Hunter/Jumper Barn in Wellington/South Florida

Which of these barns/trainers do people recommend most highly:

Palm Beach Riding Academy (Sean Jones)
Carriage Hill Farms (Jane Fennessy)
West View Farms (Nancy Prosser - just moved from CA)
Sweet Oak Farm (Shane Sweetnam/Ali Oakley)
Arborwood Stables (Becky Fruehling)
Palms Stables (Wendy Ballard/Rosemary Bertin)

Are there any other barns/trainers in the West Palm/Wellington area that I am overlooking? I am experienced but haven’t shown for about 2 years. I’m hoping to find somewhere to ride where I can receive top notch instruction but also have fun (I am not necessarily looking to get back into showing right now, just lessons).

Palm Stables

My vote would be for Wendy Ballard at Palm Stables! Great teacher, great horsewoman. Have known her for years since she was in VT.

Sweet Oak Farm is great. Honestly you should just go visit all of them and pick, you should be able to find anything you want in Wellington. Castlewood Farm is also good.

Sweet Oak is a big AA circuit barn. They will be on the road a lot. That’s probably the best instruction, but at least Shane will not be in Wellington at least half the time.

[QUOTE=iEquitate;7168171]
Sweet Oak is a big AA circuit barn. They will be on the road a lot. That’s probably the best instruction, but at least Shane will not be in Wellington at least half the time.[/QUOTE]

There is so much to choose from in Wellington that you can probably visit one or two a day for awhile, then decide.

The best match will depend to a great extent on whether you are a hunter/jumper/junior/adult rider, whether you work or attend school, and whether at the moment you have your own horse or want to least/buy/borrow.

I just sold my last horse :frowning:
So I would be looking for a place that has horses to use in lessons

As someone who operated their business out of the same facility for some time, was hired to ride her horses for her at one point, and had to share an arena with her, I would stay as far away from Nancy Prosser as possible.

[QUOTE=l2wf;7167803]
Which of these barns/trainers do people recommend most highly:

Palm Beach Riding Academy (Sean Jones)
Carriage Hill Farms (Jane Fennessy)
West View Farms (Nancy Prosser - just moved from CA)
Sweet Oak Farm (Shane Sweetnam/Ali Oakley)
Arborwood Stables (Becky Fruehling)
Palms Stables (Wendy Ballard/Rosemary Bertin)

Are there any other barns/trainers in the West Palm/Wellington area that I am overlooking? I am experienced but haven’t shown for about 2 years. I’m hoping to find somewhere to ride where I can receive top notch instruction but also have fun (I am not necessarily looking to get back into showing right now, just lessons).[/QUOTE]

From only the options listed…West View Farms (Nancy Prosser - just moved from CA) by FAR! The other barns I would avoid…

OP, I just sent you a PM with some info, but I also would say Castlewood with Alan Korotkin would be an option. Alan is a great trainer.

I’m not sure what 's up with Arborwood - did they move? Because I’m sure I saw their property listed for sale a couple months ago.

[QUOTE=ybiaw;7185579]
OP, I just sent you a PM with some info, but I also would say Castlewood with Alan Korotkin would be an option. Alan is a great trainer.

I’m not sure what 's up with Arborwood - did they move? Because I’m sure I saw their property listed for sale a couple months ago.[/QUOTE]

Alan is great, but the OP will really need her own horse. Arborwood just moved to a different barn…no lesson horses though.

I would like to reply to the post by Granite hill farm and Jonathan B. He was the one evicted from the facility that we both stabled at… he was the one who rode and showed a lame horse with 5 suspensory tears and a torn impar ligament, he was the one who told a new horse owner to buy a horse without doing xrays, etc etc… I have had a successful training operation for 26 years, with clientele that has been with me for 12 years or more, multiple year end championships on the West Coast! He should be the one everyone should stay away from! He is just bitter and looking for anything to say that is not nice, he needs professional help. Just wanted to clarify based on his statement. Thank you, Nancy P.

[QUOTE=Nancywvf;7492119]
I would like to reply to the post by Granite hill farm and Jonathan B. He was the one evicted from the facility that we both stabled at… he was the one who rode and showed a lame horse with 5 suspensory tears and a torn impar ligament, he was the one who told a new horse owner to buy a horse without doing xrays, etc etc… I have had a successful training operation for 26 years, with clientele that has been with me for 12 years or more, multiple year end championships on the West Coast! He should be the one everyone should stay away from! He is just bitter and looking for anything to say that is not nice, he needs professional help. Just wanted to clarify based on his statement. Thank you, Nancy P.[/QUOTE]

This thread is from September 2013.

JIMMY TORANO!!!

