cool. The front half of our barn, 12 by 36 is open like a run in and the back part is separated into 3 stalls. Two are left open for the horses to use as needed. If the weather is bad-hot, cold, windy or rainy, they can tuck themselves back into the stalls for more protection. The third stall we use for hay storage and some tack. I keep the feed up in the garage/pole barn closer to the house and not that far from the barn. I also keep my saddles up there, it stays much cleaner and is partway between the barn, pine trees and pasture. I saddle up and ride from any of these areas.
We also have a hot/cold control in the basement for our pipe that goes to our frost free spigot that is between the pole barn and the horse barn. My husband wanted it for hot water to wash the cars in the winter and comes in handy for washing the horses. I found that the horses are much more cooperative if the water is a little on the warm side. Granted, you can't control as well as if you had the hot water in the barn, but for as little as the hot water is used it's not a big deal to adjust the water temp before you start and reset it back to cold when done. You can get a pretty good view of the barn at the beginning of the You tube video of Gloi head down with Clicker, user name drannahopkins. I think this is the link, I'm not very good about doing the links so not sure if it will work for you. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ps4e35OlMb4 -- Anna
