It makes total sense if you know the LA area.
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Yeah I was gonna say that sounds like West Coast geography, which can seem bonkers impossible to people who haven’t lived there. California is weird 
There may be some similar places in the Northeast, but I’m not familiar (I lived in Maine for a bit and seem to remember the “city” being basically in the mountains. The beaches were more rocky cliffs, anyways).
Not trying to out you, OP, so don’t feel the need to jump in and confirm or deny here.
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I have a home in a place where wherever you drive you’ve got the sea in front of you and he very close mountains in the rearview mirror. Or vise versa. You need to get around more if you think mountains don’t go practically right into the sea in some places.
Wrong. I have, among many families I know with multiple languages in their homes, a friend who speaks only Mandarin in the home. Her husband speaks only Cantonese. Her motto was, verbatim: If our children need to go into ESL when they start school, we’ve done our job. And, they did. The kids - all 3 - speak perfect American English now but when they were little, our children had to just muddle through playing together b/c their American-born children of American-born parents (both 1st generation) did not speak any English until they entered Kindergarten.
If you’re from CH you likely speak at least two of French, German, and Italian. Maybe all three depending upon where you grow up and where your parents did. You probably also have English in there at some point.
Just keep your word and stop now.
ETA: this will blow that poster’s little mind, I suppose. I live on a mountain, a big one. My farm is at the very end. I can walk to the ocean with my 89 year old neighbour in 3 mins. All the kids who want to learn to ride have to have their parents drive them into the city to find lesson stables even though we are in the heart of pony country. No livery yards, no lesson stables, no trainers. Gotta haul in to just outside the major city to find those. I really want the breed org to look into buying the one lesson/boarding facility in the area that was abandoned after the death of the owner.
But, yeah: on a mountain by the coast; have to drive to the city for lessons/training.
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PA drivers can get permit at age 16 but need so many documented driving hours in various conditions that it now takes 6-9 months sometimes to obtain a driver license. So if OP is newly 16 she may not have her full license. Or maybe she doesn’t have access to a car most of the time to drive herself.
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This would describe a whole lot of the West Coast. What is so dumb about that?
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Thi[quote=“Midge, post:212, topic:792107, full:true”]
This would describe a whole lot of the West Coast. What is so dumb about that?
[/quote]
Exactly. This completely describes where I live in Canada. West Coast. Go South into the US and it gets increasingly hotter and dryer but the whole Coast is cities squeezed in between mountains and ocean. And these days lots of high value acreage just goes to buyers who want big years and not horses
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I would recommend a lease for your situation.
Even better if your show trainer can score you “show leases” at all the shows. Your parents won’t pay hauling, and fees are minimal while the experience you’ll gain is invaluable. I wish I had known about show leases when I was a junior.
Then, I’d recommend you double down on lessons at the show barn. Maybe half lease a nicer horse who can jump a bit bigger, and try to ride different horses if your trainer has enough available.
Good luck!
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Haha yeah I live in California! You can go from desert, to plain, to green forest in around 30 minutes of driving.
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It doesn’t seem that way to me. Although obviously a handful of negative nellies have gotten all up into their own heads over this, like a squirrel on a running wheel, can’t imagine why, though.
What do you care? Let it go. If you don’t want to participate, move on to some other thread, one of the dozen plus active on COTH right now.
The very thick outer rim of Houston, TX, which includes a number of named cities of 100k or more population. (Although that’s not where OP lives.) The city (cities) has (have) grown exponentially and overgrown the areas where quite a few show barns still hold out and thrive. It’s helping get more kids into lesson programs!
Actually, in every growing city in TX, you can find pockets of undeveloped land surrounded by city that is still zoned ag. Probably owned by heirs of the original ranch owners who can’t figure out how to divide it or the divide the proceeds, or just … whatever is the backstory. Spotty growth is the pattern in all TX metro areas, big and small.
