Multi-discipline boarding stables?

[honeychile]

How many of you riding at stables where there is a concentration of more than one or two disciplines? How does it work for you or your stable?

I ask because I am used to boarding at stables that are primarily dressage, and a few years ago I moved to one that is about 65% percent hunter/jumpers riders, and then the rest of us are dressage/pleasure riders. Sometimes the fences and courses are left put out, and this creates issues with the dressage riders who love to circle (;)), or the hunter/jumpers moan about having to put away said fences after every lesson day. It also does create a bit of a split between barn folks.

Would love to hear other people's experiences! :)

[sublimequine]

I've NEVER been at a barn that was all one discipline, that would just be too weird for me! :lol:

The barn I'm at now.. I'd say is predominantly Dressage folks, some jumpers/eventers/hunters, and a handful of western folks.

The barn I'm at during the school year (college student) is predominantly western riders (pleasure/trail, then WP, then reining), a few Dressage riders, a few jumpers, and a Saddleseat rider as well. Variety is the spice of life! :yes::yes::yes:

[Laurierace]

Yeah my barn is mainly eventers with some western thrown in for good measure. No offense but how in tune can you be with your horse if you can't circle around jumps? I understand the need to practice a test in an open arena but other than that I would think the two disciplines can multi-task without too much of an issue.

[BuddyRoo]

I've been at a handful of barns that had multiple disciplines. Generally the rule was that if you put it up you take it down. That went for barrels, jumps, ground poles, gates, whatever.

If you're the first to get there and you set up a course or you set up a trail course or you set up barrels, fine. You were there first. Most folks will ask others who show up, "hey, is it cool if I school this and then I'll put it away?"

It has always been in the rules where I've boarded. If there's some disagreement on the rules and etiquette where you are, I'd ask the BO.

One of the things I've found recently is that I tend to defer to whomever was there first. That means that if some parelli person is there doing free longe work, I may not even RIDE because I don't want to interrupt. Or if someone is giving a lesson, I'll skip riding then too. When I talked to BO, I was informed, "YOU PAY FOR THIS ARENA. YOU GET TO USE IT. And if you have any trouble, you tell me. I will make it right."

So...maybe it's different at every barn. As someone who likes to jump, I wouldn't think of leaving my stuff up in other people's way.

However...for the record, even H/J folks do 10 and 20 m circles. Around jumps. I don't think it should be that hard for folks to utilize and share an arena if they are TRYING to share.

[honeychile]

lol, it was a joke. I CAN circle around fences, but it is very hard to do serpentines, quarter lines, center lines, spiral in/out, etc, when there are fences left up in a course format.

[Kementari]

I'm an eventer at a barn with mostly pleasure and trail riders (one other eventer, but she's not riding much at the moment). When I jump, I take down my jumps when I'm done, just out of respect for the others. It's not such a big deal.

Of course, when I was at a primarily event barn (out of coincidence, not design - though we were remarkably good at covertly converting those of other disciplines who moved in.... :lol:), we left the jumps up pretty much all the time, and didn't have a problem doing our dressage around them.

[dghunter]

I'm the only one that really jumps at my barn out of 17 horses. We have a couple dressage, some young horses who are just getting started, and the rest are pleasure. If we use jumps in the indoor then they have to be taken down after. BO, however, keeps a full course set up outside. Her rule is that it's not supposed to be moved but b/c I'm the only one that jumps there's no problem with me moving stuff around. The other girl that jumps sometimes will NOT ride outside. Our outdoor is hard to describe... it's like two arenas in one. It's kind of t-shaped and the top part of the "t" is a regulation sized dressage arena. We never bother to put any jumps or poles up there. No one has ever complained about anything being in the way and the one dressage girl is showing second level and was ranked nationally last year and she rides just fine around everything. I also do lots of dressage type flatwork and have no problems either going around the jumps or staying up top in the empty space.

[EventerOP]

At my barn we have riders that do all different things! We have about 25 horses in total. We have riders that are very into eventing, and then we have a few riders that event for fun at the lower levels. We have some riders that do the big eq stuff and the big jumpers and other riders that go and just do x-rails. Then we have have riders that are doing third level dressage and some riders that are doing intro level. And then we have a few ladies that just love there horses and they ride for fun and hack around in the feilds and trails.
Its great because its a very laid back place and everyone does different things and we are all very supportive of each other. We do have 3 rings, and that makes things much better. We have one large dressage ring. We have one ring that has jumps set up. And then we have another largr jumping ring in a huge feild that has big fancy jumps in it.

