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With my current decision to move I didn't have to think that long to decide which barn I would move to if I could. The barn I'm moving to is one that I've been at before and as soon as I saw their response to COVID I started thinking about what moving might look like. That was back at the very beginning of April and while it still took me about three weeks to get to this point, I didn't shop around for other barns.

However, seeing Viva Carlos' post about barns and barn prices actually surprised me a bit as far as how similar our prices are in MN to those in CA. My budget is around $600 max per month and I've been paying between $375-$570 for the past few years. With lessons I was paying as high as $760 per month at one point. With that being said, we have multiple places over $1000 and at least a couple of places around $2000

For that my list of must haves is:

• No pasture - laminitis stuff with Katai and our pastures around here are SUPER rich. Plus, most barns won't deal with grazing muzzles unfortunately.
• Heated barn
• Trailer parking - because this IS happening sooner or later and I'd rather not need to move in order to park a trailer
• Daily supplement feeding - your girl seriously needs her magnesium
• Within budget
• Daily turnout of at least 8 hours
• Indoor arena
• Outdoor arena - no longer a nice to have since I need to get Katai acclimated to riding outside
• access to other outdoor riding space - even if it's a small trail around the pastures
• Good footing in the arenas
• No road riding to get to trails - it's just too easy for something to go wrong and my anxiety won't deal with it. If it's a quiet gravel road I'd consider but nothing fast and paved
• Ample barn hours
• Within a 40 minute drive
• Uses my favorite vet

Nice to haves:

• Access to some sort of lessons on site
• Great barn community, even better if I could show with a group of other riders
• Heated arena
• Have regular visits by someone that does body work, a saddle fitter, etc.
• Ability to use my tack locker
• Horses are led in and out - this wouldn't be optional except Katai is sensible and slowly walks in like a lady
• More than 8 hours of turnout
• Indoor wash stall, solarium, other nice grooming amenities

With that, let's get into the list! This is a random list of barns that I'm aware of and have considered. These are either primarily dressage or eventing for the most part although at least one or two of these have more western riders than english. 

Barn #1

• Pros: 
• Dressage focused barn
• On site trainer
• Nicely heated grooming space with easy access to a wash stall
• Fantastic footing
• Nicely priced
• Active, showing, dressage barn community
• Cons
• I wouldn't ever ride with this trainer again
• Only pasture turn out and no supplement feeding
• Outside of my ideal drive distance

Price: $500

Barn #2 (wait list barn)

• Pros:
• Onsite gold medalist dressage instructor
• Huge indoor arena with fantastic footing
• Fantastic barn community
• Tons of outdoor riding spaces including a pond
• Active, showing, dressage community
• Cons:
• Right at the top of my current budget for stall board
• I've been on the waitlist for over a year with no movement (both a pro and a con really since no one wants to leave)

Price: $610-$750

Barn #3

• Pros:
• Nice indoor footing
• Everything is under one roof and is well heated
• Great, active boarders, mainly dressage
• Lots of access to onsite trainers
• Cons:
• The outdoor arena footing is terrifying and is plagued with horse flies during the summer
• No trainer I'd want to work with
• It's in the process of changing hands barn manager wise
• No real outdoor riding spaces

Price: $600

Barn #4

It doesn't really show the facility, but how could I not post this arena picture

• Pros:
• Dressage focused facility with onsite trainer
• Fantastic footing
• Gorgeous facilities
• Active, showing, dressage community
• They even do stuff like yoga at the barn
• Top trainers in for clinics
• Cons:
• Out of my budget, clearly
• Requires full training
• Not sure we'd fit in

Price: $1200+ with full training

Barn #5

Yes, those are Moshy ears. This place also holds a summer
show series including the show that I took Moshy to a couple of years ago.

• Pros:
• Clearly this place is gorgeous
• Great footing
• The, or one of the, largest indoor arenas in our area
• I think this is the closest barn to our house at just over 20 minutes away
• Access to onsite dressage instruction
• Cons:
• Clearly out of my budget
• I'm not sure if I'd want to train with the resident dressage trainer
• Not much turnout, maybe half day?
• Not sure that we'd fit in

Price: $1200+ (a lot more) with full training. I'm not certain if they require full training or not. You also must purchase a very premium tack trunk so that they all match.