Great Southwest Equestrian Center used to be 20 miles out in the country. Now it is at the center of the western suburbs, surrounded by busy roads and stoplights, hosting major shows for most of the year. Big apartment/condo complexes back right up to it. It’s insane the number of non-horse-people who live close enough to GSWEC to hit it with a long throw in from the outfield.
Several higher-end trainer barns are also in that area, also overtaken by sprawl and surrounded by dense burbs and shopping centers.
Magnolia (and Tomball) in the northwest Houston burbs is a town also swallowed by growth, and there are at least 3 high-level training barns and/or show facilities within 30-40 minutes of each other. Plus backyard horses (and chickens and goats) living in farmettes. Also embedded among dense suburbs and commercial centers.
Personally I find it an exhilarating possibility to live in the upscale suburb of The Woodlands, TX, on the northwest side of The Greater Houston Area, surrounded by all the conveniences, and be 20 minutes from 3 major training OR showing facilities, Woodlands Equestrian Center, KMR Stables and Haras Hacienda. All of which share fenceline with standard suburban homes. You can buy $100k++ show horses at all three – and that’s just those three. And less than an hour from even more show and training facilities.
And that’s just h/j/e/d, not even counting the western barns that are also now sharing fenceline with backyards and the back of strip centers. Even some eventing within 90 miles.
DFW has some similar situations. Mike Huber’s eventing facility was once out of the city, and without moving an inch, is now IN the city of Grapevine. I won’t go into more details on all of the horses and disciplines in and around Dallas - Fort Worth, as the west & north side of Fort Worth has statistically more horses per capita than anywhere else in the U.S.
Not every citified location has show barns and horse facilities embedded in the mix. Most locations don’t. But there are several spots where this has happened.
In the right location, it’s kinda fun, while crawling along in dense traffic hoping to get through a stoplight sometime soon, to spot behind the gas stations and mini-marts a barn facility with a big ole customized multi-horse gooseneck trailer parked in front, and a diesel flatbed truck to haul it. Or an 18-wheeler flatbed, fully loaded high with stacked hay bales, carefully winding through the commuter traffic toward Woodlands Equestrian (50+ high-end horses in the middle of the burbs).
And so on …
Just because we have a picture of the world in our heads does not mean that it is like that everywhere. Making judgments based on our own inner landscape, without knowing the specifics of the situation, does lead to assumptions that turn out to be major errors.
Why do you care so much, anyway, about this one little thread? If it isn’t your cuppa, just. move. on. Please.
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It’s way better, honestly. I wouldn’t say it’s more or less competitive than as a junior, and a lot of the logistics are similar. But the main difference for me is having the perspective as an adult that I didn’t have as a kid. As a junior everything felt like the end of the world and I was a lot more worried about doing what everyone else was doing or what I thought I should be doing. College was constantly looming as a cut-off point and I thought that I needed to achieve my competitive goals before then or I never would. I always loved riding but I put a lot of unhealthy pressure on myself that got in the way, both of my enjoyment but also from being the most effective rider I could be. It’s hard to really learn and improve when you’re too focused on how things look from the outside. Now, I’m a lot more confident in myself and what I want, and it makes me a better horseman and competitor. I take my riding seriously and I do have competitive aspirations, but I place a lot more value on how my horse and I are progressing than I do what division we showed or how we stacked up against other people. Shows are benchmarks of our training - not about status or proving myself to my barn mates (they’re also way more fun now!). A bad round isn’t the end of the world, I know it’s part of the process and there will always be other shows. That perspective changes the entire experience, and it’s something that really just comes with time and developing self-awareness.
Personally, I wound up changing disciplines as an adult. I thought the stress I felt around showing while I was a junior was how everyone felt, but it turns out the hunters just weren’t a good fit for me. I dabbled in the jumper ring for a bit and now I event. Keeping up with the competitive hunters as a self-funded adult is hard, you may find your interests change or you get more enjoyment out of a sport where your money goes farther. That said, the other major perk of showing as an adult is that it’s your money and you can do whatever you want with it. You can spend every penny of your disposable income on the hunters if that’s where your passion lies - it’s totally up to you! What I spend on my horse seems ridiculous to most of my friends but I’ve set up my entire life and career to support this hobby so it doesn’t really matter what anyone else thinks.
