A rider who could not afford £25,000 for her dream stables built them herself, out of dismantled pallets.
Clara Fingerhut has taken apart more than 250 pallets, and got through more than 10,000 screws, and now has something unique and functional, which is a work of art.
Clara told H&H she moved to her new home in Brittany, France, in February, knowing she wanted four stables in the barn on site.
“I was looking at internal stables before I moved,” she said. “The idea was to spend on the fancy ones I’ve always wanted. But there were so many other things that needed doing; all the post and rail fencing, a track down to the barn for deliveries, the money was getting lower and lower, and I realised I couldn’t afford the stables.”
Clara’s first thought was to put something in herself that would do, and could be replaced in future with the ones she really wanted.
“But I think I prefer what I’ve got!” she said.
Clara, who has always loved DIY but had never done anything like this, has as yet been unable to work, as a groom, since she has lived in France owing to her nationality, so she had time to become, temporarily, a builder.
She cleared the barn, which was “full of old tat”, and engaged a professional to level the floor, add stones for drainage, lay rubber matting on top and concrete in vertical posts.
Then she went on the hunt for pallets.
“Luckily, I became friends with the guy who did the work and he’s a landscape gardener who does all sorts of other bits, and always gets pallets,” she said. “I got a lot from him, and from other people, and a local DIY store.
“The first one took me two and a half hours to take apart. I was determined but thought ‘How the hell am I going to be able to do enough?’ But I’ve found out that’s the more difficult type; the others weren’t easy but they were easier. I wasn’t really a pallet expert – but I am now!”
Clara separated each pallet into its component slim planks, which she then screwed on to 2x4s, or the equivalent from a shed she had thought was only fit for the dump, but turned out to have sound wood. All were cut to length, to make the partitions, the front and rear walls, and even the doors and a window.
The window proved problematic; she wanted a diamond shape to discourage chewing but this was unsuccessful, so she found a company that bends sheet metal, and did so for the window and the doors.
The result, after weeks of work, is two complete stables, one 5×5.5m, the other 4x5m, with a window in between and more to the rear, and two more that are in progress. And now her mares Gertie and Tallulah are installed and happy, she is working on the tack room. This has a more substantial roof to be used for storage but is also otherwise a pallet-based creation.
“I was quite proud of my work, not only because I’d built my own solid stables to house my horses, but because they also turned out to be a work of art!” Clara said.
“My horses have their own colours and Tallulah’s is pink, so I was planning to paint it a soft pink but I like the different colours of the planks; it looks really rustic and cosy, and I love the look and feel of it.
“I cried when I first got the horses in. I’ve always been a livery and on someone else’s yard, but this was mine and I could do what I wanted. Tallulah’s 27, bless her, and likes her creature comforts, and she was so happy to come in, in her enormous stable. I was over the moon. When the roof went on the tack room, I sat up there for hours, just looking at the stables.”
Clara added that although she would not have been disappointed had she been able to put in her original dream stables, “because I wouldn’t have known about this”, she is delighted with what she has, and the fact it was built with her own hands.
“It’s got its own personality,” she said.
“I’m not rich, nor am I posh, nor have I ever even had a horse on full livery. I’m just a groom who wanted the best possible life for her horses and did everything in her power to make that happen. I hope it inspires people to follow their dreams without needing to break the bank.”
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