Okay!  So I am having issues with the barn I am currently boarding Mira at.  They were half-leasing her and it was supposed be a year long thing.  There was no written contract or anything (my mistake!) so they have let me know that they are no longer interested in using her in the winter time.  And that now I'm not paying $150 a month, but $300 a month, and no wait!  board went up magically to $330 now...Plus they are rude to me and my husband and my kids each time we go out and I am just like okay I'm done...Anyways, we currently have 5 acres of land so I am thinking of just fencing in our property and building a small little 2-4 horse stables and keeping her at my house!

But I am having SOOO much trouble finding plans and blueprints for a run-in shed/loafer shed or stalls.  I really like the idea of doing a carport barn or something like that, but I am looking for a good website or anything that has blueprints and can help me estimate how much it may cost.

Do you guys know of anywhere I can look for blueprints/building supply ideas, and a site that will give me cost estimates?  

Or if you guys have blueprints or ideas, please share!

Thanks!!!!!

Ouch! That really sucks, I am sorry :(.

When I lived at home, we had almost 6 acres, and we fenced off about half of it for the horses to be on. They did not have any shelter, horses are ABOLUTELY fine without shelter, that's what they are built for! However, we did have some hilly parts so they were completely able to escape the wind if they needed to.

However, I know in some states it's illegal not to provide shelter, so I don't know about yours. We thought about building a "shed", like a 3-sided lean-to, but it never happened.

My dad would be the person who actually would know about the building of those things, but I'm willing to bet if you went to, like Tractor Supply or Home Depot there would be someone there that could point you in the right direction.

In the meantime, I found these sources which MAY be helpful or at least get you started:

http://www.pinterest.com/vstoray1/rustic-horse-shelter/

https://www.icreatables.com/sheds/shed-plans-run-in.html

http://www.ehow.com/how_6836238_build-lean_to-horse-shelter.html

http://www.leantoshed.com

I hope that helps, Ina! It also looked like you could buy them? But I'm not sure if you want to go that route or if it's really even a possiblility for a home acreage.

That's kind of what I would like to do, is just build like a little run in shed and have a small tack/feed room.  Nothing too fancy.  But it does get pretty cold here and we get a lot of snow so I would want to be able to put a space heater (one that couldn't catch fire) or something in tack/feed room so I could be warm while feeding and such.  Our land currently has a lot of trees on it and I'm not sure if I would need to clear a bunch off, but she could have more shelter/warmth from the trees.  I just want a little bit of shelter for her so that she can have some protection from the ice/snow and wind in winter.  Plus it gets pretty hot in the summer so it would be nice to have some shade as well.

Another thing to think about is water. Do you have a well with a pump on your property? We had one that we could hook a hose up to in the warmer months and just fill their bucket. But in the winter the hose would freeze if we didn't bring it in right away and a couple of times the spigot totally froze and so I had to haul 5 gallon buckets of water up to their tub (about ~20 yards, uphill) from our bathtub every other day when I got home from school.

Just something to consider when making your plans since it's so important but so easy to gloss over.

If you get super pinched for time and need a shelter before you can get a barn up you can always use a basic canopy carport and put tarps on two or three sides of it. When we moved we didn't have time to put the barn up right away so we did this with an inexpensive canopy carport and it worked wonders! 

Shelter is not the right term though.. horse's absolutely do need a FORM of shelter from winds and freezing rain... A random tree isn't enough..  In the wild they are able to find these things and they do seek it out if needed. They do not need a boxstall with all the fittings, but they do need to get away from impaling winds and rain and I 100% agree why it would be illegal to not provide the horse the choice to get away from that.

At my parents house, they have 2 acres.. in the summer they are pastured and winter they come home, she also has a mini indoor but that's another story..

For the longest time they just had a run in... basically a roof over 2 box stalls facing away from the wind not really anything you'd even need a plan for and a divider in the middle or her young horse would just torment her very old pony.. so she could could have her peace on days they needed to stay inside. The pony is quite old (30 ) , and doesn't really do well in the winter, she would wither away to bones if she didn't have her blanket to keep warm, our TB rescue naturally never really got a winter coat, and he did very bad in the winters too and needed very special care. Some are just not as hardy as their mustang counterparts :P 

Gosh I didn't even consider water...I'm glad you brought that up Sam...You're right, important but easy to gloss over.  We have a plumber that works for the company Josh manages.  I wonder how easy it would be to build in a little sink and hose in the actual tack/feed room?