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Dear John:

Our small therapeutic riding center operates within an existing indoor arena that is a converted aircraft hangar (all steel, no ventilation). We need to retrofit it to improve ventilation. Condensation in the winter is annoying, but the heat in the summer is a real safety concern.

Can you help?

Signed,

Healing with Horses

Dear Healing with Horses:

First, I suggest you contact a dealer in large, industrial fans. Big Ass Fans is a company I can recommend but there are certainly others you could contact.  Often, they can provide assistance selecting the right size and model for your arena. I imagine it will require at least two but maybe three ceiling mounted fans. See Pegaso Farm (http://blackburnarch.com/projects/pegaso-farm/) for one of our arena installations. These dealers can probably also connect you with a local contractor who can install them.

You may want to consider a large, louvered fan in each of the gable ends of your arena with dampers. If the louvers are large, at least 4 ft square, place a large two-way fan that allows exhaust or intake and a damper that opens only when the fan is on. They should help exhaust hot air in the summer. The contractor who installs the industrial fans also may be able to install the louver fans.

The fans and louvers should help with the temperature and bad air quality in your arena. They may help with the condensation problem, but won’t resolve it. The only way to resolve the condensation problem is to install insulation on the interior underside of the roof (which I assume is exposed metal). The important thing to consider with insulation is it has to be bird proof.

Bird proofing can be done in a number of ways. Insulation is available in a blanket with a plastic covering that is supposedly bird proof, in a blanket with a perforated metal liner on the interior face or in a ridged board insulation. These options range in cost and quality from lowest to highest. Choose the one that more closely fits your budget.

Penn State completed a very helpful study on ventilation in horse barns, and it provides a great deal of helpful information: http://extension.psu.edu/animals/equine/horse-facilities/stable-ventilation

I hope this is helpful. Best of luck in your important work! Horses make wonderful healing partners.

John

Blackburn Architects’ Senior Project Manager Ian Kelly answers questions about the glass used in equestrian facilities.

Q: Dear John,
I’m overseeing renovations to a barn in the cold climate near Quebec. To improve the barn’s functionality, safety and ventilation, we are converting the windows to double-pane, energy efficient, glass.
Please help:
1. Do you recommend a pane of tempered glass on one side of the spacer bar and regular laminated glass on the other side? (Editor’s note: a spacer bar, sometimes known as a profile, is the continuous hollow frame which separates the two glass panes in a double glazed window.)
2. Is it better to have tempered glass throughout including the laminated glass? 
3. It appears that laminate glass consists of a clear plastic laminate sandwiched by glass on both sides. Do both glass pieces that make up the laminate glass need to be tempered?
4. Do both panes of glass making up the double glazed unit need to be laminated?
5. What minimum thickness of glass and minimum airspace or spacer bar size do you recommend? 
Thanks so much for your help,
Barn Manager Trying to Get It Right

A: Dear Barn Manager Trying to Get It Right,

1. We recommend that the glass used in equestrian structures be tempered throughout, including the glass that is laminated. The tempering and lamination processes do separate but similar things: They create safer glass for people and livestock.  Tempering makes the glass break into small chunks as opposed to slivers and sharp pieces, while the lamination gives the glass a slightly greater resistance to breaking, and keeps the glass in place when and if it breaks.  Both serve to make it safer around the horses if a window should break.

2. If horses have access to both sides of the glazing unit, then we recommend both sides of all glass should be laminated and tempered.  If cost is an issue, I would stick with everything being tempered and omit the lamination.  I say this because laminated glass does not always age as well as tempering.  This doesn’t happen in every case, but the laminate can shrink and pull in from the corners of the glass, and eventually become visible over time.  We prefer tempering.

3. Any glass that is exposed to the horses should be either tempered or laminated at a minimum.  If the horses have access to both sides of the doors, yes, both panes should be protected in one way or the other, or both.