Barn #6 (Current Barn)

• Pros:
• Easy drive from home
• Major shopping center just across the road for easy errand runs
• Nicely heated barn and connected arena
• Wonderful barn community
• Tons of turnout with almost no stall time other than feeding time during the summer
• Indoor wash stall
• Huge park with horse trails just across the road
• Cons:
• Pasture turnout
• Deep and slippery arena footing
• Very busy small arena
• Not very peaceful since directly across the road is a shooting range
• Lack of communication during COVID stuff
• You have to cross a fast, busy road to get to the trails
• Barn hours of 10am-9pm mean that some days it's tough to get to the barn unless I plan carefully
• Can't use the indoor wash stall except for small things since it doesn't drain well
• Outdoor wash washstall doesn't have heated water

Price: $500-$570

Barn #7 (Where I'm moving)

• Pros:
• Three outdoor riding arenas with an outdoor dressage arena going in this year
• A sand gallop track that can be used for trail riding plus just lots of space to ride around the property
• Access to additional trails
• My favorite vet and massage person go here and they have a saddle fitter in regularly 
• Active barn community with lots of eventers and at least some dressage focused riders
• Access to onsite trainers
• Two indoor arenas, one small heated and a larger unheated
• Good footing. It was good when I was there before, recently they've began the process redoing all their footing and adding some fiber footing to all the arenas. It was in process when I toured but I'm guessing they will be finished with that process by the time I move in.
• Barn has been in business since 1977 with the same owners/managers so lots of stability
• Solarium and fancy grooming area
• I can use my own tack locker
• Cons:
• With ala carte boarding options I'd be over budget if I chose everything I wanted
• Very busy barn with lots of kids and group lessons
• The paddocks are small
• No indoor wash stall
• No dressage focused trainers on site

Price: $475-$710 

Barn #8

No real facility photos so here is the arena

• Pros:
• Dressage focused facility
• Great footing
• Large stalls
• Heated arena
• Onsite dressage instruction
• Fairly close to our house
• Cons: 
• Must be in full training
• Over my budget

Price: $935-$1,150

Barn #9

Yes, this is an actual picture of the facility and not something I pulled off Pintrest lol

• Pros:
• Clearly a gorgeous facility
• Dressage focused
• Multiple dressage instructors
• Premium horse care
• FANTASTIC footing. I've actually been told to attend a schooling show there just to experience their footing lol
• Massive indoor
• Clearly it's fully heated
• Onsite laundry
• They feed three times per day and do night checks for all their horses every night 
• They have packages that include up to a number of sessions (either trainer rides or lessons) that's flexible enough to be palatable to me.
• Who wouldn't want to board someplace like this, I mean seriously?
• Stalls are cleaned multiple times per day and are all 12x14
• Cons:
• Well, clearly it's out of my budget
• Not sure if I can think of any other cons

Price: all of it, everything and your soul. 

Just kidding, it's actually a fairly reasonable $1600-$2000 per month. For $1,600 per month (and let's face it that's still exceptionally expensive and around 3x what I'm paying now) you get up to 10 training sessions per month plus access to all the boarding amenities. For the premium $2000 per month package it includes full grooming (not sure I'd want that) but also has things like braiding for shows, body clipping, up to 20 training sessions per month (that's 5 times per week 0-0) and hand walking. If I were ever to aspire to board someplace over my budget it would be this barn. 

Just because, a few more pictures of that facility.

and then, to close out the post, a few more pictures of the facility I'm moving into.

On site cross country course

From their trail class schooling day

One of the outdoor arenas

The smallest outdoor arena

Dom Schramm teaches at this facility a few times a year. This was from one of the recent clinics.

COVID Horse Life Update Part Three

I can't wait to see this face again.

If you didn't read through the previous two parts of this please review those first. Those are important details into the updates I have for this post and are good perspective into my decision.

First, I can't tell you how much I've been struggling with this over the last month. I also can't emphasis enough how much this doesn't have to do with not being able to see Katai right now, and how much it does have to do with the lack of communication, poor communication, and lack of any sort of transparent plan regarding the barn closure. I'd also seen shortcuts taken that, when I could be there all the time, didn't concern me but those certainly started to eat at me when I couldn't be there. With that, two things really struck me over the past week that ultimately really made the decision for me.

First, my poor, amazing boyfriend has been listening to me process this and worry about any and all options. He's quietly talked me through it and been so amazingly supportive. Pretty early on he supported me moving Katai, partially because I think he understands how much my mental health is tied to this decision and is fantastic at supporting me through advocating for myself. I've been the one really hesitating to move in that direction. During yet another night of me being emotional and second guessing myself he said something that has really stuck with me. Basically I was talking about how awesome my barn owner had been when other people had horse emergencies and how she was such a nice person. I was feeling awful for even thinking about moving and he said something along the lines of "Just because she's amazing, doesn't mean she's the right fit for you right now". It really struck me in that the barn isn't awful, the owner isn't awful, no one is a villain here, it's just that with the unprecedented things we're dealing with right now, things have significantly shifted and what was amazing before, isn't necessarily amazing right now.

