Boarding Barns in or near West Lafayette, IN

[woodhillsmanhattan]

I will be moving to West Lafayette for graduate school at Purdue in January. I am hoping to make a trip up there in September or November to look for apartments as well as barns. My fellow COTHers have always come through before so figured I would ask for suggestions! I listed some must haves and preferences. Thanks in advance!

MUST HAVES:

• Exceptional care. I will be moving away from home and will be busy with school so I want to be comfortable leaving my horse for a weekend every now and then.
• indoor ring
• outdoor area to ride (doesn’t have to necessarily be a ring)
• small group turn out (2-4)
• stall available for winter (at least 10X12. My guy is a 17H warmblood). 24:7 turn out during warming months is fine.
• quality feeding program. Allowed to provide my own food if the barn doesn’t feed Sentinel LS
• under an hour from Purdue
  -$500 or under a month

PREFERENCES:

• 12X12 stalls
• Blue Seal feeds
• free choice hay
• Jumper or event trainer competitive at A shows (high adults and low amateurs). But I have been at a barn with no trainer for a few months and am perfectly comfortable on my own.
• trails
• jumps
• 30 min or closer to Purdue
• owner or staff living on site

That is all I can think of at the moment. Any additional input about the horse scene in the area is appreciated!

[lferguson]

I’m from Indiana and will be blunt in telling you West Lafayette is no man’s land. I sincerely hope you find somewhere suitable! I’ll ask my friend who lives there and check back here if she has any decent suggestions.

[deltawave]

Boy, for a town like that your standards for “must have” are pretty high. Good luck!

[lferguson]

Now if you had picked the REAL university in Indiana, I could be of more help.

[pony_grandma]

I don’t know their rates but this fits some of your criteria

http://www.forresthillfarm.com/

and the HIGTFO (no personal references, just google)

http://www.kingshillstable.com

http://www.jubileestables.com/

http://www.equinenow.com/boarding/west+lafayette-indiana.htm

[Wee_Dee_Trrr]

LAZ is fairly close to WL. You can PM her.
Red Gate Stables is a wonderful private farm with an indoor. You can try to contact Robin, the owner.
Forrest Hill is a dressage barn
You might try contacting pony club people (Wabash Valley PC) they have several members with nice private farms. Not sure if they board, but it would be worth a shot.

[woodhillsmanhattan]

Is it really going to be impossible to find a place for my horse within an hour or so that isn’t a huge heard turnout and the people are going to make sure he eats and isn’t left to colic if I am gone for a few days? I figured indoor arenas and being stalled would be standard in a place with winters like Indiana so didn’t think that was a lot to ask. The second list items are not necessities at all. This makes me nervous! I wanted to be able to bring him since I will be moving by myself 14 hours away from any friends or family. Perhaps I could extend my search to more outside of the Indianapolis area? I would be more then wiling to search for places for myself to live that is about 20 min outside of campus to make the commute easier. Thanks for everyone’s input so far!

Anyone know anything about Jubilee stables?

[lferguson]

Here’s a firsthand recommendation from a friend:
http://www.shepardstable.com/stabletour.html

She describes it as good care from good people.

ETA: Other info she gave me. It’s a therapeutic riding barn. It also has a tack store on site.

[woodhillsmanhattan]

[QUOTE=lferguson;7104289]
Now if you had picked the REAL university in Indiana, I could be of more help. ;)[/QUOTE]

Lol! I was warned about such comments from the “other” Indiana school. :lol:

Thank you for the recommendation!

[lferguson]

[QUOTE=woodhillsmanhattan;7104340]
Lol! I was warned about such comments from the “other” Indiana school. :lol:

Thank you for the recommendation![/QUOTE]

It’s an affectionate rivalry.

For veterinary care, if Dr. Angela Yates will come down from Indy for you I can’t recommend her enough. She comes to Bloomington for me so I imagine she would. Her fees are also very reasonable, which is a nice perk.

[lferguson]

The problem with cities like West Lafayette is you aren’t going to have a lot of options. There are going to be mostly backyeard barn type operations. Even in Bloomington I didn’t have many choices. I ended up boarding with a good friend. If you’re willing to sacrifice some amenities for really good quality care, you may be able to find a private barn willing to take in a boarder.

