Walking into the West Georgia Riding Academy & Saddle Club’s new stable, the attention to detail is apparent. The walls and ceilings are covered with wood paneling, and the concrete floor has drains along its length. The stalls are framed in green metal bars. And the high ceilings are broken up with five cupolas with metal shutters that open for ventilation.

“John wanted it done right and everything we did, if it took a little extra, that’s what he wanted that barn to be there a long time,” said Phil McGukin, the contractor for the project. “Unless a fire or hurricane gets it, it will be there. It’s probably one of the few projects I’ve worked on in my 30-something years where somebody was willing to spend the money to do it like it needs to be done.”

The riding academy on Thomas Wilson Road in Roopville added the Whitehall Stables, a new 27-stall, state-of-the-art building for boarding and training animals as well as to add hippotherapy to the services on the ranch.

“It was a big part of our motivation for doing this,” owner John Ford said of the addition of hippotherapy, also known as equine therapy. Ford and general manager Jo Roberts did a basic design for the barn, which exceeds 10,000 square feet, after visiting other facilities and drawing ideas for the most efficient use of the space.

The stable was so well-designed and built, it won the 2009 Agricultural Project of the Year from Fabral Metal Wall and Roof Systems, whose products were used in the barn. The winners were chosen by attendees of the 2009 NFBA Frame Building Expo.

McGukin knows the project is well built. He has gotten another job based on the work he did on that barn, he said.

The stable is designed to be very comfortable for the horses. The high ceilings, cupolas and fans allow for cool breezes to flow through the building. The stable has fly spray derived from chrysanthemums that is sprayed into the barn with an automated system. Each stall has an automatic waterer and rubber mats on the floor for the comfort of the horses. The stalls also have metal bars, instead of wood, at the top of the adjoining walls.

“Horses, you know, are herd animals,” Ford said. “They like to see other horses.”

The barn is also equipped with a sound system throughout the building for the horses and the people. Horses like music. It’s soothing to them, Roberts said.

“I assume they all like Cole Porter,” Ford said.

The stable is very quiet, because the animals are so content, Roberts said.

“You go into a lot of barns and it would just be really, really noisy and the horses are whinnying,” she said. “(Here), they’re fairly quiet most of the time.”

Safety was also considered by adding a lightning system on the roof and a sprinkler system in case of fire. All the electrical systems and wires are encased in metal. The stalls each have two sliding doors, one inside the building and one on the outside. The riding pen has angled metal walls that allow any new rider who falls off a horse to slide to the ground.

“I personally tested that,” Ford said, with a laugh. “I assure you it was completely intentional.”

Details were added to protect the environment. The fly spray is all natural, derived from chrysanthemums and is safe for people and animals. Each stall has a drain and the animal waste runs down the drain into a system that allows it to break down and is released as water. The stalls have individual lighting so only the ones in use need to be on.

“We paid a lot of attention to environmental factors,” Ford said.

In early 2008, after more than seven months of construction the stable was finished and Ford brought in some of his own horses to test the property. For had some changes made based on some of the problems encountered with the own horses. All the outdoor sliding doors are covered with Plexiglas panels in the winter to keep out the cold air. The first thing one of the horses did was bite into the Plexiglas. So, Roberts added some wire to the panels to keep the horses from the Plexiglas.

In addition to the horses, the needs of the people were also considered. The barn has an apartment for trainer Drew Olsen and a break room for the employees. It has his-and-her bathrooms as well as a handicapped-accessible restroom in preparation for the students they will bring for hippotherapy.

The ranch has seven or eight miles of trails for riders to take their horses on and will eventually have 20 throughout the ranch’s 350 acres.

“It’s a real pretty, natural setting,” Ford said.

The barn is just one of the additions Ford is making to the ranch. A site has already been graded for an indoor arena for horse shows and a track. The project should get a lot of use once it’s built.

“You’ve got quite a few horse people, cattle people, a lot of horse people in Carroll County,” Roberts said.