Lindsey Auclair grew up in California, riding eventing and working her way up to prelim. But she made a change and switched disciplines to dressage while attending school in Boston for entrepreneurship. She had a bit of a horse hiatus towards the end of school, however Lindsey resumed riding after moving to Vero Beach, her husband’s hometown in Florida. The charming beach town has an active equestrian community, conveniently located an hour and a half north of Wellington and three hours from Ocala.
Lindsey started riding with a fantastic local trainer who patiently helped her with her young and challenging Furstenball gelding, “Fritz”. When Fritz retired early (from DSLD) Lindsey found herself wanting another riding partner. She eventually convinced her husband it was time to build their own dream barn to keep Fritzy at home with them.
Photos by Nicole Schultz of Boss Mare Media
Copper Light Farm was founded in 2019. When Lindsey and her husband purchased the property, it had been previously set up for team roping.
“The property also included an original ten stall barn with tack room (two stalls were used for storage, I added stall fronts to utilize all ten stalls), the outdoor arena, automatic walker and covered seating, plus the house. We added the new barn which has eighteen stalls with a tack room, feed room and restroom, plus twenty paddocks, a large warehouse and the covered arena. We also enclosed the original ‘roping box’ to make it a hay and shavings storage building.”
Since the property came with some major (and permanent) elements already in place, the couple had to think about making the layout flow nicely with the addition of new buildings. The brand-new barn sits along the side of the outdoor arena where massive cattle chutes that led to a roping box at one end of the arena once occupied.
“I knew that I wanted the new barn to hug the outdoor arena so half of the stalls viewed the arena and I could add a breezeway with a viewing porch that you could access the arena from. With all of the cattle fencing in place, not many people could envision my plan so I doodled on aerials and drew and redrew the barn layout a lot. We added some extra roadways, extended the parking lot along the way but it all came together well.”
The beautiful aged copper lantern is from Lighting New York.
Airflow was an important thing to consider for both the barn and covered arena. The stalls receive a full eastern breeze off the open arena, which passes through the breezeway and cools the entire barn. The covered arena is situated perpendicularly at the end of the new barn and outdoor arena so it looks very intentional with the original outdoor arena.
Both the new and existing barn are by MD Barnmaster.
“I met with a lot of builders and while aesthetically my dream barn would have been a touch fancier, I really loved the concept of MD designs. After having our horses in the original barn for a few months and really getting to love some of the features, we decided to go with them. They are essentially modular, so the barn was built in pieces in California and then shipped here to Florida.”
Ultimately safety, airflow and construction time led Lindsay to go with MD. The roofline is double ventilated with an oversized aisle. Big Ass Fans also help recirculate the air. The barns are hurricane wind rated and zero fire spread rated. Every building and arena was also built way above flood level and extra drainage was added in the event of big rains.
The new barn and covered arena was installed by Marty Knapp. Since the barns are modular, they were assembled fairly quickly once they were delivered. Copper Light’s new barn went up in about four weeks. As the barn is nestled by both arenas, riders were using the ring daily during construction. Getting the project done in a timely manner was imperative. It took about one year from the first load of dirt to the last element of the warehouse being installed to complete the project.
Lindsey’s stalls are easy to keep clean.
“Functionally, I am obsessed with the MD Barn walls. We clean stall walls regularly and it’s so easy to just grab a rag and wipe them down. The walls are also ‘kick proof’ and ‘chew proof’ so there is very little damage and no unsightly gnawing on wooden boards. It’s all very sanitary and modern feeling, not totally what I would have envisioned if you asked me what I wanted two years ago but I’m now utterly obsessed with it.”
The copper wall lanterns add a beautiful touch of style.
Barn Bathroom
The pretty copper theme continues in the bathroom. The patina horse head hook is from Tack Room Studio (featured here on Stable Style).
The copper bathroom lighting was also purchased from Lighting New York.
Tack Room
Enter the tack room and you’ll be greeted by a stunning wall of saddles.
The racks are a modified request of their regular racks by Saddle Stackers.
The bridle pegs are from Oh My Hook.
The grooming bays are from Saratoga Stalls.
Covered Arena
The covered arena is probably everyone’s favorite feature. It’s 210′ × 80′, a touch longer and wider than a dressage arena.
The electricians heard Lindsey loud and clear when she said she wanted bright white light to ride in.
“It’s the best lit arena I’ve ever personally stepped foot in. Plus, the breeze rocks and you can hear the fountain bubbling in the background as you canter around. It’s total heaven.”
Perfectly lined up with the pond, the covered arena gets the same amazing eastern breeze from one end to the other with a fountain view.
“One of our boarder clients jokes that we have air conditioning in the covered arena. I don’t know how we ever survived without it!”
The footing is by ESI and is absolutely phenomenal.
Original Barn
Here is the original 10-stall barn by MD Barnmasters.
Thank you Lindsey for sharing your amazing farm with us!
Photos by Nicole Schultz of Boss Mare Media
New Reader? Sign up for the weekly Stable Style newsletter and never miss a blog post!
SUPPORT OUR ADVERTISERS
