What distance from home are you comfortable boarding at?
This would be assuming full care board rather than self-care. Do you restrict your search to places within a certain radius?
I also live very close to where I work, so there is really no difference in terms of opening up the search to by home or by work.
30 minutes .
But plenty of folks suffer 1 hour each way. 2 each way is not unheard of. Depending upon your region, choices may not be available.
This is one of those questions that a person can only answer for themselves.
If you are wondering generally speaking, for good care and a good trainer that I trust I would probably do an hour. (I drive 45 minutes to work every day so… )
I have boarded twice. The first barn was about 15 minutes from my home and I went right by on my way home from work.
The second was temporary when we moved and were looking for a place of our own. It was probably 30 minutes from home. For me closer is best. 30 minutes is too far.
As close as possible. I was fine paying more and not having an in house trainer to get a stall 15 minutes from home.
I’ve done 40 - 45 (but close and convenient to work) and I felt that ate up too much time when riding on the weekends
What distance from home are you comfortable boarding at?
really depends upon goals, at least for us it was as we kept one horse in Kentucky for a little over two years where she was in training and could be taken to all sorts of shows.
It was a 1700 mile round trip which wasn’t a big deal since back then Budget had these rental deals with unlimited mileage
We saw the horse once to twice a month
These days the horses are 176 feet from the backdoor
For a horse I am actively riding, I try to stay within 45 minutes or so. Of equal importance are the roads themselves. Some choices would involve a highway and bridge that is subject to traffic backups especially in the summer and slick driving in the winter. Others are down hilly, windy roads, likewise an issue in the winter.
Now that I am retired, time is not so much of an issue. Current stable is about 20 minutes away and a bit difficult when roads are bad (when I usually decide he needs time off!). I have also boarded 45 minutes away when the drive was easy and there was an instructor I wanted to work with.
Obviously we all want a great barn as close as possible.
I’ve done anywhere from 20-45 minutes. I think the average being about 30.
Ironically, the one that was 20 minutes I went to 6 days/week because I didn’t trust the care and ended up moving to the 45 minute one. Only went to that one 4 days/week, but felt waaayy more comfortable knowing the care was fantastic.
If we’re talking retired horses–I’d be fine with an hour or two if it was a good place. Knowing I’d only go a few times/month.
So person and situation dependent but under 30 minutes. Ideally, under 20 minutes. I’m hands on with vet and farriers appointments and try to ride 6-7 days a week. For me, further than 30 minutes and it starts really eating into my day. Right now I’m under 15 and recognize it is an unbelievable blessing. It’s the only viable option (to my standards) within a 30 minute drive.
My barn used to be a 20 minutes drive…I haven’t even moved her and now it is not uncommon to take 30 minutes. Our area is growing by leaps and bounds. Open land is disappearing at light speed. There are probably now 6-8 more traffic lights to negotiate one way. If I move her, she will be farther out and 30 minutes will be welcome.
Susan
50 minutes each way (unless very early on Sunday morning, in which case it’s 45), just shoot me 
For the past 9+ years!
OTOH, my mare loves it there – she’s been there since she was two weeks old – and it has many things to recommend it: Fantastic turn out and huge fields with good grass, unlimited good quality forage, a very experienced and conscientious barn manager, a ring right next to the barns with decent footing and plenty of standards and poles, lots of ride out, virtually no other boarders who really ride OR compete (it’s primarily a breeding operation, along with retirees and layups) so I have the ring to myself and can set up anything I want. A HUGE plus for me 
Additionally, my mare’s mother is retired there and has a 3 acre field to herself, and my mare is turned out overnight for 12-14 hours all year; very convenient for me that she is in a stall when I come out during the day (a 14 x 14 stall to boot - generously bedded), and the board is very reasonable.
I live in the traffic hell that is Northern Virginia, so the commute is extremely frustrating - but the farm is beautiful. I always say “it’s a little piece of heaven, but I have to drive through hell to get there.”
Unfortunately, greedy developers and unchecked growth have swallowed up many of the closer boarding barns, and the ones that are nearer to me have higher board, are often crowded, limited forage, and all of those things that would make my stomach sensitive mare unhappy; her well-being supersedes my convenience. My husband and I were hoping and planning to move farther out this year (he now works from home), but then Covid came along and all decent houses are out of our price range for the time being. It’s a little lonely for me, but then again I have many friends and acquaintances in the eventing community, and haul out to school and compete on the regular, take some clinics, and have other opportunities to see my fellow horse people. I’m hoping that we can move in some sort of a timely fashion (before I become too elderly), which will provide way more opportunities to board closer to home! There are a lot more barns that fit the bill (and have what I need in my price range), but they are all WELL over an hour away from where we now live.