[coloredhorse]

When I had a boarding operation, it was most definitely a multi-discipline environment! As the BO/BM, I made it a rule that you break down what you set up. People were generally agreeable; there were one or two difficult folk, but they were difficult in many areas and didn't last long with me.

Sometimes things were forgotten, but no big deal, a gentle reminder when next I saw the "offending" party was all that was necessary. (And quite frankly, once or twice I got distracted by the needs of a given evening and went home without putting up some jumps or something that I had set up ... breaking my own rules!)

[IsolaBella09]

My barn is mainly hunter/jumper but we have a girl who does Western, she's 4th in the nation for her class, and then our barn owner does mainly dressage, with the occasional hunter show thrown in. We also have an eventer, that refuses to do the hunters. ;)

[mypaintwattie]

My barn has 400+ horses, 3 H/J trainers, a riding school, a western/all-around trainer, a reining trainer, a saddleseat trainer, a dressage trainer, and an eventing trainer. We also have our share of recreational riders. It all works out great- we have 9 arenas so everyone has room, and you get the chance to see many types of riding that you would not otherwise see.

[SarahandSam]

My barn has 400+ horses, 3 H/J trainers, a riding school, a western/all-around trainer, a reining trainer, a saddleseat trainer, a dressage trainer, and an eventing trainer.

Holy Jesus.

[Fairview Horse Center]

My arena is 150' x 250'. We split into a 1/3 - 2/3rds area, with the jumps kept at one end. The "dressage" portion is about 20 x 45 meters. We don't have it fenced off, so people can still work using the entire arena, but it does offer areas that can be used for each, without constantly clearing equipment.

Courtesy of Google :cool:

[Hunter Mom]

My barn has 400+ horses, 3 H/J trainers, a riding school, a western/all-around trainer, a reining trainer, a saddleseat trainer, a dressage trainer, and an eventing trainer. We also have our share of recreational riders. It all works out great- we have 9 arenas so everyone has room, and you get the chance to see many types of riding that you would not otherwise see.

Holy Horse Poop! This place must be HUGE!

Our barn currently has about 50 horses, and we have a nice h/j program, some dressage riders and a bunch of pleasure/trail folks. We have a new western trainer, but I don't believe she's doing much yet. The worst part is that, based on how our barn is laid out, us h/j folks don't come into contact often with the ohters. We're sometimes considered snobs, which we're not. It is just a hike to the "other" tack room/area from ours, which is attached to the indoor. We do always take our jumps down - we consider it an additional conditioning activity.

As for those of us h/j and dressage people, it can be a little tough when one of our DQs shows up late for her lesson and decides to ride with us. She has an uncanny knack for being right where we need to be, then whines because we're in her way.

[suze]

About 150 horses here. Like mypaintwattie we have multiple arenas & disciplines including cutting. The jump arena isn't fenced, but we figure if you're not good enough yet to ride without a rail you're not ready to jump. The cutting pen is a bit deep for most other disciplines although people do turn out in it. We've got a cutting/reining trainer, several instructors for dressage, eventing and hunters (although the hunters are by far the minority), a guy who occasionally drives his Saddlebred all over the place & through most of the arenas. We hold NRHA reining shows & have a resident Pony Club. The horses get tons of exposure to all sorts of things, including the cattle & we've even had a few english riders try their horses at following a cow. We've also got folks who just ride for fun or out on trails. Never a dull moment! Although I remember one working Christmas when I was the only soul on the place all morning & it was so peaceful!

[mypaintwattie]

Holy Horse Poop! This place must be HUGE!


It sits on 25 acres, surrounded by 185 acres of trails. 2 Miles from the ocean, a midsize facility by Southern California standards. Forgot to mention that we have a therapeutic riding center, rental barn, and equine rescue group on the grounds too. But even with all the horses, there are many times when there are only a handful of boarders there- the arenas are hardly ever full. The only thing we don't have is pasture space- you are hard pressed to find actual pasture in SoCal.

[Tiffani B]

It sits on 25 acres, surrounded by 185 acres of trails. 2 Miles from the ocean, a midsize facility by Southern California standards. Forgot to mention that we have a therapeutic riding center, rental barn, and equine rescue group on the grounds too. But even with all the horses, there are many times when there are only a handful of boarders there- the arenas are hardly ever full. The only thing we don't have is pasture space- you are hard pressed to find actual pasture in SoCal.

