A major life change may be in the picture meaning my horses may be moving from the east coast to Scottsdale, Arizona. I’m looking for advice on how to transition my horses from one environment to another and recommendation of boarding barns. I’m not looking for fancy, but I do want safe, knowledgeable, caring place.
Thanks in advance.
Welcome! Moved here 2 years ago from VA. First and foremost, you need to move your horse(s) here before April to get them adjusted to the oncoming heat. Do not move them in the spring/summer.
Second, you will find there’s a lot more people who have no business having horses here. BUT there are some great horse people here too. The best horse area is up in Rio Verde. Yes, my address is Scottdale but boy, I’m in the boonies! There are places in the valley but there’s really no trails and it’s 10 degrees hotter down there. Where I board, I have access to the McDowell park and hours of trails. On the other side of the road, where I live, I have the Tonto National Forest. Win-win.
Where I board, my horse is with a buddy in a very big pen with a big shelter. Then they go out to a little bit of grass a few times a week. That’s the best you’re going to get here. Luckily, my guy is old and doesn’t need a lot of running space. She may have an opening or 2. In the summer, she’ll have more. Good place, I adore the owner. But lots of horses so personal care is not there. The big fancy stables are in-training only places. Major $$$. And everything here is more expensive - everything. $450 board that doesn’t include grain and $200 shoeing. Ugh. And oh, all horses need shoes if you’re going to ride them. The sand here is like sandpaper. My horse has the best feet but were getting shorn off.
I switched my horse’s feed to Cavalor senior as it doesn’t have sugar/molasses. He gets that, flax seed, timothy pellets and electrolytes. Electrolytes all year round. Then 1x a month, psyllium for a week. And they feed him alfalfa. I prefer grass but the only slow eater like him gets alfalfa and he’s doing fine on it. Hence the timothy pellets to get some other forage in him.
Unless you have been there before, you are in for a great horse culture shock.
Rio Verde is cooler. But far away. Rio Verde property, can also be prone to having ALL of the water trucked in.
Scottsdale has virtually no flood irrigation. And it is NOT the Scottsdale with the horse trails of the 1970’s! Those are pretty much gone. As the city quite stupidly over the years, has permitted non horse owners to close off the easements behind their houses. There is a movement to keep the remaining housing trails open.
Glendale, Peoria, Tempe, Mesa, outer Phoenix still has flood irrigated property. Though it too is being swallowed by housing & or bought up by non horse folks. These areas you might find a bit in the way of LIMITED grass turn out in a paddock
I know the market as I purchased for great nieces & nephews attending University a couple of years ago. Also buying multi-family complexes to support them through school.
Take heed of LisaB’s comments on when to move stock in BEFORE the heat! Before April would be even better. You might even want to find a place with water misting for the stalls.
The idea of having grass turn out, just is not going to happen in Scottsdale. Your idea of what grass turn out anywhere is, is going to have to substantially change period.
Think mare motels. That is how your horses will most likely live.
You have not stated a boarding budget.
There are boarding places like:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Loma-Vista-Farm/111192672244322
https://www.facebook.com/BarARanchAZ
And it goes dramatically downhill from there.
Wishing you the best with your move! 
Wells are available in Rio Verde. You have to live above 160th st for them to perk. Anything below 160th, you have a big tank and get water hauled in. For us, this is really no biggie, there are 2 outfits that truck in the Scottsdale city water into the tanks and they have it wired. But you’re not going to irrigate for pasture with it - too expensive!
I personally think it’s easier to have horses here. The garbage companies haul your poo out. You just have to put it in a dumpster. If you have a well, the water thing is easy. Just word to the wise, have your trough or waterer in the shade. 
Hay is easy too. You don’t have to hunt for a local hay guy and kiss his ass. You just get it delivered from the local feed store.
Down side is that land is expensive. Dirt is plentiful. And in Rio Verde, when it pours buckets, it easily goes down the mountain and we keep the washes as is to not disturb that.
It takes me 1/2 hour to get to work on N. Scottsdale Rd. And NO TRAFFIC. Woo hoo! We looked down in Mesa/Chandler as there’s a ton of kid stuff and it’s cheaper to live there. We’d have a choice of homes. But the traffic to get in and out. And even if I switched jobs and worked near the airport or downtown, I’d still be looking at 1/2 hour - 1 hour commute.
If you like cowboy/honkytonk, Cave Creek is really cool. There’s another pocket of horse people and a big preserve on the west side of Cave Creek Rd off of Carefree Hwy. It’s a bit easier to get around down there. But the school district wasn’t that great so we went up the hill. And my view is to die for!
