My barn

Seeing all the model barns pop up in my blogfeed a while ago makes me want one too!

I do have a barn but it was never made for my Breyers. My grandfather made it for me when I was younger and collected Grand Champions, so it's actually made for them (which makes it too small for traditional size Breyers).

My grandfather suffered from ALS and my mother asked him if he could make a really simple barn for me (partly because I wanted one and partly because he needed something he could do to pass time during the days as he, due to an older injury, couldn't work). The thing is my grandfather kind of left the "simple" part out. I had imagined 4 walls and two stalls. Well, i got that, and so much more!

Unfortunately I don't have any good pictures of it so these will have to do. When I get it out (which probably won't be for a while yet) I'll take some better pictures of it! Because it is really wonderful and detailed

Imperia in front of the stable

The barn features working double doors on one side and a working, single door at the other side. The outside is made out of square pieces of wood that my grandfather carved to make them more rounded, to give it an old, rustic look (almost like a log house-look). It also has a working "door" from the outside into the hayloft (at the same side as the double doors).

Fuego in one of the stalls

He also gave it a removable roof and a removable hayloft with an opening for the stairs. The hayloft is not seen in the picture above because, if I remember correctly, Fuego got a tad to tall to have it on when taking this photo.

Butterfly in one of the stalls

The barn features two stalls and a small storage space (the storage space is on the other side of the whole stall wall which you see in the picture below). Both of the stalls feature working stall doors and wall-mounted cribs. The stalls also have one small window each. There is also two windows on the opposite side.

Question outside the stalls

Outside the stalls there is room to tie up a horse and there are also stairs to the hayloft. And the space under the stairs are perfect for storing boxes or maybe lockers with equipment or tack.

Zahrat and Sadeek in the stall

Between the two stalls my grandfather even made bars so that the horses can see, but not hurt each other.

A quick, not in scale sketch I did of the lay out to give you a better overview than my less then optimal photos.

My grandfather didn't stop at just the stable. He made me a mini stable, for my small grand champions (about the sizes of Breyer's Micro minis). It was not as detailed as the big one but it features a lot of stalls, all with working doors, working doors and a removable roof. And besides that he also made several smaller things to go with the barn (the big one), he made me two pastures (I'm not sure these would be called small things) which would work great as a small pen for a horse that has been injured and are not allowed out with the others. He made a wheelbarrow, with a working wheel, a small doghouse, some smaller garden tools, like a hand rake, shovel and an axe. He also made me two wagons (one of them was a covered wagon kind of like these).

My grandfather is not with us anymore but I will always remember him and appreciate all of the things he made for me. And I bet that if he would've still been with us when I discovered the model horse hobby he would've been my "partner in crime" creating different kinds of jumps and props!