Horse Tales from the LOPE Ranch

Catalissa

Catalissa was our first stall rest rehab horse for the LOPE barn! A handsome Texas bred, Catalissa was an exciting horse to watch –- he loved to win and had a big following here, especially at Sam Houston racetrack. He was bred by Stonerside Stable and has the elegant movement and kind temperament we've come to associate with Stonerside horses.

Toward the end of his career, Catalissa was racing in Delaware. He fractured his sesamoid and could no longer race. His race trainer agreed to donate Catalissa to LOPE –- the only snag was the long distance between Delaware and Texas. But then Stonerside Stable heard of Catalissa's situation and immediately donated transport funds –- so that LOPE could bring Catalissa home to Texas (and our new barn).

Catalissa has been amazingly gentle to handle -- even after weeks and weeks of stall rest, he showed only patience and good manners. He is slowly and steadily healing –- if he continues at this rate, he will be available for adoption by the end of the year.

Thank you Stonerside Stable for sending Catalissa to LOPE!

Barn Assembly - Day Four

Wow, the barn is finished! The Tri-County Barn crew did a fantastic job. Today, after they installed all the final pieces, they spent hours power washing the roof, the exterior walls and the stalls.

And the barn even came with a wash rack! They installed it on the front porch -- that will definitely come in handy for doing hydro-therapy on the rehab horses.

We still need to wire the barn for electricity and tie in the water for internal plumbing. And Denis is coming back to smooth out the foundation and blend it into the surrounding pasture. He will also add more dirt to the south side of the barn, where we hope to soon attach small pens or traps to the stalls.

The LOPE Ranch has always been a pasture-only facility -- for the past four years, we've had to say no to horses needing stall rest. It's so exciting to see the LOPE barn standing in the pasture, waiting for the first injured horse to arrive.

The barn won't have to wait long either -- a horse with a sesamoid fracture is due to arrive here on Saturday. Stay tuned for more details -- this horse is very special!

Thank you again to the Malone family for donating such a wonderful rehab barn to LOPE!

Barn Assembly - Day Three

The Tri-County Barns crew put in a busy day here installing the roof -- now it really feels like a barn. Tomorrow is the final day of construction, and will include some big pieces -- such as installing all the stall doors and the barn doors, and some smaller pieces -- such as the wash rack on the porch and the saddle racks in the tack room.

Barn Assembly - Day Two

On the second day, the Tri-County Barns crew put up the framing for the roof. It's fun to see the raised center aisle now. And the side lean-to has its roof framed now -- we think this will be an excellent place to store hay.

Barn Assembly - Day One

This morning, a crew from Tri-County Barns came to start installing our barn! Several trucks drove up our driveway, with flatbeds full of stall partitions, roof panels and support beams. Within a few hours, the stall and the tack room walls were in place. It was fun to watch!

After the crew left for the day, Lightening Ball and I took a walk around the barn site. I led him up the barn aisle and let him sniff all the roof panels stacked on the ground. Lightening Ball was interested in everything, showing lots of curiosity (and very little nervousness).

The crew will work on installing the roof and support beams over the next couple of days -- stay tuned for more updates!

Barn Foundation in Place

I've learned much more about barn foundations than I ever expected. After our dirt pad was installed, the next phase was to frame and pour the concrete.

Our donated five-stall barn will come with a center aisle, tack room and a front porch. My biggest decision was whether to put concrete in just the tack room or also put it in the center aisle and front porch. Since the barn will be for rehabbing injured horses, our vets will be examining the horses at the barn regularly. So it's important to concrete the center aisle to provide a clean area for vet procedures.

And if the covered front porch had concrete, we could store hay there much more easily.

So we decided to put concrete in the tack room, center aisle and the front porch. R&M Concrete, who regularly works with Tri-County Barns, was our concrete contractor and was very familiar with the requirements of our barn model. They spent many hours carefully measuring, framing, laying plastic and rebar. Within a few days, our concrete was poured -- it was very exciting to see the big mixer truck pull into our pasture!

Here is our finished concrete -- you can really see the outline of the barn stalls, aisle, tack room and porch.

The next step is actually installing the barn -- and that is going to happen this week! Stay tuned for more updates....

Barn Donated to LOPE

A 2003 Barnmaster barn has been donated to LOPE!

We are really excited about this gift and want to thank the Malone family for their tremendous generosity. LOPE can now start the Homestretch Heroes Rehabilitation Program. With the new rehab barn, LOPE can take in more seriously injured racehorses that need stall rest and longer rehab care.

In conjunction with this donation, LOPE is focusing its 2008 Capital Campaign on raising funds for the barn foundation, installation and electric wiring, while also starting a special surgery fund for racehorses with knee and ankle chips. Please visit the 2008 Capital Campaign page to learn more.

The barn has five stalls, plus a tack room, front porch and side lean-to (for storing farm equipment). Thanks to Tri-County Barns, the barn has been disassembled and is waiting to be delivered here — once we've completed the foundation and concrete work.

When I heard that such a nice, big barn was being donated to LOPE, I was thrilled! But then I realized all the things I didn't know about barn construction. My head was spinning just thinking about foundation construction, concrete work and barn moving logistics.

Then I talked with Kay at Lucas and Liebe — she explained that the first step is to build a foundation or dirt pad for the barn. Joey at Tri-County gave me the specifications: about 8 inches high and at least 10 feet wider than the barn itself (which is 48 ft by 48 ft). And he recommended the type of dirt — caleche, which is a local material here in Texas.

Armed with this information, I started calling dirt contractors. They all had different information for me. One would take several days to do the job, as his dirt source was far away, requiring long round trips for delivery. Another recommended crushed limestone instead of caleche. And a third had multiple trucks available for delivery, but was having trouble locating a calache source near us.

All of them agreed on one thing: the job was going to be more expensive this year, due to diesel fuel costs.

We decided on a local dirt contractor, Denis, to install the foundation. He was fast, knowledgeable and liked our ex-racehorses, too! Plus he was recommended by one of our neighbors, Hycourt Farm, as Denis had completed their barn foundation and arena footing.

He brought his heavy equipment and smoothed down the barn site, prepping it for the massive quantities of dirt to come. Then he carefully measured to see how level our site was — he explained that he'd build up the foundation on one side to create a perfectly-level barn pad.

Over the next two days, twelve giant truckloads of dirt arrived. After each load, Denis would smooth and pack the dirt into a symmetrical surface.

I was impressed by the result — our completed barn foundation is strong, level and drains well. For the first time, the new barn seems truly "real."

As you can see from the photo, the horses here are ready for their new barn — in fact, one bay mare is getting downright impatient!