I was stuck cleaning up the debris from the training arena and round pen when a long line of trucks and trailers showed up. I shut off the tractor and walked over to Zach and Colt as my dad talked to the people in the first truck. "Would this be a bad time to say we needed a bigger barn for operations?" I asked Zach. "No. It would not be a bad idea. We just don't have the layout if we rebuild it the way it was." Colt said, answering. "What if we moved the arena and round pen to where the bunkhouse was, expanded towards where the arena was, and even have enough space in case all the horses need to be inside the barn?" I said.
"That could work," Zach said. "How many stalls do we need?" Colt asked. "Ten for the mares alone, four for the stallions, mine included, and add it up to forty stalls," I said. "We could easily then sort them out and make turnout easier on us. The mare won't need runs if the barn keeps their paddock intact." I said. "We would need a doorway going to the paddock," Zach said. "Ok, let's make the mare stalls sixteen feet long and ten feet deep. That should give mom and baby enough room to move. We can keep a ten-by-ten stall exit here where the old door used to be. We can also incorporate another ten-by-ten doorway on the opposite side, leading to the training arena and round pen." I said.
"I like her thinking," Colt said. "I think we may still have steel beams from when dad first built this barn," Zach said. "I do. They are out behind the hay barn." Grandpa said, walking up. " I bought more than I needed in case I needed to expand my barn." "Your granddaughter has an idea, and it may work," Colt said. "How far do we need to expand?" Grandpa asked. I tried to do the math in my head. "Ten feet from where the door was, then three sixteen-foot stalls on each side," I said. "We've been needing mare stalls," Grandpa said.
"That was my plan. Six stalls for mares and foals, or foaling out stalls, then we move them around if we need to." I said. "Let's lay out the fifty-eight feet so we know where to put the beams," Grandpa said. Both of my uncles did the measuring, and I marked it. Grandpa became the supervisor. Soon, we had fifty-eight feet of barn added to the plan. Grandpa told them to go back down to twenty-nine feet and had me mark it in with a different color.
Dad came over to see what we were doing. "Building mare stalls," I told him. "This may be a slower project back here while we have almost the entire church helping us raise a barn in a weekend." He said. "It will take us no time to get these mare stalls up, Bucky," Grandpa said. "Ok, if you four get to it." He said. "I'll supervise and keep Kylie out of trouble," Grandpa said, winking at me. I went and got the tractor, the huge tractor from the haybarn. Surprisingly, there were the chains we needed in the cab. Grandpa rode in the cab with me as my uncles rode outside. He guided the way to the beams and had me stop. Colt and Zach hooked up the first beam for me to lift.
It is massive. Colt had me keep lifting it until I could not lift any higher. The beam was bigger than the tractor itself. I was touching the ground on both sides. I backed out and backed back to the end of the new add-on. We did it three more times and set it out. I cut the engine, and my uncles made sure grandpa got down safely. "I wish we had gotten another draft for stuff like this," Grandpa said. "Your son bought a bred bucking mare who was draft stock, and she produced my horse," I told him. "Close enough." He said. I whistled, and Ranger came running over.
"I remember him, he's turned into a beefcake," Grandpa said. "He did, he can pull too," I said. "Let's hook him up," Grandpa said. We found a heavy horse harnessing, and I put it on him. We lined the boards up with the current foundation and dug holes to grandpa's specifications. We used the tractor to set the beams in the holes and concrete them in. All four beams were in. We decided to set them sixteen feet apart from the outside. We do need two more, but we will have to wait. Especially when we need more support beams. I went to check on the rest of the horses with Ranger, and we went up to check the mares and geldings. They got fresh water and attention after last night. The mares were a little spooked.
I went out into the paddock and gave the ten mares scratches and attention. We had to reduce our breeding program last year due to too much line breeding. Now it's more about keeping the line and temperament. That's what our buyers want now is very sweet, easygoing horses. Colt had asked if Ranger could be a breeding stallion since his temperament was very good. I had to tell him we needed a DNA ran, the 10-panel test for breeding studs, and genetic testing to prove he was an outstanding stud. We are now having to put it off with rebuilding this week and my graduation on Thursday.