[lferguson]

From my other WL friend:

“I’m not a big fan of Shepard actually. I knew someone who boarded there for a while and said they never increased the hay even when it was winter and the horses needed more. Personally I didn’t like the pasture condition and that 30+ horses were kept in one smallish pasture, but part of that is just because my horse couldn’t handle that situation. No of my knowledge is from experience though so I could be wrong. Rosebud Ranch isn’t bad, nice facility, but the people weren’t amazing. I love my barn, but I don’t know if there still taking boarders or not and there’s no pasture boarding. Foxton just opened back up I think and they’re good too.”

[subk]

If you are willing to be an hour out, LAZ is in Sheridan, IN at Come Again Farms. (Google maps has that right at an hour from Perdue.) I don’t know all the details about her boarding situation, but I will say she is one of the few people I would hand a horse to and have zero worries or concerns as to the quality of care it would recieve.

.

[FoxChaser]

I never boarded at Foxton, but rode there back in the day when I was on Purdue’s IHSA team. It was awhile back, but it was a lovely facility.

[LAZ]

In West Lafayette your list is going to be not quite fulfilled–I know several of the people mentioned and think highly of them but don’t know if they’d be a fit for you.

Robin Ridgway at Red Gate stable is an exceptional person and excellent horsewoman, but you have to be able to do your own stalls. Jennifer Kaiser (& family) are great people, but it is a dressage barn and I don’t think the turnout is what you are looking for. I don’t know the Shepard folks. Foxton has recently reopened but I don’t know enough about how it is run to comment. Kim Neumeyer is also up that way, and I love her to pieces, but she does not have an indoor & I believe you need to do some of the special stuff (though I would suggest you follow up on that because I’m not 100% on what she offers as board).

i have some people that go to Purdue that board here with me, or come down to lesson, but I am an hour from campus.

What are you studying?

[LAZ]

Forgot to mention that Marilynn’s place, Kings Hill Stables is closing or has closed. It is a lovely facility but they’ve gotten past keeping horses, unfortunately.

[woodhillsmanhattan]

Thanks everyone for your responses!

LAZ, I am getting a Master’s in Entomology. The professor I am working with does a lot of extension work and outreach. So that, in addition to research for my thesis and class work, I will be pretty busy. However, I am good at time management. I am not positive I could manage any self-care, but I do plan on continuing to go to the barn every day. I could swing a long commute, especially during the spring and fall semesters when I am mainly working on my thesis and I am not doing field work, but I would be hesitant to commit to cleaning my stall daily if the barn is farther then 30 minutes. I clean my own stall now, but that is with a job that has set hours as opposed to the constantly changing schedule that is likely to come with graduate school and research. I would still be willing to check it out when I visit though, I am a morning person so could always get up super early if that is OK with the barn owners. I would like to come see your farm, if that’s OK, when I visit if you could PM me your contact info?

Is riding in Indiana manageable without an indoor? I have never actually boarded somewhere with an indoor, but I am located in the Southeast. I assumed that it was a necessity with the weather there, but if that’s not the case then I am OK without. My horse is fine in wind and cold (well cold for us is like in the 40s and maybe 30s during the day), but I would be nervous about footing. Not jumping for most of the winter and having to re-condition slightly come spring is fine with me, but going weeks without riding wouldn’t be a situation that suits me or my horse (actually he would probably be happy about that ).

Thank you guys again. It’s been a huge help.

[LAZ]

Check in with Dr. Christie Sahley at Purdue–she used to be one of the Deans in Biology and is very heavily involved with the women in science program. She’s a good person & a wonderful resource for women in science.

You’re welcome to stop by, I am full at the moment but do keep a wait list, and have a pretty active barn so you could meet some folks, which is always nice!

[deltawave]

Barns that do self care and have a number of boarders are very good places to barter chores! If you get just one other person to alternate stall cleaning, then you just do 2 stalls on your day and your partner does the same on theirs.

[woodhillsmanhattan]

Excellent point! I do a killer job on a stall if I have any takers on the board ;).

[QUOTE=deltawave;7104854]
Barns that do self care and have a number of boarders are very good places to barter chores! If you get just one other person to alternate stall cleaning, then you just do 2 stalls on your day and your partner does the same on theirs.[/QUOTE]