Demolition of existing buildings to create a competition yard
Wishing to create a competition yard and having recently purchased a property that had some stables in an old building, our client wanted to upgrade the equestrian facility to create a new competition yard. This required a new horse walker, 60 x 30m outdoor arena and an American barn with stabling for twelve.
We worked with our planning consultant on this new scheme which is in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and after various changes and redesigns we came up with a solution that Planners could accept.
The outdoor arena on the crest of a hill required some levelling works and an earth bank to be planted with trees as a screen to one side. The horse arena has a sand, fibre and rubber surface enclosed within a post and rail fence with sloping boards to the bottom.
The stable yard involved the demolition of the old building including the safe disposal of asbestos and crushing of all hard core and existing concrete yard. This crushed material was then used in the base of the new yard area and track to the outdoor arena, saving money and vehicle movements compared with carting away from site and importing new road stone.
The barn has stabling for twelve with wash bay, solarium and stocks. The building has an oversail to the roof on both sides to provide shelter for the horses when their heads are out the rear doors. The construction is a galvanised steel frame with face brickwork to window height with timber boarding above. The roof was a cement fibre and underneath we added a white, lightweight steel liner sheet to provide a smoother underside to the roof that also makes the building lighter.
A six horse walker complete with roof was constructed to one end of the barn as well as a concrete ramp and muck trailer area.