I currently board in Rio Verde.
I board at a very nice facility out there, in terms of the amenities. Covered arena, many turnouts, euro walker, several arenas plus round pen, many barns including mare motels and walled barns with paver aisles, bathrooms, laundry. Miles of trails out the back gates.
The management does not require that you be in a training program to board there, although I am in one myself. I think they are just looking to fill stalls. Most the places I’ve board in Scottsdale and the surrounding areas have not required that you be in a program. (One did, I was with a different trainer then than the one I am with now). So I’ll disagree with the statement above that the nicer facilities will require you to be a program.
I’ve lived in the Phoenix area since '86 and have had horses, on and off, in different areas and at all sorts of different facilities, since the mid 90s. So if you want to know anything specific let me know and I’ll try to answer.
Rio Verde is very nice, the only real downside for me is that it’s a very long drive from where I live (Glendale). It can take an hour and fifteen minutes in the mornings, if I encounter rush hour commutes.
But when I get out there, past the traffic, and get over the hill and see the vast expanse of that part of the Valley, the view is very peaceful and I also think the horses like it out there. There’s a good equine energy in the air.
Cave Creek is also nice, and Carefree, too. And even closer in to Scottsdale. They just lack the spaciousness of Rio Verde. Almost every municipality in the Phoenix area has properties with equine privileges somewhere within the city limits.
And-- if you can handle the commute from the Desert Hills area, instead of Scottsdale, there are some affordable horse properties up there, too. (I have a very attractive one coming on the market in January. Two acres with a full sized dressage arena, eleven mare motel stalls, and gorgeous views.)
LOL, it is not as bad as here portrayed.
Send me an email. I know most of the Barnes here, and there are irrigated pastors, nice Barnes, nice Barnes with full training, Barnes with turnout, Barnes with covered Arenas, etc.
Shoot me an email if you want details, and I can give you specifics. There are plenty of great places to board, it’s just as with every where else, you will decide what is important to you. In fact, for a large metropolitan area, the fifth in the country, there are many, many Barnes, and plenty of options.
In terms of adjusting your horse to the weather, consult a vet out here. There are also plenty of wonderful equine vets.
Please excuse the dictation, as Siri makes many auto correct.
The advantages to having a horse out here versus some places in the freezing temperatures, is that we ride you’re around. Yes, you have to get up at 5 AM in the summer if you want a cool ride, but it can easily be done.
Just email me if you want more information.
Laveen is not ritzy, but has an ag overlay so you will find more irrigated pasture. The population is pretty country in outlook and almost totally western. It is also clear on the other side of town than Scottsdale, but thought I’d throw it out there.
Do you do any trail riding? Trails are all over town. Most Phoenix desert trails are horse-friendly but you will have to trailer to them.
There are some jumping and dressage barns around too, if that’s what you do. They are mainly up north Scottsdale, Glendale and Cave Creek.
Laveen is mighty far from Scottsdale. I thought I was pushing it mentioning Glendale. Laveen is still very country compared to the rest of areas.
I still say the OP is in for some big horse culture shock.
As for the high praise in how many horse vets there are. I dunno, it sure is not Lexington, Ocala or Santa Barbara! But where I live in OK we only have a cow vet. So I guess it is all what ever you are used to.
I’ve already been horse shocked by the pictures I see of horse boarding. LOL! I did live in New Mexico at one time so have a little familiarity of the differences between west and east coast.
I believe I found a barn in Mesa. Have gotten good references from two different equine vets. Barn owners seem knowledgeable (as far as you can tell from a phone conversation) and willing to please. Got good references from two equine vets. Still waiting to hear from their farrier. Board is in the price range that I can comfortably afford. However, please keep making recommendations. The more I learn about this area the better prepared I’ll be to handle decisions.
Do horses really keep their weight on with only 2 flakes of hay twice a day? My boys, who have plenty of pasture, still get more hay than that on a daily basis if stalled. Of course one of them is 16.2 and 1250 lb.
Do I trail ride? Not really. My gelding is just starting under saddle. And my confidence is in the arena. I am primarily a dressage rider. We shall see. It will be an adventure. My daughter is more game and her horse (quarter horse, 15.1H) is more suited for trying this and that.
