We’re thinking of going in April How do you like it?
Any hotel or restaurant recommendations?
I’m there every weekend, PM me for specific info.
I have nothing negative to say about the show, the facility, or the management. It is filling up quickly and I met with the mgt last week about April shows. Apparently they are planning quite an extravaganza last weekend in April.
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I visited two weekends ago and the facility was lovely! We ate at the cafe overlooking Bradley Arena and the food was pretty good!
We were there for two weeks and it was great! The facility is beautiful and the prizes are really nice. Most of our group stayed in the cabins on the grounds which was very convenient. A couple other people coming in only for the weekends stayed at the Holiday Inn nearby. My sister and I stayed at an Airbnb which worked out well for us.
General Denver hotel was a really nice restaurant where we had a big Saturday night dinner with the whole barn. Mac D’s Pub, Donato’s, and Damon’s were all good for a casual dinner.
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Thanks!
Just checked the website and the weekend we were targeting says sold out. Not sure if we’ll try for a wait list, or go another time.
Most barns submitted stall reservations last December for the entire circuit. I know we reserved 10 stalls for x # of shows. We are required at least 1 week prior to the show to email Julie and let her know how many stalls we are using. I know this week we had a bit of an emergency and couldn’t go and our stalls were open. If you really want to go I would suggest you email her anyway. If you are planning on attending any of the summer circuit it’s best to plan soon. We have already reserved our FREE stalls! The outdoor rings will be finished, the plan looks amazing and I am sure will be just as nice! They now have an outdoor ice skating rink, yes folks, an ice skating rink! It’s been a great winter circuit and I feel very lucky to live so close. My only complaint is that I can continue to work during the day and schedule my work day around my classes so I don’t have to use vacation time!
It is wonderful! Highly recommend.
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We are close enough to drive over but were able to hook up with a trainer who reserved stalls.
All I can say is it was amazing. We are definitely going back in April. So I splurged (we do it on a shoestring and I braid myself, do day care etc) and stayed at the Holiday Inn (so my daughter could swim). It was wonderful. BUT that wont be a regular gig for us- it was pretty pricey for me.
The facilities are fantastic, the staff is wonderful. I brought along a lot of our own snacks but the food was reasonable. It was my pony’s first away big show under saddle. He loved the stalls (hello- climate controlled). Hot water for indoor bathing. We were in heaven.
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Reviving this as we are thinking of going for the first time! Are there any outdoor riding or hacking facilities there?
any tips on must haves or must tries for first timers?
I will be the lone dissenter. Town is dead, nowhere to eat, poor lodging options if you don’t want to be onsite, no ventilation in the stabling area. I don’t get the appeal at all. Other than warmth.
All the weeks are likely sold out at this point, I highly recommend you contact them and get on the wait list. Stalls often do come available from what I have been told by others that do that (especially if you only need a few stalls, if you need 15, you might be in trouble). We book all our weeks in the fall in order to get in, many do. So people book blocks and let the show know how many they need in advance, then the show can let in people off the wait list.
There is an outdoor ring, but it’s winter in Ohio, it’ll be frozen and windy and miserable. You will not want to ride outside, or really be outside at all. The occasions where it has been weirdly warm we’ve hacked in it, but by this point it’s going to be pretty solidly frozen.
Schooling at night is total chaos. Wednesday tends to be less busy and mostly pros. The amateurs and kids start showing up in force on Thursday (spoken as an ammie here). The hunter rings will be open every night for schooling, the jumper ring is usually open Tues-Thur night (I think it’s been awhile since I’ve been in that ring) and then not after that, I think you can still hack in it including in the morning and some people may sneak a few fences.
To avoid a non-showing fee, each horse needs to do 3 over fences classes. We’ve seen people go in the ring, jump one fence and tip their hat. It’s cheaper to do that than it is to pay for the non-showing fee.
It’s a fun place to show but it can be quite busy. They are building additional rings now, it’s hard to find a quiet time or place to simply hack or school a horse, so just be mentally prepared for that (have ear plugs on hand). Also depending on where you are stabled you might be a considerable hike from a real bathroom, there are portapotties available but they’re outside. We pee in the stalls a lot lol. The indoor bathrooms are all up by the rings.
