How far are you willing to travel for quality board and training? Hrs, miles, however you want to slice it. How far do you travel now vs your absolute max?
What if it’s daily? Only on weekends? My daily commute + commute to the barn is starting to wear me down. Changes need to be made but they won’t be happening for another 6-12 months. I’m curious to see how far people travel to the barn and who has it the worst 
I’m sure it’s not me. Location would be helpful too!
For me it’s 45 minutes, on the freeway. I have my horses at home, and used to always have one at my trainer’s barn so I would ride there three days a week. I moved 18 months ago and she’s now 2 hours away. Sadly, I no longer train with her.
Home to work: 30 minutes; work to barn: 1 hour; barn to home: 20-25 minutes. Suburbs of a major metropolitan area. I try and work early hours to avoid traffic which can add 10-15 minutes going to or from work. I’m usually at the barn 3 days during the work week and both weekend days. I was doing 4 work days when I had 2 horses but quite happy to have the extra week day to work later as needed or relax at home now on the day the trainer rides my horse.
I actually moved to this situation from a barn that was 5 minutes from my house because of care issues. At the close barn I had to be out every day to double check things even though I was paying for full care. There was no knowledgeable person on site to help with special circumstances like medications. I consider it well worth the drive not to worry if I have to miss a day, or go out of town, or go twice a day for medications, etc. All that to say, closer doesn’t necessarily equal less stressful.
That being said, this is pretty much the limit of how far I’m willing to travel because I do want to be riding ~5x times a week and going any further is just too stressful during the work week.
no travel required now as the horses are in the backyard but for two years we kept a horse in Smithfield Ky… it was an 890 mile one way trip which was made pretty often, at least once a month. Summers were more often.
It was at the time the best place for the horse as she really liked the trainer who was excellent. We met often either in person or on the phone to outline just what was next for horse. Horse’s care was superb, her groom was so good I sent her a monthly stipend.
The horse was our kids’ who was being trained as a children’s horse by being exposed to the wild world of county fair shows in Kentucky…which worked well as when we got her here my daughter had her at a middle school event where a person was injured in an athletic thing…the medical helicopter landed about forty feet from the horse who casually glanced at it as it landed
I’m willing to drive for quite awhile. My mare is currently 3 hours (one way) from me; land is expensive in SoCal and I wanted her out in pasture. I usually see her once a week and will stay down where she is for a night before driving home. Just as often I’ve driven round trip on one day.
Nearest barn is roughly an hour from me, regardless of which direction. I live in a very metropolitan area so traffic and/or distance is always a concern. Mare will be moving to a barn ~45 minutes away (less early in the morning and nearly 2 hours during bad traffic). Care is acceptable though I plan to move her somewhere with actual turnout later.
When I lived in NYC the barn was usually 90 minutes each way, longer if there was bad traffic. It was amazing if I could get out 3x per week, usually I managed once or twice.
Now I’m in California, my horse was at a place 15 minutes away but I was often going out 2x per day because I didn’t find the care up to snuff. Just moved to a barn that’s about 25 minutes without traffic, 40 minutes with traffic and I’m much happier. I do drive out daily, but I work from home so the barn commute is the vast majority of my daily driving time.
I’m the farthest I’ve ever been (~35 minutes) from home to barn right now. The only thing that makes it doable is that work is about half way in between. I ride 6 days/week. Facility, care, and training are amazing. Trade-off is cost.
Very situationally dependent in my history.
At one time, a hour was the outside range.
Later, I had the horses on the property. That kind of spoiled me.
After that, 1/2 an hour max. We have traffic in my neck of the woods, so a half hour commute could easily with traffic turn into a full hour or more.
Now I’m retired and I don’t want to spend ANY time on the roads. I consider 1/2 an hour to be “too far”. My current barn is 10 minutes. But I am also not completely satisfied with my current situation and may continue to look (and expand that distance). I have a lot more flexibility now, though. Just less tolerance.
Once in my horse life I’ve had to commute about 40 minutes on a good day; longer in northern weather. Fortunately I knew it would only last 6 months or so, it was mostly not highway, and I hated it. Since then I’ve always been 20 minutes or less, sometimes a bit longer up north when I had to deal with winter roads.
I currently spend 50 minutes one way getting from home to barn. I go two times a week. Weeknights are the worst- I’ve done 1.5 hours in heavy traffic. I trust the care and training 100% so that’s why I do it. It’s not ideal but worth it.
Right now, barn is 25 minutes away from home (an hour or more from work) and during the week I’m lucky if I can get there in time to do anything other than give treats and apologize to wonderful horse for my lack of time. I have driven 45 minutes (with no traffic) to a barn that ticked 95% of my boxes, but highway traffic started getting consistently worse and I kept being late for lessons and couldn’t make my “window” for barn time. There may be a few cracks in the foundation, so to speak, at current barn, but I feel like I’m looking at at least an hour on the highway each way, to find something that is cost-effective for a largely retired horse, but still has quality care and a decent facility with decent turnout.
western WA - Home to barn, about 25 minutes. This is about the farthest I’m willing to go but have driven further in the past. At the beginning of April I will be moving to a barn that’s about 5-10 minutes away. Yay!