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35 miles or about 50 minutes each way in good weather - 1 hour + in bad weather and snow
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I have two horses in work and they are 10 minutes from me. If I have to move them farther away, the time eaten up driving will make it much harder to keep both horses worked, and I’d have to think hard about downsizing to one. I’m also very hands-on and do more than may boarders in full-care facilities do, so I want it to be easy to pop out 2x a day if needed. My retired horse is about 30 minutes away and I only go see him every few weeks, but I he has been at the same place for 12 years and I know he’s looked after.
Do you mind my asking how many days a week you ride?
It’s all a balancing act. There’s a barn very close, very nice, excellent training opportunities - but I’d prefer more turnout.
There’s a barn a bit farther - a little bit more to my liking in turnout, trainer available but that’s an unknown person to me.
Then there’s a barn that’s about 45 minutes away with turnout I like and excellent training opportunities.
I’m just trying to make some decisions about what’s realistic for me to seriously consider and look at, and what isn’t.
All are full care.
I think it really depends if you live near a big city with sprawl or not. I’d love a barn < 20 min away, but I live near a major metropolitan area so that is impossible. The closest barn with the amenities I wanted is 40 min away. Even without amenities, I think the closest barn to me is 30 min anyway 
Does your horse do OK on less turnout? Some horses are fine with minimum, others are not. So take that into account. (Heck, some horses are happier with less.)
Does weather where you are make your drive time even worse at times of the year?
How busy is your life? In other words, like someone said above, will extra drive time make regular riding a hurdle instead of a fun thing?
How unknown is the unknown? Is it that you do not know how their program works or does no one you know have any information? Can you ask your farrier about them?
I think another question that you need to ask yourself is - do you like driving? I know that sounds silly but some people find car time relaxing. Other people drive because they have to and car time is stressful. If you like driving you can add books or other things to your listening and use that time for something you enjoy.
Have you confirmed that full care means the same thing at all of your current choices?
These decisions are always hard. I feel for you.
I actually work backwards on what’s my max window of time for a barn trip, ride needs, and then work to figure out how much of that I’m willing for commute to take up.
Right now if I’m going to ride consistently my weekday barn visits need to stay to ~1.5 hrs with a max of 2 hrs. I like my rides to be ~30 minutes, 15 min on each side for tacking / untacking, so max commute time each way of 15 minutes.
When I was on maternity leave I had more flexibility on when during the day I rode and my mare was getting training rides so my rides were less critical. She was boarded 30-40 min away (during low traffic times) and that worked fine but I could never do a barn visit in less than 2 - 2.5 hours (my son nursed every 3 hours at that time so I tried to stay to a 2.5 hr max away from home). That barn would never work now as traffic during my current schedule’s riding windows can make the trip 1-1.5 hours
Right now she’s <5 min away and it’s honestly amazing, but I consider myself extremely fortunate and definitely love that I can do drop by ‘cookie visits’ whenever I need a mood pick me up 
ETA: I’m lucky that I have ~3 boarding barns that meet my standards within 20 minutes drive. If that weren’t the case, I’d probably need to revisit A) my riding goals B) my riding set up (e.g. increase leasee rides) C) my housing setup (seriously…I’d change my house before my job)
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I used to board 45 minutes away, each way. But I ride daily, and I have two horses, so that would turn into each trip being a 4 1/2 hour excursion. 1 1/2 hours driving, 1 1/2 hours per horse, and that’s if all went well and there were no difficulties, people there that wanted to talk or needed help etc.
We bought our own place. Way easier that way.
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Right now, 15 min, and it’s very refreshing. I have been commuting for 30 min, and more recently, 40-45 min. That’s 1.5hr on the road, 1.5hrs at the barn with groom/tack/ride/untack etc. 3hrs a day. For someone with demanding job/schedule, it’s really not feasible.
17 minutes. I’ve done 45 minutes before and found it didn’t really motivate me to visit the barn as often as I’d like. Now I aim to keep it under 30, but preferably closer to 20 minutes. We’ve had a lot of barns in the area close down recently (property sale or barn managers just reaching the end of their rope with crazy boarders) so it’s getting harder to keep that travel time down.