BYOB. You can buy booze (including the entire bottle of wine) from the restaurant in the show but it’s cheaper to just bring it with you from the grocery store. You don’t even need a cooler at this time of year! Just put it outside…
In terms of where to stay, we are 30 minutes from WEC so we stay at home, but the cabins and home away from homes are cool and we’ve heard good things (pretty sure you have to bring your own linens). Airbnb if you can find it is almost always the least expensive option when compared to a hotel but the hotels in Wilmington are fine. The Hilton is pretty new, stayed there one night when the weather was bad and I didn’t want to drive back and forth in the snow.
On a final note, the show has become quite competitive. They aren’t messing around with the courses. The 2’6 hunters/eq are very straightforward as you would expect (though packed with some really really nice horses), same with the opportunity stuff, but everything in the R&L ring (3’+ hunters and eq) has impressive looking fences and challenging courses. The jumper ring is challenging all the way down to the 2’6 (in fact my greatest gripe is when they have the same course the entire day over all the levels, and that happens more often than not. The courses are typically highly technical). These are run at the full difficulty level of AA shows. Everybody wins some and everybody loses some, but it is quite competitive especially when compared to a few years ago.
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Restaurant recommendations. For me, the Chinese buffet in town is really good. I like the El Dorado Mexican place, too. There is a place near General Denver called Mediterranean which is good. Spillway is left out of the grounds with good signage and it’s good with a nice salad bar. If you don’t mind driving a ways for a really good meal, The Golden Lamb in Lebanon is amazing, but you’ll need reservations most night so plan ahead.
Restaurants: you can also head north about a 1/2 hour to Yellow Springs and have a really good meal at the Winds, try the restaurant at Mills Park (very pretty new hotel), eat bar food at the Olde Trail or Peach’s. You may even see Dave Chappelle as he lives around YS. Very hip town for the middle of SW Ohio and good for a change of pace.
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You can also go south on 71 about 30 miles to the Kings Island area, seasonal of course (Open weekends starting 4/18 new coaster, Orion, will be introduced) . But there’s also Great Wolf Lodge with huge indoor, year round water park, Kings Mills exit. If you aren’t doing your own day care and grooming, it’s an option, very little kid friendly.
One thing that hasn’t changed is the…leisurely…,very trainer with conflicts friendly pace. Was up last year watching a friends DD d a Low, 2 Children’s trips and her a Eq., lots of empty ring time. Was there about 2 1/2 hours, left before they pinned the Hunters and well before the Eq. There were 12 to go twice in that Children’s. about half of them did the Low. Low was an Open card through the 3’ and that ring was still open more then anybody was in it.
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I’m there about two weekends a month every winter throughout the circuit. I absolutely love it. The staff and management are great, the prize money is pretty decent, and the courses are inviting.
I always stay at the General Denver. It’s a bit quirky but you can’t get better service. The staff have become friends and they really go above and beyond.
Chris is now running the hunter ring and with 200+ trips daily on the weekends, things are moving much more efficiently.
Chris runs a solid ring, she doesn’t mess around but she’s polite and good with the trainers. She used to run the jumper ring, we miss her there. I think the guy there is doing a pretty good job but we do sit with the ring wide open for an extended period of time sometimes. Some of that also depends on which ring has priority, the R&L (big hunters and eq) has had the most trips lately so it’s had priority. They usually have orders of go for the jumper ring but you can get yourself moved if need be (we are a barn that likes to go at the top of the class, that’s usually pretty easy to get).
The Roberts ring is…usually very slow. The world of 2’6 moves at it’s own pace, which is typically glacial lol. Often has less to do with who is running the ring and more to do with the nature of the classes that go in the ring.
Also for anyone who has never been before the schooling ring for the Roberts ring SUCKS. It’s tiny and it infuriates me that they haven’t knocked down at least one row of the ancient stalls behind it to make it bigger. We always find it best to have the horses already warmed up (ridden earlier etc) before we get in there so we can warm up quickly, jump a couple fences and go right in the ring.
Ok for those who have gone… can you let any of us know what the Office fee, EMT fee, drug fees (Should be $33) are billed at? Their Entry form is not online and I have yet to find a way to ascertain what they’re charging for these line items?
Em