4. You should work backwards from the depth of frame that you have, minus about 1/4”.  Working with the glass manufacturer will determine what they have available for the spacer sizes. The more airspace you can allow for the better, but each manufacturer already works with a few different size spacers.  Use the largest one that still allows the glazing unit to fit within the frame.

You also should consider some other factors pertaining to glass in cold climates, and request glass that meets the following:

You want glass with a high solar gain, and low emissivity.
1. The glass should have a Solar Heat Gain Coefficient (SHGC) around 0.55
2. The glass should have a U-value of less than 0.33
3. The glass should have a higher value Visible Transmission (VT)
4. Use double-paned glazing unit with low-e gas that has a vacuum sealed gasket between the panes of glass.  The pocket between panes of glass is filled with an insulation gas, most typically argon.
5. You may also consider using low emissive (low-e) glass panes.  Low-e prevents the transfer of heat from warm to cold.  So if you do, the low-e coating (typically a metallic oxide) should be on the outermost side of the innermost pane of glass.
There are pros and cons that should be considered with each option.  For instance, with #4, over time and if the gasket seal fails, you can begin to see condensation between the panes of glass.  Whereas with #5, you may be able to see the coating from certain angles, especially if you are wearing polarized sunglasses.   

Since the advantages are a bit more obvious, and similar to one another (i.e. tempered vs laminated, and low-e gas vs low-e coated glass), here is a summary of some of the disadvantages to each option:

tempered only – glass may still shatter (in harmless pieces) and fall to the ground
laminated only – laminate can discolor over time and shrink in from the corners of the glass

low-e gas filled glazing unit – if the gasket fails, condensation can form in between the glass
low-e coated glass – may be visible in certain light conditions, or when wearing polarized sunglasses.  You can sometimes see this on automobile glass.

My suggested starting place would be tempered glass, meeting the SHGC and U-values recommended above.  I would then lean toward #5 – low-e coated glass, since with #4 you can expect the gaskets to fail at some point, and then the glazing unit would need to be replaced again.  If the coating of the low-e coated glass is too “visible”, then low-e gas may be the better option, with the expectation that you may need to replace some of them again in 10 to 20 years, if and when the gaskets fail.

Last week the Paulick Report featured a story on worries over the possible closing of California’s Los Alamitos track (http://www.paulickreport.com/news/the-biz/life-horse-racing-happens-los-alamitos-acreage-racing-ends/)

As a Board member of the Equine Land Conservation Resource, a national organization dedicated to saving land for horses and horse-related activities, it’s disheartening to hear of the potential loss of a thriving racing venue for what will no doubt become another strip mall and urban sprawl.

I have been concerned for years about the loss of race tracks, especially older ones in the inner city or suburban locations that are under pressure to close.

Santa Anita was considering reducing their stable area several years ago and selling land to an adjoining commercial shopping mall. There was pressure to shut down Pimlico (an inner city aging track) and move the Preakness to Laurel Park. Suffolk Downs in Boston is under similar pressure. The list goes on and on.

And of course the answer for many race tracks has been to add casinos, which do nothing for horses or horse racing except cheapen it. Racing is a great spectator sport. Look at racing in Europe, especially in England (Goodwood and Ascot are two prime examples) where horse racing is an enjoyable event not a place where desperation fuels gambling.

The Los Alamitos track supports the horse economy, preserves open space, diversifies the suburban environment/landscape/streetscape/economy and preserves the equine heritage of the site and area.

There are heartening success stories. When Illinois’ Balmoral Park hosted its last harness races at the end of 2015, a New York company, Horse Shows in the Sun, purchased the 200-acre site, and after a significant investment is preparing the grounds for show jumping competition starting next spring.

I’ll be writing more about this in the months to come. To learn more about the Equine Land Conservation Resource and its mission, please visit their website at www.ELCR.org to become a member and get involved.

Newly elected to the Maryland Horse Council’s Board of Directors, John Blackburn will serve as a voting member beginning July 2016 through June 2018

 Healthy Stables by Design restocked on Amazon.

Watch as John gives viewers advice about their barn projects on the popular series Wild About Barns.