December 23, 2010

Where are the stables around here?! Seriously!

Sometime in the next two years, I'm going to buy a pony.  I want to know that I have a solid place to put him, with a good Dressage and/or Eventing or H/J trainer for us.  Ideally a combination of the former, but I know I can't be that picky.  But I can't find a single thing around here!

What I need:
- Good trainer
- Safe facility with good BO
- Jumps
- Indoor arena (Let's not kid ourselves here: this is on the "need" list because this is Indiana.  We've had snow on the ground for a month straight and it's only December.)

What I want: 
- Other boarders that I get along with and have common ground with
- Good looking facility
- Not really a "kids" stable.  

All I can find around here are marginally qualified people running bottom barrel 4H lesson stables, and facilities claiming to be "western and english" with a picture of a guy with a cigarette in his mouth holding a toddler on a pony that's not wearing any tack or halter.  Yeah...

Why is this so hard?  We're only an hour from Indianapolis.  I did find a good looking lesson stable, but it's 45 minutes away - okay for a weekly lesson, not so good for boarding.  I may have to resign myself to taking lessons somewhere other than my boarding barn, and finding someone's backyard to put my horse in.

No matter what, I do not want my horses on my own property.  Not yet, anyway.  I'm young and mobile, and one of the reason's I'm willing to shell out $400 a month for board is for the priviledge of, you know, going on weekend trips without mobilizing a small army to care for my pets.  No one seems to understand that, as my in-laws keep telling me about farms for sale, and my husband talks about having the horses in the backyard.  I need an arena, and jumps, and for those you need a lot of money, and a tractor, and jumps, and it's just not worth it to  me.

Plus, I want friends.  Horse friends.  I miss college.

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