About 45 mins. But its very situational to each individual and their other time commitments.
Theres no such thing as “too far” based on miles or travel time. If you feel burned out, used up, and travel time is creating conflict with your job, family, making you feel guilty and defensive or flat wearing you out physically, its too far. If you are too worn out to ride effectively, its too far.
Its more then the drive too, its the barn time in general. 45 min each way plus an hour with the horse equals about 3 hours out of your day. At least.
On the flip side, sometimes closer is not less time consuming if you absolutely have to be there once or even twice a day for care reasons- that can turn out a worse time suck then driving.
Boarding is all about compromise and balancing horse needs with your needs and budget. Give here take there, pick your poison. No one size fits all,
Currently ~5 minutes and I LOVE it. Previously I’ve had up to 45 min (double that in traffic) and I pretty much only saw my mare on the weekends, occasionally I’d get home from the office in time to head out there and ride but I wouldn’t be home until 10 PM or so. This was back when I was commuting an hour the opposite direction (into the city) with a demanding job (60+ hr/week).
Now mare is 5 minutes down the road, I WFH full time, and I’m able to get to the barn daily. I don’t ride daily but I do go out to feed her mash, adjust blankets, and fret over her. Would the BM do it all if I asked? Yes. But I love feeling more involved with her care now that I have the time and access.
20-30 minutes on a route with limited traffic would probably now be my maximum unless my horse’s needs required extreme measures. if I had a period of time where I couldn’t ride and was sending horse away for full training - I’d probably flex up to 1.5 hr for perfect fit (care and trainer)
DC Metro, currently 50+ minutes (40-45 miles) each way since I work from home. I go out 3-4 times a day but have flexible work hours and my spouse is understanding when I get home at 930 at night. When I worked closer to Annapolis but at the same barn it was an hour 20 before traffic (63-70) and that made life difficult.
I’m in the same area as SharonA, and drive 40 to 45 minutes one way on local roads. It’s an expensive barn but I don’t have to worry about care. I mostly work from home, and make it to the barn 2-3 times each week, plus usually both weekend days. My horse is mostly retired but I enjoy visiting her. I’d love to have her closer, but can’t find anywhere that turns out more than 3 hours per day. Ideally she would have 24/7 access outside but that’s even harder to find.
I’m (relatively) local to you both as well! (sorry, my deduction skills are strong)
Interesting to see how much things vary from person to person. Many of you being vague about where you are located but I’m certain that plays a big part of it. I remember talking to people at dressage nationals a few years ago and finding one person from Texas who drove ~1.5 hrs to work one way daily. Thankfully her barn was somewhere in between. That would be unsustainable for me, but she seemed to think very little about it.
Also interesting to see that people have horses hours and hours away that they see rarely. For me this would not be enough involvement with my horse. I think the longest I would be comfortable leaving them “unsupervised” by myself is a week’s vacation.
Currently 4 minutes, with retired horse just over 10 minutes away. I live in a rural area about an hour west of Toronto.
Previously it was a 50 minute drive each way on the highway, and I’d go 5-6 days per week. I toughed it out for almost 4 years (trainer was there, great facility) but recently moved as trainer is no longer able to teach out of the facility and the drive was starting to get to me, especially with gas prices the way they are, and the care was slipping. Not sure I’ll ever to that drive again, I think my new limit is 30 minutes or less, and it would have to be a perfect situation. Working from home most of the tiem definitely helped, if I had to commute plus do the drive I wouldn’t have lasted that long there.
Closer is so much better for me - he’s at a barn with exceptional care, nice facilities (not as extensive as previous barn but extremely well kept), trainer can come teach here, and I don’t have to feel guilty about not making it out or risk life and limb driving in terrible winter weather - and I can pop over for a quick visit without wasting 2 hours of my day. It also makes it easier to visit my old guy - previously seeing both was a 5 hour time commitment and now I can ride the younger old fart and see the older retired fart and be home in 3 hours or less. Also getting close to two hours of my life back on a daily basis is incredible, who knew the evening had so many hours in it??
I do 30 mins to the barn, 25 mins from the barn to work in the am and then reverse it in the pm. Self care so I’m there every day. I listen to audio books and consider driving my me time lol
Boston-ish.
My work commute is, in fact, 1.5 hours each way, by car --> commuter rail --> subway. Right now I go to the office 1 day per week, and that will go up to 2 in a few weeks, but my department expects no more than that. Traffic here is SO bad!
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