I know the Saddleseat trainer at your place. He used to train here in WI. It sounds like quite the operation!

[seeuatx]

I know it can work, but much like the "open show" dscussion, one discipline will dominate and others may feel left out. Unless you are fortunate enough to have multiple arenas and round pens. I have been the "dressage girl" in primarily hunter barns where the rule was move the jumps if you must, but if a course is up please put it back. I have also been the hunter/eventer girl in a dressage barn where the rule was "if you put it up, take it down". I was fine with either as long as everyone is clear on the rules. Someone will always feel like they are getting the short end of the stick, but them's the breaks.

The barn I am at now has a take down rule for the indoor, but we can leave some semblance of a course up in the outdoor as long as we leave a space for a true 20m circle and either a straight center line or a clear 1/4 line to the wall.

Note to self: when I hit the big lotto (when I actually play a ticket) have an arena like Fairview Horse Center ;)

[Ambrey]

My barn has 400+ horses, 3 H/J trainers, a riding school, a western/all-around trainer, a reining trainer, a saddleseat trainer, a dressage trainer, and an eventing trainer. We also have our share of recreational riders. It all works out great- we have 9 arenas so everyone has room, and you get the chance to see many types of riding that you would not otherwise see.

Yep, I love being able to see everyone else ride different disciplines. Just because of the size of the facility, though, we have several arenas set up just for jumping, one just for dressage, etc. We don't tend to have to deal with other people's equipment.

I don't have the bravery to jump, but I enjoy watching it- especially the brave little kids on their ponies! And I'm sure if I were a pleasure rider or a jumper, I'd think it would be neat to be able to watch people schooling grand prix dressage horses as well :) Plus, I love me some little quarter horses, so having the western trainers lets me see lots of them :)

And I have three friends who have switched disciplines recently, for different reasons. That's a nice option to have.

[honeychile]

Thanks for the replies everyone!

Interesting to see how other barns work!

Where I'm at now, Saturday (after lessons finish at noon) to Tuesday evening the arena is to be kept clear, and Tuesday evening to Saturday morning there is always a course left up as our H/J trainer has lessons mostly those days. It seems to work, but I definitely would love to have another arena that is cleared 24/7! I am jealous of all the places with extra arena's! :winkgrin:

[Coreene]

Mypaintwattie and I were watching an Extreme Cowboy clinic in one arena, they were jumping in another, sliding stops next to that and saddleseat pulling the cart on the other side. Put my dressage horse with the western/all-around trainer in April for some honest work, and the horse has never been so happy, relaxed or elastic - HUGE improvement, does wonders for his dressage and for his mind, and it's great having the trainer choice without having to move, and all smack in the middle of town. :yes: Plus a hoot when your "hot" horse goes on the buckle. I love having all the disciplines at our place, it's a blast. Just wish we still had arena polo!

[mvp]

I think dressage types and jumping types can get along. But I'd ask for a couple of concessions from the dressage peeps. First, it's a huge PITA to built and dismantle courses every single time. Since your dressage horses are broke... since you really don't want to drill whole tests with them anyway... can't you guys circle and serpentine around jumps?

I learned some mighty fine dressage from a trainer who had me work around jumps. A figure eight done between two jumps 18 feet apart really helped me and slightly-stiff, slightly disobedient horse bend. He either turned or risked bumping his precious nose on a standard. A good time was had by all.

That having been said, those on the jumping side of things can benefit from watching good, dedicated, thorough flat work. They also should help take down the jumps so that the whole ring can be groomed. We can all capitalize on the dressage community's special obsession with manicured footing.

Oh yes, and if you get really lucky, you'll have a faboo, old skool western cohort around. When you want to see broke horses, watch these guys for a while.

If you had some driving peeps to watch, you might become an expert at long lining, too.

Multiculturalism has its benefits.

[Dispatcher]

It sits on 25 acres, surrounded by 185 acres of trails. 2 Miles from the ocean, a midsize facility by Southern California standards. Forgot to mention that we have a therapeutic riding center, rental barn, and equine rescue group on the grounds too. But even with all the horses, there are many times when there are only a handful of boarders there- the arenas are hardly ever full. The only thing we don't have is pasture space- you are hard pressed to find actual pasture in SoCal.


Four HUNDRED horses on 25 acres???? oh my!

[Fairview Horse Center]

Since your dressage horses are broke... since you really don't want to drill whole tests with them anyway... can't you guys circle and serpentine around jumps?