[QUOTE=NCSue;7918522]
Do horses really keep their weight on with only 2 flakes of hay twice a day? My boys, who have plenty of pasture, still get more hay than that on a daily basis if stalled. Of course one of them is 16.2 and 1250 lb.[/QUOTE]
Remember, East is very different from West! We have 100-120 lb bales of alfalfa here, not 50 lbs! Feeding two flakes a day is standard, and yes, horses can get quite fat off that! In fact, I feed my own horse 1 flake of alfalfa in the morning and 1 flake of bermuda at night because he gets fat on two flakes of alfalfa daily!
Two hay feedings a day is indeed common here, many nicer barns feed three times (morning, noonish, and evening).
The older I get the more I lean toward an understanding of more natural housekeeping. Equine stomachs were made to digest small amounts of forage over longer periods of time. SO for me, a two x day hay boarding situation would be a deal breaker. (UNLESS I were convinced the amounts were substantial AND if I could rig a hay net or slow feeder to keep hay in front of my horse for more hours in the day. It’s not the amount that concerns me, it’s the time the stomach spends empty.
When I operated a boarding situation of my own, for about eighteen months, we threw hay four times a day. 6:00 am, 11:30, 4:00pm and 8:30pm. I loved it, the horses had hay in front of them nearly always. And we had no colics or gassy issues or digestive upset among any in the herd. And the poop-- wow. It was constant and it does make that kind of feeding, on a typical-sized lot, more of a challenge.
It’s up to every individual to decide what works. And of course, horses come in all different sizes and with different needs. Some are prone to colic and other digestive upsets, some are easy keepers with no worries.
Yes, the bales of hay here are much heavier. But be warned, they do not feed enough! I asked a friend about this phenomenon and she said it’s everywhere you go here. I have to feed my horse some hay pellets to get the weight of the needed hay. If your horse is an air fern, then you’re fine.
And turn out is another misnomer. When they say they turn out. Ask how many times/week and for how long and where. I’ve had that issue as well.
As a friend/farrier told me before I moved here, ‘there’s lots of horses but not a lot of horse people’. He’s right. There are a lot of great horse people here but there is a really big percentage of people who have no business owning horses nor boarding them.
Right now, I like my situation. I didn’t look all the way down in Mesa as the traffic is a serious bitch around there. And if you don’t have school age kids, Desert Valley is very nice and very easy to get to Scottsdale. But the views in Rio Verde are to die for!
Hi NCSue:
If you want to ride in the summer, find a place with a covered arena. This is imperative, and will limit your choices. The sun is like a laser beam after 7AM, at the latest: AZ does not have daylight savings time, so the sun is up early. The alternative is to ride in the evening. Finding a location that works in the summer is not so easy, since a lot of the more serious riders seem to leave in the summer, with or without their horses.
I board in Scottsdale at a facility with a covered arena and the horses are fed 3 times per day.
This is my 3rd barn in the Phoenix area.I’ve been there for 10 years and live 26 miles away, so I think that speaks to the care my horse has received :).
The poster who advised you to get your horses here before April has called it right… I would not go past April for any shipping at all.
Good luck on your options!
Here’s the website for the barn: http://flyingfoxfarm.com/
I live in Scottsdale and board my horse in Carefree/Cave Creek…ended up there because my trainer moved and I followed her. I love the barn and the people…we are eventers, but have a few dressage people too. No covered arena, but we have lights, so I end up riding at night in the summers…it’s do-able. Feed 3x per day, fans in the stalls. Stable barn staff that has been there for years. Here is the website, feel free to pm me with questions! www.carefreefarms.net.
I board at the Hamilton’s. They don’t advertise and don’t need to 
They have a so-so arena. The owner is really great and the horses really like it there. There’s a dressage rider there that gives lessons. She’s great and I wish I had the funds to take lessons. She basically does it as a hobby and is a lovely rider. Then down the road is Barb Crabo’s place. She’s trying to get a Pony Club going so that might be something your daughter would be interested in. Board is 450 for a really big outside pen with big shade and turn out to grass a few times a week. Then there’s a mare motel with no turn out.
Oh yeah, trailer parking is a BIG deal. There a lots of places that don’t have room for a trailer.
And also, you have to provide your own grain/supplements in most places. Put them in ziploc baggies and then either get a heavy duty trash can with a locking lid or something like that because the javelinas will get into it.
and oh! Yeah, remembering all this stuff. Up here, the sand is like sandpaper. My horse has the best feet but I still have to shoe him.
And really, the only vet so far I’ve found that I can trust is Dr. Crabo. That is - so far. A couple I haven’t liked but I haven’t gone through them all yet.
I LOVE Dr. Crabo! I first met him when he was just an intern at Chaparrel! He truly goes above and beyond. Great man!
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