Options

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.

Problem Solving

It’s that time of year again!

I’ve had an idea for a blog hop for a while but wasn’t sure that it would gain any traction with how my poor, nearly abandoned blog is doing at this point. I did decide to go ahead and post this and if you don’t feel like responding to this via a post on your blog I’d still love to get a comment which things you problem solve and how.

Short of maybe Jen from Cob Jockey’s barn :) I don’t think that anywhere we board our horses is perfect. Either it’s a long way away, lacks an indoor or outdoor arena, doesn’t have the ideal turnout, or anything else. As I’ve been looking at options for where to go when this barn closes (obviously I’m already looking so that I don’t get caught without a place) I’ve been wondering how others problem solve for this.

One example is that I currently have a barn that isn’t heated. With that, I can’t keep anything that’s temperature sensitive at the barn including most first aid gunk. My problem solve for this was to get a grooming bag and bring it with me home, to work (since I’ve been going to the barn directly from work), and then to the barn. It certainly wasn’t the ideal set up but it did allow me to have those items at the barn with me without the risk of them freezing and becoming unusable.

This brand new alfalfa smells so good!

I’m working on a solution to the problem of the rocky outdoor arenas at this barn since I’ll likely still be here through the summer and most, if not all, of the fall. My goal is to move someplace that has a heated barn/arena by the cold part of winter but who knows if that will happen since wait lists are fickle things. Some options for problem solving the rocky arenas are low profile hoof boots and/or Hoof Armor.

So, the questions I have are;

1. What are the things at your barn that aren’t ideal for you and your horse.
2. How do you problem solve for those items, what workable solutions have you found
3. At your current or past barn are there things that you haven’t been able to find a workable solution for? What deal breakers do you have for a boarding barn?

A Bit More Info

Obviously not my barn but very cool picture

I’m hoping to make my decision about barns this week but thought that I’d share a little more about each because I know I always find this sort of thing interesting when reading other people’s blogs.

Current Barn

Current Barn ($760):
$600 per month for stall board
$160 per month for weekly lessons This includes a semi private paddock (the only option except for a private paddock which would cost more) and is a heated barn with a connected heated arena, outdoor arena, really no trails (although that’s getting better), nice wash stall, two amazing boarder tack rooms, THE most amazing care that Katai has ever had, really nice lounge with a fully stocked fridge including wine, beer, K-cups and a Keurig, microwave, toaster oven, and water cooler. The arena footing is amazing, the facility is very nicely looked after, they add or remove one blanket each turnout/turn in and fly spray, add fly mask etc. They do a great job at feeding time including soaking beet pulp and putting together sometimes very complex diets for each horse.

Barn Option 1

New Barn Option 1 ($535):
$425 per month for stall board
$85ish? I’d either take 1 lesson per month with the more advanced dressage instructor (who is really an eventer) or a couple with the lower level dressage instructor
$25 per month for semi private paddock (large public pen has 24/7 round bale so I need to avoid that with Katai).
This is a heated barn with a connected heated arena but that arena footing is deep and it’s quite small as it’s meant more for western riders. There is another non-heated indoor arena in the other barn on the property. There are multiple (3-4?) outdoor arenas, 1 mile gallop track, TONS of trails, lots of events going on all the time (both good and bad since it would be amazing to have the Schramms have a clinic at my barn but all of the chaos all the time might get old) and nice tack rooms. The arena footing isn’t amazing but isn’t dangerous, the facility has been operating a long time so they know what they are doing and run it as a business. Because of that there is much less individualized care but you also know that your horse will be looked after and that no stupid decisions will be made, I’m definitely trying to avoid that after the crazy barn. One of my favorite things with this barn is that the horses only come in for feeding times in the summer, otherwise they are out 24/7. I actually boarded here previously when I "fled" from J's barn and left because I was looking for that dressage show barn that I've mentioned.

Pictures soon!
 
New Barn
Option 2 ($430):
$350 per month for stall board
$80 per month for weekly lessons which are required to board there
This is a heated barn with a heated arena (although it sounds like the heat is only turned on during peak hours since there aren’t many boarders). There isn’t an outdoor but there is a nice outdoor “lawn” to ride on. There aren’t any real trails but this property is on a dead end dirt road so there’d be a place to go on an outdoor ride. There are large paddocks or pasture (which of course I wouldn’t do with Katai) and the owner is used to feeding horses that don’t need many groceries. I believe there is one other boarder currently and then three of the owner/trainer’s horses.

This sounds fishy from the low cost above but the instructor is actually an upper level rider capable of getting other people to the upper levels. The other boarder is currently showing 3rd on her small Arabian and I know of at least one other person that she trained up through Grand Prix as well as the fact that at least one of her horses is a Prix St. George school master that she brought up the levels herself. This is not only the cheapest option but also the best option for me being able to make progress towards my goal of getting my Bronze Medal. I wish there were more trails available (since I was originally planning on option 1 before I knew there was an option 2 and got all excited about the trail riding and gallop track opportunities) but this fits much better with my goals, both financially and riding wise.