Loafing Shed

Cheap Horse Shade

Are you looking for an inexpensive way to build a loafing shed?  The one pictured below is just that.  We had some aluminum awning pans on hand as well as a couple pieces of gutter.  The lumber we bought at the local hardware store.  We bought a stack of returned or warped lumber.  For seventy five dollars we loaded our pickup twice.  If you add another fifteen for concrete our total cost was ninety dollars.

This shed is not finished yet.  Each end needs another awning panel installed and the wood mitered up to the top on the ends.

We started by setting six posts in concrete.  Because we were working with what we had the posts consist of 2 2x4's nailed together.

The aluminum gutters were turned upside down and attached to the posts.  The gutters serve the purpose of either a set back bar or an I-beam since the gutter trough is not used.  Next we attached the awning pans to the gutter.  The difference between our freestanding awning and a loafing shed is the wood we added to the sides.

The lumber was simply attached to the posts with a center support added to the inside for extra protection against further warping of the wood.

The lumber has just been nailed so far but I will go back over it and add screws or bolts where needed.

As you can see by this photo we ran out of long lumber and started cutting the shorter pieces to join at the support board.

This is just a few hours of work and a coat of paint away from being a nice little horse shelter for around a hundred dollars.  When our two pregnant mares have their foals soon they will all enjoy it.


From Princeton Texas comes a video showing the exact steps taken to build a very nice loafing shed.  Just click the go button when you are ready.