Best summer show circuits

[Jjsporthorses98]

Living in the south, I’m looking for a better option to get away from the heat for two months out of the summer.

Would be taking 6-8 young jumpers doing the young jumper classes-4-6 olds plus a 1.40 horse. Two of them are stallions.

Would like to stick with HITS since they offer some free classes for young jumpers. Ideally somewhere with good hacking around the grounds. Would love a paddock. Stalls sturdy enough for stallions.

Ideally near enough to a major airport since I’ll be flying in Thursday-Sunday.

Where shall I go?

[blondewithchrome]

I can speak to the three east coast options I’ve attended - can’t comment on Chicago but it might be further than you want to go. Unfortunaly Vermont will be out, as they only offer tent stalls, if you want permanent stabling. They have a beautiful property and nice offerings, and Albany airport is about 1.5 hour drive. It’s a beautiful drive, too. The town is really cute, and has a lot of charm. A lot of Mid Atlantic barns go here to beat the heat in the summer, actually!

HITS in Va actually has made a myriad of improvements since the mid 2000s when it was god awful. Permanent barns with mats, plentiful riding around the grounds with trees, upgraded footing in some of the main rings with improvements on the way. Your young jumpers classes will go in the GP and the footing is lovely there. You can fly in to Charlottesville but closest major airport is probably Dulles and then a 1 hour ish drive. July and August dates can be hotter than hades, though, so - beware. Summer in VA can be high 90s and crazy humidity.

saugerties is lovely, as well - it’s a large show grounds with tons of space but permanent stalls go fast, and they’re expensive $450 for the week IIRC. Otherwise you’re stuck in 10x10 tent stalls. They only have like, 15 paddocks available too so they’re hard to come by but, it’s popular for a reason. bigger classes and draws a bigger crowd especially during the FEI weeks so Vermont or VA will give you a quieter vibe depending on what you’re going for.

[Irene2022]

Chicago has permanent stabling options and a couple good enough paddocks. There is plenty of ring space for hacking and there are nice paths between the barns and rings for wandering around. Management has done a great job the past couple of years with upkeep but there is still a little aging infrastructure that could be improved on (but what horse show doesn’t). The young jumpers consistently fill for the Equifest weeks and usually have enough entries for the other weeks. There are a bunch of money classes that a 1.40 horse would be competitive in. St. Charles is a fabulous town with a lot of restaurant options and O’Hare is close.
There are a lot of Texas barns this year that have made the trek up.

[MHM]

Not a Hits property, but Traverse City is a very popular spot. It’s a very beautiful area with a lot of activities for the other members of the family aside from the horse show, and the weather is a very pleasant change from many parts of the country in the summer.

They offer a lot of prize money for jumpers, and those classes are well attended. I don’t recall off the top of my head if they offer paddock space at the horse show, but I think some people do rent stalls at barns off the property that have turn out.

The airport in Traverse City is only about 15 minutes from the horse show. It is a smallish airport, so you would probably have to get a connecting flight, but it’s an extremely short hop from either Detroit or Chicago. Like, they don’t even have time to take the drink cart down the aisle in the plane. Lol.

[BAC]

@blondewithchrome

saugerties is lovely, as well - it’s a large show grounds with tons of space but permanent stalls go fast, and they’re expensive $450 for the week IIRC. Otherwise you’re stuck in 10x10 tent stalls. They only have like, 15 paddocks available too so they’re hard to come by but, it’s popular for a reason. bigger classes and draws a bigger crowd especially during the FEI weeks so Vermont or VA will give you a quieter vibe depending on what you’re going for.

I haven’t been to Saugerties in years but there used to be a number of barns right “around the corner” from the HITS showgrounds where you could rent stalls and rotate your horses in and out so that they got lots of turnout. Ralphie Caristo had a beautiful farm, is he still there? Isn’t there a little bit of a trail on the showgrounds too? Its so big it is helpful to have a bicycle or golf cart too.

[Words_of_Wisdom]

HITS Hudson Valley, as they’ve rebranded Saugerties, is a big improvement over years past, and I think the only one that meets your criteria geographically. Albany’s your closest major airport.
Not sure if they’d let you live there for a few months, or if you would want to. There is something there pretty much every weekend, but sometimes H/J, sometimes dressage.

[Tha_Ridge]

HITS Saugerties is HUGELY improved. And yes, the Caristo’s farm is right down the road and there are lots of others within an hour or two radius.

[Belmont]

To escape TX Heat, a lot of the times we did Chicago --> Traverse City --> Kentucky OR Traverse City --> Chicago --> KY. It’s where most of our clients went, and the weather was generally pretty great most of those places through the Summer. Yes, every once in a while you had a pretty hot freaking day, but generally it was way more mild that most other places in the summer and the shows were great.

Traverse has grown exponentially and is very competitive, so this year quite a few barns deferred and stayed in Chicago while maybe a horse or two went to MI. Chicago puts on a great show, its very competitive, and there is also some great restaurants and shops around for those non-horsey people.

[ComingAttraction]

I’m with you! I no longer want to show in the south july/aug. My pick is hits saugerties.

[CavalierCHI]

second Traverse City, Chicago at Lamplight is a nice facility, but I live here and still prefer not to show in July, the heat can be nearly as bad as in the South, 92 degrees plus humidity is not uncommon.

[Punkie]

I’m based in Dorset, VT in the summer which puts me less than 2 hours from HITS Vermont (8 minutes), HITS Saugerties (1.5 hrs), Saratoga (1 hr), and Lake Placid (2 hours) with Fieldstone and Princeton 3.5 hours away. I’m just over an hour from Albany International (IMHO the easiest airport on the east coast to fly in and out!). It also puts me 5 hours or less from several of the big shows on the Canadian circuit including Ottowa, Bromont, and Beconcour.

We have a number of farms in the area that will do short term/seasonal boarding. I’ve had my horses about 20 minutes away while my farm has been under construction and it’s been ideal as I simply ship in and out of VSF and only stay at Saugerties or Saratoga for the few days of my classes so that my horses can get back home and out in the pasture. The weather here is to die for, there is so much to do outside of horse showing, and it is just an incredible place to spend the summer. I wouldn’t personally want to go anywhere else, but I know a ton of people love GLEF and Chicago, too!