With little disruption to the animals
at Birch Hill Farm, Trumbull-Nelson
works to create a world-class, indoor
riding center and stables.
by Bruce Wood
photos by Steve Usle

Before Trumbull-Nelson got down to work on the new riding arena at Birch Hill Farm, care was taken to make sure disruptions to the diversified, certified-organic working farm in South Woodstock, Vermont, were kept to an absolute minimum.

“We recognize environmental, sustainable green issues are at the forefront of building and development processes that are going on these days,” explained Trumbull-Nelson’s Steve Usle. “We like to think we are doing everything we can to ensure that both the demands and wishes of the client and the broader benefits to the wider community are respected. We respect the interests and needs of the client, always.”
 
Left: Workers cover the steel frame with stained lathe siding.
Bottom: the bright stables.

Even, it turns out, when some of those clients have four legs and tails. “Making sure the animals were OK was a big concern,” said Ed Friedman, project manager for Trumbull-Nelson. “When we were blasting we had to make sure the animals were safe in their pens or their stalls.”

Chris Higgins, general manager at Birch Hill, couldn’t have been happier with how that aspect of the project played out at the farm, which in addition to horses raises grass-fed Katahdin sheep. “We had to be careful,” Higgins said, “but it was amazing how the horses didn’t really react that much to the blasting. Once they had the first couple of blasts and the tremor, it didn’t really seem to bother them.”

Higgins did his part, of course, including a little sleight of hand with regard to the horses.

“I turned the radio up in the stables to distract them,” he said with a laugh. “I put on the noisiest radio station I could find.”

"The owner wanted the cathedral type tp giev him more air space for the horses."-Chris Higgins

Out of that midwinter blasting of ledge has risen a 150-by-77-foot arena providing a 20-by-40-meter riding area that will allow both jumping and flat work, or dressage. The arena, with a breezeway connector to the main barn, rises to a full 16 feet, 6 inches at the peak, thanks to a 6-in-12 pitch.
“Most of the indoor riding arenas in this area have a flat ceiling that’s lower and that gives you the feeling that you are cramped, especially for jumping,” said Higgins. “The owner wanted the cathedral type to give him more air space for the horses and the feeling that it’s a larger area.”
 

The new riding center strikes a perfect balance between functionality and aesthetics
 


Aiding that feel are unique 18-by-8-foot, garage door-type windows that can be raised in the summer to provide a pavilion feel. They allow horse and rider to enjoy the outside while being safe from the rain. Thermal panes in the windows will help keep the arena warmer and lighter than otherwise in the winter.

Another consideration for the arena, given the fickle Vermont weather, is a special flooring mix spread over a gravel base and hardpack. Made in California, it is a polymer-sand substance that is both dust-free and non-freezing. “We’ve used it in the outdoor arena and been very satisfied with it,” Higgins said. “It does a very good job of keeping the dust down.”
The arena features a structural steel mainframe design, typical of pre-engineered metal buildings. But remaining true to the nature of Birch Hill Farm, the walls have been given a stained siding that helps the new building nestle neatly into its surroundings.

“It’s clad in wood inside and out,” said Higgins. “It was very important to the owner’s aesthetics. He wanted it to look like it had been around for a while, and look like it was part of the barn compound.”
 

Consider that another in a series of missions accomplished. “There were originally some concerns about the ridgeline,” offered Friedman. “But we didn’t really have to worry about it. The town of Woodstock was very good to work with. They made us aware of their concerns, and we took every possible action to keep those concerns in mind.

“The people at Birch Hill have gone out of their way to create a facility that they want, yet to make sure it’s pleasing and meets all the requirements that are in place.”

Prior to this job, Trumbull-Nelson worked on a dairy barn complex at the non-profit Stonewall Farm in Keene, New Hampshire, constructed four state-of-the-art farm buildings for the former Dream and Do Farm in Norwich, Vermont, and put up a riding stable and horse arena in Roxbury, Vermont. This experience helped prepare Trumbull-Nelson for the work at Birch Hill Farm, which began in late January 2007 and is slated for completion on July 1.

Trumbull-Nelson developed a design for the building with the help of architect Chris Miller of Woodstock’s Ertel Associates, and turned to Bonhag Associates in Lebanon for electrical, design, and ventilation work.
Engineering Ventures did the structural review for the foundation and aided with the design of the solar collector system.
 

"The people at Birch Hill Have gone out of their way to create a facility that they want, yet to make sure it's pleasing and meets all of the requirements that are in place."

“We have the solar panel on the roof because the owner wants to help with the ‘green’ situation in Vermont,” said Higgins. “It’s a large roof so we can take real advantage of it with the southern exposure. There’s another panel on the roof of the workshop. The owner is interested in the good of the land in Vermont.”

The end product is a building that meets the needs of the owner and considers the people who live nearby.

“Even though it’s a metal frame, it has the traditional siding that blends it in with the rest of the landscape,” said Higgins. “Our neighbors understand the fact that the weather the last few summers has been wet and (the Birch Hill owner) hasn’t been able to do as much riding as he’d like. If it’s wet outside and the outdoor ring is muddy, it’s not really safe to go jumping out there and not very pleasant either. Now he can work the horses indoors as well as out.

“But,” Higgins added with a laugh, “I’m sure we’ll probably have beautiful weather every summer from now on.”