The Iowa State Horse Barn, which was built in the 1920s, is the oldest building on campus used for teaching.

However, Horse Barn manager Sara Garr said it needs major repairs to stay competitive with other universities’ equine programs.

The current equine facilities only discourage students from coming to ISU.

“We’re trying to build a program here and be competitive with other universities,” Garr said.

“When our facilities look bad, that’s not impressive to incoming students,” she said.

Although the building is in excellent condition for its age, Garr said it still has many problems.

She said the leaking roof is the biggest problem with the barn, and she said it needs to be reshingled.

Smaller repairs also are needed in the barn, including painting and the window repair.

“It definitely needs to be repaired,” she said.

However, Garr said renovations to the barn, located north of Kildee Hall, are unlikely.

Every year, the barn has an operating budget set by the university, but little money is set aside for repairs.

“The budget is for labor, grain, medical supplies and fencing,” Garr said. “The money we’re budgeted doesn’t cover expenses of things like the roof.”

Garr said she does not know of any immediate plans to rebuild the barn or to build a new one.

“We don’t get a big say in how the university spends money,” she said.

Alex Rodeck, president of the Equestrian Club, is disappointed with ISU’s horse facilities.

Rodeck, sophomore in animal science from California, said he was told that ISU had a good equine program.

“I think as much as we pay to go to the school, we should have a better facility,” he said. “It’s not big enough to contain any horse program.”

Rodeck said while the barn is insufficient for ISU, the people at the barn work hard to keep it up.

“They do well with what they have,” he said, “but it would be better if they had more.”

Garr said workers and students at the barn do many ground level repairs with painting, stalls or doors, and repairs above ground level are done by Campus Services.

Campus Services estimated the cost of reshingling the roof at more than $100,000 and the cost of above ground-level painting at $50,000, she said.