Equestrian Barn Construction

Centenary College to renovate Equestrian Center barn

Equestrians take a lot of pride in how they look.

But it's not just their attire, which includes the trademark hard-shell helmet, ratcatcher-style shirt, stock tie, dark-colored tweed jacket, light-colored breeche pants, and tall black boots, typically worn during competitive show jumping.

For members of the Centenary College equestrian program, their image includes the facilities where they hone their craft. The physical campus, where students learn the art of manipulating an animal's movements and take responsibility for the horse's care, is as much a part of their style as the traditional uniform.

That's why the satellite campus, located in neighboring Washington Township, Morris County, 20 minutes from the main campus in Hackettstown , is renovating a dilapidated, one-story horse barn on the 64-acre site with the help of student and alumni volunteers.

Centenary will renovate the barn in sections, according to Special Projects Manager Simone Knaap Klinder, which will make it easier to accomplish "because at the end of the day, the horses have to go back in," she said.

The barn, which contains 15 stalls and is attached to a farm house, is expected to be finished in eight weeks. The barn and farmhouse both date to the 1950s.

The volunteers will work from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday, beginning July 6. They are hoping to finish the project by Aug. 27.

Officials are expecting at least 10 to 12 volunteers per day with at least 40 volunteers registered to help so far.

The program, which started at Centenary in 1984, won the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association Hunter Seat National Championship in 2011 for the second time in three years.

Centenary senior Marissa Cohen, of West Chester, Pa., won the 2011 Cacchione Cup as the event's most outstanding rider.

The Equestrian Center on the satellite campus, which underwent a $2 million renovation in 2000, holds classes and horse training on the grounds' two indoor riding facilities and outdoor hunting course.

Amanda Ohlandt, 20, a junior equine sciences student from Phillipsburg , will participate in the volunteering effort, and is happy to see the barn transform.

Enjoyed this article!!

I think it's great that schools like Centenary College offer equestrian programs such as this, too.

As long as I live, I will never forget my high school counselor saying, "YOU WANT TO DO WHAT??" when I told her I wanted to apply to a equestrian farm management program in Virginia. She snapped at me those were ".... useless programs, not real jobs, blah, blah, blah ...," and being a kid, I made the HUGE mistake of believing her, and remember actually being embarrassed that I even considered applying. But that's what I wanted to do most; it was my whole life back then.

Cost-Saving Housekeeping Tips For Horse Barn Plans | MyHorse Daily ...

But when it comes to real life, most of us have horsekeeping set-up–and horsekeeping budgets–that fall short of the blissful horse barn plans ideal. The new barn dreams are fun, but what we really need are doable solutions to everyday issues. All the better if they’re solutions that don’t add up to more than the annual feed bill.

Here are 12 such frugal fixes that caught our eye at horse barns we’ve visited.

The issue:  Your tack room’s just about run out of wall space, and you still have more stuff to keep sorted and stowed. Double the issue if you’re someone who shares a tack room.

Frugal fix:  Push two or more vertical-scale storage units together, back to back, in the center of the room, to create a storage tower in otherwise dead space. The units shown here are from the garage/basement storage section of a big-box home improvement store. This idea’s great for your stuff/my stuff organization.  Bonus: 

The issue:  Your riding/training area, which you had crowned and slightly sloped for the sake of good drainage, loses its footing–not cheap to replace!–as horses travel along the sides.