Horses are a lifelong sport. People change disciplines, take breaks, step back from showing, throw themselves into showing, etc. For most of us, riding as an adult is about finding balance, it’s not all-or-nothing. You’ll have so much time to try different things, and just because you set aside a particular goal right now doesn’t mean you’ll never get a chance to go after it.
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I can recommend a good trainer in the LA area if you’d like – not sure about how far she would be from you, but she’s awesome. Send me a PM if you want!
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What on earth is your problem? You are coming off as a real ass hat in this thread. Completely unhelpful, and looking only to discredit the OP, who has actually been quite gracious. What she’s describing is very typical west coast topography. I know that. That’s where I live.
Back off.
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Nah, not even close.
For one thing, regardless of the IRL situation, there is quite a bit useful information about choosing barns, trainer programs, organizing information and setting attainable goals. Many who read it may find parts of it quite useful in navigating their own situations,
Theres no Sybils, houseguests, one poster posting under 3 different alters arguing with themselves for 100+ replies. No poached pictures and false claims. No Nazis, Nobody has been banned. Nobody has been IRL harassed and/or physically stalked and, most important, nothing is dead.
No, this is no way even a contender for top ten. Newer posters should look back through the wreckage of the more memorable train wrecks if they want to see convoluted threads you need a plot synopsis and list of characters to keep up with.
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Take your 60k to Archie Cox (in that neck of the woods)and see what he can lease for you for a year. If you really want to show at that level and you can ride somewhat it should be doable.
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There are a gazillion trainers out there that would suit the OP without having to pay Biggest of the Big Name prices. She doesn’t need Archie Cox, she may not even be anywhere near him, and her money will go much further elsewhere.
OP to be brutally honest, if you have yet to show at 3’ the 3’6" Real Deal Big Eq is probably a bit of a stretch if funds are limited (and at 60k, they are). Ideally, you’d want a starter season in the 3’6" to figure things out, and then another 2-3+ seasons to hone the skills and actually be competitive.
There are tons of seriously competitive 3’3" medals. Were you my student with 2 years left, I would be aiming to move up through the 3’ and into the 3’3" by the end of this season, and then shoot for a truly competitive 2025 season in the 3’3" medals.
The legit 3’6" Big Eq horse are going to be 40k & up per year, and 40k is a bit of a bargain. That money will go further in the 3’3" ring… not tons further, but a bit.
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Question OP, and I may have missed this. We’ve kind of latched on to you wanting to do the bigeq but you mentioned you do the eq and jumpers. You said you wanted to move up to the 3’6’’. Do you specifically want to do the eq? Or would you be equally happy moving up to the 3’6’’ jumpers? I totally may have missed where you said the eq was your goal!
Showing in the 3’6’’ jumpers doesn’t really change, at all, between being a jr and an adult. Literally, the division is generally combined between the ammys and jrs. It makes it a pretty seamless transition if there has been talk of keeping a horse after you age out (which many people do, if their parents are willing to continue to support them).
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My point was 60k gets her about a year with a decent horse and help. But seems the OP has to decide whether to go all in or not. With the limited time and resources the end game has to be laser focused if thats the goal. If not then the discussion is different. Until the parents are ready to write a check and the plan laid out, sort of a moot point. Best to start with desired outcome and work backwards.
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No red saddles! 
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Is he still in…Los Feliz??? Like…not downtown but closest thing to it? He flew in to sub for my trainer at time (major surgery) and really enjoyed working with him. If OP is in LA, there are still other niches “ in the middle of the city” as well as scattered in the close by suburbs. You can miss many unless you know they are there. OP here needs to investgate other options.
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That’s so good to hear! I felt a lot of pressure to do everything and win ___ medal before I become an adult. Honestly, I was really scared to become an ammie because it felt like my riding career would end. I feel so much better about it and I’m really excited for it! It seems really fun to bring along horses and show them!
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