I'm jealous of those of you who can't see your horse right now but know that they're receiving amazing care. I'm jealous of those of you who have your own property and can continue to see, care for, and even ride your horse(s) through this time, I'm jealous of those of you that are at barns that have taken appropriate steps for social distancing and are listening to the science while allowing you to continue to see your horses and ride.

At any rate, I FINALLY came to the decision to move. The deposit has been paid to the new(ish) barn, notice has been given, and I'm planning to move in the middle of May pending final trailer arrangements.

So, where am I going? It's actually a barn I've been at before back in the winter of 2014/2015. This is the barn where I escaped to from the awful trainer that was my first dressage instructor. At the time I NEEDED an onsite trainer since I needed lessons and didn't have a trailer. Because of that, I didn't stay long but loved it there and the only negative I can remember is that I wasn't in a heated barn and it was the middle of winter so it was super cold.

This is the larger, unheated arena that's in the unheated barn I boarded in.

The people were lovely and it has super amenities. Since I left they also replaced all of the footing with a fiber/sand mix and made some other property improvements. I'll also get some additional "amenities" by being in the heated barn including that, well, there's heat and Katai will get led in rather than ran in like my current barn and this unheated barn. They also have a solarium that I'm super excited to use.

This was in the unheated barn. I think her stall was just to the right of this picture.

I actually have had this barn on my list for awhile and was going to move back just prior to when I moved to Jane's. I was so confident that I was going to move back at that point that I even started on the tack locker project with my dad. This is the only barn I'm aware of in the area that will allow you to have a tack locker. In the meantime, my dad has been kind enough to store the locker but I'm going to pick it up in May, finally get the exterior painted, and get that moved up there. I can't wait to finally start using it.

Tack locker in progress from back 2017/2018

Then, when I was leaving my previous barn and going to my current barn I was planning to move there again until my friend at the current barn invited me out for a visit and I fell in love with her facility and knew a few people there. It feels in some way like I've come full circle and found my way back.

I also really enjoyed reading through L. Williams Viva Carlos post about the barns in the area so while I didn't technically shop around I thought I might do a post about barns, what they offer, and what they check off my list. In the long run, I'm STILL on the waitlist for dream barn and after checking in earlier this month it sounds like there hasn't been any movement since February 2019 when I got on the waitlist. I figure either I'll love it here and decide to stay long term or I'll move there when the spot opens up. I really hadn't planned to move again before a spot opened up there but it turns out we're living through something that's changing plans everywhere so it's not too unexpected that I'd need to revise my plans.

COVID Horse Life Update Part Two

I also picked up some pretty new things on sale from our local tack shop.
I'm doing what I can to #shopsmall and support our local businesses right now.

I feel like everything in life right now requires a difficult decision. Even going out for a run, I need to pick a route that I think won't have too many people and constantly watch and be alert to dodge people as I go while also watching for traffic and lumps or bumps in the sidewalk so I don't hurt myself. It's uncomfortable and tough to zone out and just run.

My anxiety has made shopping difficult because people aren't good at following rules so it's almost impossible to avoid coming within 6' of someone at the store as everyone mills around. That's with MN taking this pretty seriously and doing a good job social distancing overall so far. I can't imagine what it would be like in a place where it wasn't being taken as seriously.

Nothing has felt like a more difficult decision than horse stuff though. Being completely blunt, my options were to stay, cross my fingers, and hope that the barn opens to some extent or the communication gets better or go and have to deal with all of the ickiness that is trying to move a horse during this quarantine while leaving my current barn family at this time.

Not any sort of official advice but cute and funny and still good things to consider.

I knew if I moved that some people would feel like I had moved just so I could ride my horse. We're all in this together and I understand that many people can't ride or see their horse right now. I also knew that I couldn't make the decision based on other's opinions. As horse owners we are all responsible for our own horse, ourselves, and for doing the best that we can for each of them. Sometimes we're going to mess up and look back and wish we had done things differently, sometimes we're going to get it exactly right, and sometimes it's going to be somewhere in the middle.

I'm incredibly anti risk. I'm not an adrenaline junky, I drive at or below the speed limit, I lunge if Katai seems anxious or especially high energy, and with this quarantine I'm staying 99% home with my boyfriend and only ordering food because other than a handful of times that we've needed to leave over the last month+ for truly essential purchases I don't want to leave the house. We've purchased masks (from Equifit actually :), found some hand sanitizer that I've ordered, and are carefully following the science as far as social distancing (those few times we go out), hand washing, and washing/disinfecting our groceries as appropriate. With that, while I'm tempted to just completely hide at home until this passes, none of us can or should completely stop our lives for the next 18+ months. That certainly has its own dangers including, for many of us, mental health decline. Instead, I believe in following the science, reducing risk to the smallest possible amount, and following all guidance in things like our Stay at Home order.