At Dressage at Devon one year, I watched a wonderful warmup. The horse and rider moved thru several schooling areas, passaging, and half-passing from one area to another. It was lovely to see the freedom in the gaits, and the flow of the "dance". It was Courtney King, and Idocus (before he went to Holland), and they won their test.

Horses gaits respond to the mental freedom of not being confined in an arena, so working around jumps can be a good thng. There does need to be space though to ride the movements without hitting equipment though.

[War Admiral]

One of the best boarding barns I ever worked at was a 55-stall multidisciplinary barn where an H/J trainer rented a bunch of stalls, there were AQHA peeps, couple of eventers with OTTBs, a Saddlebred person, and me training HRH Avery to do carriage driving.

The rule there was "You put it up, you take it down". An automatic exception was granted to the AQHA girl who did trail, though, because whenever her trail obstacles were in the ring, eeeeeeeverybody wanted to try it! :lol::yes: SO much fun - great for the lesson kids - and among the grownups, it actually got pretty competitive among all the disciplines, in a friendly way.

[MTshowjumper]

My barn has 400+ horses, 3 H/J trainers, a riding school, a western/all-around trainer, a reining trainer, a saddleseat trainer, a dressage trainer, and an eventing trainer. We also have our share of recreational riders. It all works out great- we have 9 arenas so everyone has room, and you get the chance to see many types of riding that you would not otherwise see.

Would that be the OC Equestrian center? I was there for the IHSA zone finals one year while in college. It was HUGE!, and it was cool to see all the different arenas and disciplines.

[Ambrey]

Would that be the OC Equestrian center? I was there for the IHSA zone finals one year while in college. It was HUGE!, and it was cool to see all the different arenas and disciplines.

How long ago are we talking about? :lol: Currently, there is no "OC Eq Center." There is an OC Fairgrounds center, but I think most of the Orange County shows are in San Juan Capistrano at Sycamore Trails (which is HUGE, even bigger than our center, and has an indoor).

But I have been told that things have changed greatly over the years and I've only been doing the horse thing here for 2 years, so I don't know, LOL!

[Coreene]

The only thing that has changed is that we haven't had many shows in the last two years. We have had every discipline except driving, breed shows and either HS or college leagues, plus rodeos.

[Ambrey]

The only thing that has changed is that we haven't had many shows in the last two years. We have had every discipline except driving, breed shows and either HS or college leagues, plus rodeos.

Yeah, I always meant to come see a show, I remember when they used to be pretty regular, with portable stalls up on the hill. I was surprised that once I finally got a horse of my own there were no more shows :( I guess my timing is impeccable!

[LSM1212]

I'm also at a decent sized facility. Just moved there about a month ago. Probably close to 70 horses (including pasture board and schoolies). It's 600 acres. Has 2 barns and 4 arenas! And tons of "trail/conditioning" fields.

There is an outdoor arena (fenced & lighted) that has jumps set up and they stay up. But it's not hard to work around them.

There is a grass ring that has jumps set up but also easy to work around those. Ring is out in the open.

There is a dressage ring and a nice grass area surrounding it so you can ride in the ring our outside of the ring. The entire area is fenced off.

There is an indoor arena w/ mirrors (that was interesting the first time my horse experience that!). I haven't seen any jumps set up in there yet (they are all in the corners). I've heard that in the cold weather when everyone is stuck in the indoor, they will set up a few jumps for lessons and such. But they don't stay up.

Right now the weather is decent enough to mostly ride outside. I just kinda wonder around from ring to ring. LOL But I'm still trying to get my guy used to the facility. And we've been walking in the open fields a bit too.

It's a multiple disclipine facility. Dressage, Eventing, Hunters, and some Pleasure... from what I've seen. I did see someone the other day w/ a Western saddle on their horse. ;) There are 5 instructors for the 3 disciplines and they are divided up by riding level.

[mypaintwattie]

Four HUNDRED horses on 25 acres???? oh my!

Yup, and we all fit in nicely, actually with room to spare. It really doesn't seem like that many horses are there. The place is only really busy on weekend mornings when all of the lesson barns have back to back lessons. And there are larger facilities in the area with even more horses on similar or less acreage. What can I say, land is at a premium here, so we love to pack 'em in tight!:D

[MunchkinsMom]

The rule at all the barns where I boarded: if you set it up, you take it down when done. As others posted if someone after you wanted to use the jumps or trail obstacles, then they were responsible for taking them down.

Try being the only AQHA show horse in an Arabian show barn - now that was an experience for me. I got to learn a lot, and show them a few things too.

