I drive a little over an hour each way, five times per week.
I’m also in the Boston area and when I was looking for a barn, I looked within a “Boston” 45 minute radius knowing that the commute mostly on the Pike and 128 can double with traffic. I work from home on Mondays specifically so I can make it to the barn on time for my lesson.
I’m lucky to live about 25 miles north of Boston, which means less traffic if I’m headed away from Boston toward the barn. I was lucky to get into a really nice North Shore barn 5 years ago, but it’s rapidly becoming “ex-horse-country” up there. Barns are closing, or have gone private (no boarders.)
Shoot, when I lived in Nashville, it was pretty typical for people to end up driving 60-90 (or more) minutes one way for board.
It’s not that people wanted to drive that far, they usually started at farms much closer to home. But you usually ended up getting exasperated with the boarding situation, either due to low quality care or extremely high cost. The “horsey” area is south of the city, but that’s also the most desirable area to live, so the farms keep getting driven farther and farther away as land is lost to development.
Here in MD, if you drive more than 25-30 min, everyone thinks you are nuts… unless it is for some sort of specialty facility.
“Too far” is a pretty personal choice and is also impacted by climate, availability, family, training situation, and much more! The farthest I have commuted to the barn was about 40 minutes. It was a pretty easy drive and the only family I had was my dog. Still, I worked full time (luckily with a 10 minute commute!) and only got out maybe two weekdays and usually weekend days. My horse was never in training, so it did slow down progress to have fewer rides - especially when winter weather kept me away.
The other long distance boarding was slightly farther, but it was the horse’s retirement home, so I didnt feel guilty if I only saw him on weekends.
Currently my horse is in the same town, though it still takes me about 20 minutes to get through town and navigate the back roads. I have retired so I get to ride much more now!
I have boarded at 2 places. One was about 15 minutes from my house and right on my way home from work. The other was just temporary after getting married and moving 2000 East and looking for our own place. It was about 35 minutes away.
For me It has to be as close as possible, but thankfully I have kept mine at home since 1992.
I have been doing 45 minutes on the freeway. I am retired but even the 45 minutes each way five times a week is wearing me down. Where I live farms are being sold for housing and the barns keep moving farther away. The real issues are when my horse needs meds multiple times a day or an injury that needs tending and finding people to pay to do that.
I drive 100 miles to get to the barn. One way. Prior to gas being $4/gal, I did the trip 4-6 times a month. The drive is between 90 minutes and 6 hours, depending on traffic and if I stop for gas.
Periodically, I go down midweek with my laptop and work from the tack room instead of my couch.
I’m in NoVA, the horse is outside of Richmond. The DMV is Sport Horse Hell and I don’t like sport horses. This closest Saddlebred barn I’ve found. I had a horse in Rocky Mount, NC and eventually moved to this barn. Sold the horse, but kept going to the barn to visit for years. I’ve had a horse again for ~3 years.
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It has worked out reasonably well in that work often has me in Newport News, so I will often stop at the barn to or from there.
I had a horse local, doing the DIY thing, in NoVA for ~6 months and it almost killed me. 45 min to/from the barn, on top of a 30-60 min drive to/from work (in the opposite direction). My happiest day was when the horse got on the trailer for NC. I was exhausted.
The trainer is moving in a couple months, the drive to the new place is ~15 miles longer, but south of Richmond instead of east of it. It’s going to be interesting to learn a new part of I-95. Unfortunately, it’s out of the way if I’m going to Hampton Rds. No more side trips on the company dime.
The trainer should have looked at Fredericksburg, he’s got three of us that come from the DC area.