Thursday, March 1, 2012

Steel Barn had Horses Chomping at their Bits



SteelMaster customers, Mr. and Mrs. Welford can tell you a thing or two about Tennessee Walkers and Painter horses. They are quick to tell you how lovable and intelligent their horses are, and how they have uncanny personality traits that liken them to people.

They also know an attractive and practical building application when they see one. Residing just 80 miles from the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, they feel fortunate their lives and the lives of their horses were spared during Hurricane Katrina. Although their property suffered the wrath of this horrific storm, and they lost tons of poplar trees, they have no intent of letting any lousy hurricane force them from the sanctuary of their land.

Patricia Welford was delightfully accommodating about discussing their SteelMaster buildings experience. She also believes if horses could talk, they would say they could hardly wait to get situated into their new barn, or "horsey condos." Patricia said, "Our horses were lingering around as close as they could get without being in harm's way during construction. It was as if somehow they knew they were getting new stalls. They were chomping at their bits, and I could tell they wanted to kick the workers out even before the building was finished."

The Welfords hired a local contractor to build their SteelMaster 40' x 100' multi-purpose barn for their horses. Camp Shelby, the state owned/operated installation for active and reserve Army National Guardsmen is located nearby.

"Since the barn has the arched Quonset roof, our contractor was familiar with the style because he had experience with similar buildings at the military compound. After speaking with SteelMaster's construction specialist in the Virginia Beach, Virginia home office, not only was he impressed, but ready and able to assemble the barn," Patricia said.

Several factors led the Welfords to choose SteelMaster. They envisioned their barn and had ideas of their own to incorporate. Their building had to have lots of open space. They had been there and done that, and learned from experience. After they ran the gamut on-line and were aware of what they and other horse-owners were working with, SteelMaster proved to be the surprisingly affordable way to go for such a grand-scale building, investment, and labor of love.
They incorporated several ingenious ideas into their new barn and they absolutely love it (as do their horses!). They are the all the rage with their friends who also raise and breed horses (word gets around when you own a SteelMaster buildings.) The Welfords are kind folk and encouraged us to share their ideas with other SteelMaster customers who may benefit from their design.

First of all, they had heavy-duty roll up doors installed on each end. They have six horse stalls, 14'x16' instead of the stereotypical 12'x12' stall. Their barn includes a hay room, tack room (to store their saddles, bridles, etc.), AND an inside wash rack area with an in-ground drain. They are also in the process of hanging up lights in the clear span down the middle of the ceiling.

Patricia was glad to be able to make good use of the wood from the poplar trees they lost during Katrina. They had the trees cut into corral panels for use as partitions for each of the six stables.

"The best part is the corral panels each have gates that can be opened and moved when necessary. Due to the fact the Quonset ceiling is so high, and the panels work so well, we had no need for heavy posts which are awkward to navigate around and once installed, posts are in for good. We can just drive our tractor inside the barn to scoop out and clean each stall and replace the hay so much easier than before," Patricia said.

"Not many horse owners have the luxury of everything they need being under one roof", Patricia added. When the weather is inclement, our horses do not even need to leave the barn to be fed and groomed."

"SteelMaster buildings are engineered for life," says Michelle Wickum, SteelMaster's Director of Marketing. "Our Steel Arched Buildings are designed to meet the wind loads of their destination whether located in Florida, Mississippi or the Bahamas. Our buildings are made with consideration given to climatological elements in order to provide protection from hurricane-force winds, water, freezing temperatures, and even fire."
SteelMaster's steel and metal pre-engineered buildings are designed for a broad range of residential and commercial applications including homes, farm buildings, garages, workshops, agricultural storage, Quonsets, airplane hangars, RV storage, roofing systems, carports, military buildings, commercial warehousing, and industrial storage as well as a wide variety of custom building applications including athletic facilities, retail stores, churches, bus stops, smoke shacks, doggie dorms, and correctional facilities.

SteelMaster is happy to have the Welfords (and their beautiful horses!) as satisfied customers and our "Partners in Steel." Sounds like their horses are a little bit spoiled. But if they could talk, they would probably say, "Neighhhhh! We are not that spoiled."

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