Diversity is good!

[Beverley]

Yep, pretty much everything at my barn, eventing, dressage, h/j, trail riders, barrels, saddle seat- no driving horses at present.

We do have two rings so jumps tend to stay in place in jumping arena. Barrels sometimes go to dressage arena for practice.

Variety is the spice of life.

[Gray Horse H/J]

My barn is primarily H/J, but we have several dressage riders and Western riders as well. The indoor ring is big enough (72' by 320', I believe) to leave jumps set up on one end and the other end open, so everyone's happy. There are two outdoor rings, one usually has a jump course set up, the other has dressage letters set up.

I'm in a pretty big barn as well (though not 400 horses!). I think there's 120 stalls, and the barn's mostly full, and there's a pasture boarded group as well. The barn's on 140 acres though, and the barn itself is very large, so it usually doesn't feel overly crowded.

[Jo]

We've got just about everything under the sun at our place. :lol:

Currently our arena has three barrels (for the barrel racers) and 6 or so poles in cement buckets (for pole benders and other game-day types). Our grass arena has a field full of jumps.

We all "make it work" because nobody wants to move their stuff around. If we wanted to practice an actual dressage test, we'd have to move things around, but right now it's fine to practice 20 m circles around poles! ;)

[mjrtango93]

My barn is multi disciplined at the moment but is definately going towards 1 discipline only. We have 50 horses on 300 acres, almost all eventing but 2 ladies (with their multiple horses) that do only dressage, as well as 2 trail riding ladies. Used to have a pair of husband/wife reiners but they bought their own property and moved years ago. We have 2 arenas, in the summer the jumps are only in the outdoor, so the indoor is always clear. In the winter jumps go up on Thursday and come down on Saturday, but otherwise clear. The dressage ladies complain occassionally but that normally because their horses are being stupid about the drapes in the wind and their horses are "up" and they want something to complain about other then weather.

[Across Sicily]

My barn is all Morgans, but we do several different disciplines... Saddleseat, Driving, Hunter Pleasure, Western Pleasure, and in-hand (and breeding as well, but that's not really a discipline). We have about 70-some horses on the premises and on any given day you will see someone riding hunt seat, saddle seat, driving a horse, and jogging by on a western horse. We have 3 trainers (one of whom doubles as instructor) who each have about 12-14 horses in training. (As I mentioned we have breeding services, which means mares/foals, stallions, and yearling/two yo babies floating around in the pastures, so that really ups the horse count. Plus 7 or 8 lesson horses.)

BUT... they are all Morgans, the trainers are all related to one another, and the diversity of the breed allows for different disciplines. The saddleseat riders might not quite UNDERSTAND the hunters or why the hunt riders like it, and so on, but I've never heard a grouchy comment about someone else riding a "worse" discipline or what have you. I'm well aware that because it is the same breed it is much easier than having ASBs, QHs, and Warmbloods all living in harmony ;)

[MTshowjumper]

How long ago are we talking about? :lol: Currently, there is no "OC Eq Center." There is an OC Fairgrounds center, but I think most of the Orange County shows are in San Juan Capistrano at Sycamore Trails (which is HUGE, even bigger than our center, and has an indoor).

But I have been told that things have changed greatly over the years and I've only been doing the horse thing here for 2 years, so I don't know, LOL!

It was about 5 or 6 yrs ago, it was the OC Fairgrounds.

[drmgncolor]

We have two riding rings.

Ring 1: jumps and poles for bending allowed and allowed to stay up.
Ring 2: has lights. no jumps allowed to be left up.

[Samantha37]

My barn is small, with any discipline welcome.
There are:
4 eventers (5 horses)
1 dressage rider
4 Western trail riders/ pleasure

We also have 3 children who are learning to ride. One is a boarder and she has a pony, and the other two are the BO's kids who have a pony and a horse.

We have a large outdoor, and a small indoor- and the rule is- put up whatever you want as long as you take it down. We only have a few jumps, and mostly the eventers jump school at their trainers' farms. Sometimes they will set up cones or something for the kids, but they take them down. Occasionally we will set up a standard dressage ring and leave it up for a day or so so everyone who wants to can play in it.

I love what poster did with her large ring- the split... may look into doing that, though!

[Twisting]

We have a nice mix of hunter/jumper, dressage, western, pleasure riders. But there's not much conflict since there's a jumping arena, dressage arena, several fields to hack in, a cross country course, mountain trails, and a polo field with beach access across the street.