Seems like Nancy is forgetting details again. The facility evicted me the day before I was about to give notice I was relocating my business elsewhere. Someone had told them I was leaving.
The horse with the 5 suspensory tears and a torn impar ligament, was the only horse that stayed when I left the facility. The owners were nice enough to let me show it one last time and finish the season since we had done well. After the show I hauled the horse myself to the facility, met with the owners, unwrapped her legs, said goodbye, gave them a box of things they might need for her and left. Days later I was notified that the horse was injured.
First Nancy claimed that she noticed something wrong with the horse the first day I showed it, but said nothing. Why wouldn’t she say something to the owners that you were in communication with? We all knew the horse was staying at the facility and going into care with Nancy after the show. The video of my rounds that day shows no issue with the horse. I’m not sure what medication could even hide such an injury but I know the horse was chosen to be drug tested that day and came out clean.
Then because I missed my professional division on Sunday due to a family issue I was accused of not showing the horse because I knew it was hurt. So wait…did I show the horse injured or not? Because now its assumed I knew the horse was injured and didn’t show it. I did however school the horse that day in the warmup ring. So this “injured horse” I was able to hack around right in front of two busy show rings, countless trainers, the two judges and show stewards present and no one noticed or said anything?
Then the blame was placed on my horse shoer… till Nancy realized we used the same shoer and then that theory was dropped.
When the owners emailed me to tell me the horse had been injured and I was being blamed, they said that following the show, the horse was turned out for a few days and then Nancy noticed something wrong. So wait… if I did injure the horse in a way that caused it to have 5 suspensory tears and a torn impar ligament, then it was turned out for a few days that way and Nancy didn’t notice? And if she noticed at the show which she claimed, then why was it turned out for several days afterwards while under her care? She can deny she ever said she noticed anything but then that would mean theres a good chance the horse was fine when I showed it which means it got hurt while in her care.
I think its also important to mention that her groom, who was very good, happened to be on vacation during this time. His replacement for a few weeks barely knew anything. I watched Nancy show him on his first day how to put splint boots on- the correct way since he had put them on backwards.
I should also mention that the horse, now to be in training with her required regular schooling to keep it behaving well for the girl who owned it. Nancy who had suffered a back injury barely rode and was recently excited she started jumping crossrails. I guess if the horse hadn’t been injured she would have had to come up with another reason why she wasn’t able to jump the horse around like it required.
Oh, and the reason why I had made the decision to relocate facilities- FOOTING that wasn’t being fixed. The manager made sure the day we moved out to have bulldozers there starting to fix the arenas and told everyone I was crazy for leaving since the footing is finally being fixed. I asked the foreman for his card and told him I had a friend that was looking to get their arena fixed just to see what he would say, and he told me they had never done arenas before. Closest they had come to an arena was a bmx/motorcross course!
If Nancy acclaims herself with all these year end awards on the west coast and this super successful business then why did she move to Florida? Nancy had countless horses that had leg injuries and were in rehab, one in particular that had been unsound for 2 plus years with little or no improvement. How many horses in my barn have ever sustained leg and/or tendon injuries to date- NONE.
And in a final but ironic twist, the friend she sold her business to when she moved to Florida was evicted from that same facility last September for “aggressive and unsportsmanlike behavior.” I don’t associate myself with people who fit that description which is probably why Nancy and I don’t get along.
I will seek professional help for my bitterness about being thrown under the bus and made to look like a HORRIBLE person by Nancy in an effort to save her own hide, but she should seek professional help for her amnesia since she seems to forget important details and for her delusions that she creates and spreads around.

Its very unfortunate that the post above by Jonathan is so inaccurate and delusional, honesty is not his forte. To address his “pointing the blame” for his own problems, insecurities, malpractice, etc… The attorneys involved from the owner of the horse have all the details, misrepresentation, etc. The horse was lame and on video months before it ever came to me, a full prepurchase was never done with xrays at his hand for these new first time horse owners, the poor mare was lame and vet called the very first day after arrival and diagnosed with said injuries, I had told the owner it was lame while i watched it go before ever going to the show and expected it to be unsound when it arrived, it was never turned out for a week as he claims and he would never know that info anyway as he was evicted. The slanderous comments from a low life like the above are meaningless to me, if he must post things that are complete lies to feel better about his life then thats his problem. My move to Florida was purely for a change and to be close to my family, I never had anything to ever run away from in my life. My customers from California are like family to me, have always been and always will be. Their horses always took priority over anything else. The proof is in the results. And the mare did make a full recovery after a year and several months of treatment and rehab. The shame in these posts it not on me. The horses always come first before anything! Unfortunate that greed and selfishness put this horse in this position in the first place.

This thread is 2 years old. Time to move on.

It’s a sloth fight?

Didn’t realize this was still going…

[QUOTE=Nancywvf;8536418]
Its very unfortunate that the post above by Jonathan is so inaccurate and delusional, honesty is not his forte. To address his “pointing the blame” for his own problems, insecurities, malpractice, etc… The attorneys involved from the owner of the horse have all the details, misrepresentation, etc. The horse was lame and on video months before it ever came to me, a full prepurchase was never done with xrays at his hand for these new first time horse owners, the poor mare was lame and vet called the very first day after arrival and diagnosed with said injuries, I had told the owner it was lame while i watched it go before ever going to the show and expected it to be unsound when it arrived, it was never turned out for a week as he claims and he would never know that info anyway as he was evicted. The slanderous comments from a low life like the above are meaningless to me, if he must post things that are complete lies to feel better about his life then thats his problem. My move to Florida was purely for a change and to be close to my family, I never had anything to ever run away from in my life. My customers from California are like family to me, have always been and always will be. Their horses always took priority over anything else. The proof is in the results. And the mare did make a full recovery after a year and several months of treatment and rehab. The shame in these posts it not on me. The horses always come first before anything! Unfortunate that greed and selfishness put this horse in this position in the first place.[/QUOTE]

I didn’t realize this was still going… Regardless of how it happened which from the posts we will never agree on, the horse ended up injured, and what’s important is that she healed. My horses are happy and healthy where I am, as am I. Nancy I hope you find yourself, your horses and your family in the same situation. Life is too short for this pettiness. Good luck to you, God bless.

Maybe be the bigger person and like a certain Disney Princess… LET IT GO!!!

Ocala is bigtime show territory. Finding a barn with which to lesson there (as in almost every part of the country) is an enormous challenge.