Also taking full advantage of every dressage learning opportunity include this webinar series that Meghan from
A Enter Spooking has put together!

I'm exhausted from all of the decision making and at first just buried my head in the sand and waited it out. However, I also knew that with our current peak expected around the end of June-mid August and the likelihood of additional waves following that, this concern I have about my barn isn't just going to go away in the next month. My boyfriend and I have had a long talk about horse and barn options since we've found that he's not as high risk as was originally thought. So, as we move forward and find out about the next steps for both our stay at home order and any updates from the science community on what we should all be doing we're also moving forward in appropriate ways.

I've considered a bunch of options and have some plans that I'm working to finalize. My BF is working to build an at home climbing wall and we're going to continue to stay 100% at home for the time being.

Blogging and COVID Horse Life Update Part One

Well shit guys, this isn't exactly something I expected I'd be writing about during my lifetime.

First, since I hadn't updated and then everything hit the fan I figured I'd briefly update everyone on my blogging plans. Basically, when I took a pause on blogging back in February I didn't know how long I would take off blogging and wanted to experiment with other methods of communicating with my horse social network. However, once I took the pressure to blog off my shoulders it became apparent pretty quickly how much that break was needed. In addition, while I get some comments and interaction through my blog, I get far more through Instagram and just really love that platform for communication vs. blog comments. It feels much more interactive and more of my friends follow me on Instagram than through my blog.

With that, I don't plan to completely stop blogging. There are certainly things, like this update, that are much more easily communicated in this format vs. on an instagram post. I also do love blogging and the longer format certainly makes journaling easier. I am currently planning to post if and when I have bigger updates, feel like writing about something, have time, and feel motivated to. Otherwise I'll continue to update Instagram because it's just so much less time consuming and easier media wise etc.

We did discover this cool water tower on
one of our walks around our new neighborhood.

On to the horse life with COVID stuff updates.

For anyone who doesn't know I live in the Minneapolis, MN metropolitan area and I work for a major healthcare (hospitals, clinics, elder care, etc.) organization in MN. With that, while I might not be on the front lines I do have an inside look at how COVID is impacting hospitals and healthcare workers. Also important to note, our "Stay at Home" order went into effect on March 27th at Midnight. This "Stay at Home" order is similar to many others that have been shared in that it encourages outside activities that comply with social distancing measures, shuts down "non-essential" businesses, and encourages individuals to only engage in essential activities while following social distancing measures.  My BF and I both are lucky enough to work in fields where we can work 100% from home. We're also ordering all of our groceries online. With that, we've done a handful of curbside pick ups for booze and other items but otherwise haven't left the house since March 9th when we were both moved to 100% wfh.

I had stopped going to the barn as of 3/19 because the person who rents the apartment above the barn had symptoms similar to those with COVID. As of March 25th at Midnight my barn closed with the communication that it would open when it was safe. Between then and now I've received one video of the stall mares running around and playing (where I could sort of see Katai) and have had a couple of text exchanges with the owner. With that, I haven't seen Katai now for four weeks as of Thursday, 4/16.

Old fashioned with the best bartender <3

In Minnesota most barns closed down when the Stay at Home order went into place on March 27th. However, in MN boarding barns as classified as "agricultural facilities" and are thus exempt from the stay at home order which makes them free to make their own decisions about how to handle social distancing measures. Many have since re-opened with measures such as scheduled barn slots for all boarders. I know of at least one barn that remained open but canceled all group lessons, clinics, schooling shows, and other gatherings and is maintaining social distancing rules including hand washing, cleaning items that are touched by multiple people, and encouraging things like masks and sanitizer use.

I also know of barns that closed completely that have still been incredibly accommodating during the barn closures. One of those barns even sent the owner, my friend, a video of them celebrating my friend's horse's birthday including party hats and a cupcake with a candle that the horse even "blew" out. It was adorable, and sweet, and caring. Other barns have not been so accommodating, including mine.

Long story short, I've been faced with an icky decision with way too much time to think and worry about it. Basically I needed to try to find a new barn now based on the care concerns I have or stick this out in place with my fingers crossed that Katai will be ok and move after things quiet down. Since I think most of us know that this could go on for a long time, unless *fingers crossed* we find a vaccine or treatment, I don't know what "after things quiet down" means. If that's a couple of months I would be able do that. If that's 18+ months I absolutely won't. Right now our peak is projected to be at the end of June because we are social distancing well that means a long curve. With that, I can't imagine that "safe" will be a thing until at least this fall or even early next year.