I found out a couple of weeks ago that I’ll be moving to the Roanoke, Virginia area, and I’m looking for a decent H/J barn in the area. I don’t have my own horse, so I’d be looking for a place with school horses, and ideally one where I wouldn’t be the only adult rider in lessons. I saw a post here from a while back saying that Stone Bridge was your only option if you didn’t have your own horse, but that’s a little farther than I’d ideally like to drive, since I’ve spent the last year and a half driving driving 45 minutes each way for lessons and I would love a shorter commute. I’ve also seen Catawba Equestrian Center online, but couldn’t tell much of anything about them from their Facebook page, although I can call them this week. If anyone has any other suggestions of places I’d like to check out, that would be great. Thank you!
Roanoke is not a real horsey area. Annalisa King in Bedford, VA may be a little bit closer (not sure) but she does not have an indoor arena and I don’t know if she has a lesson program for those that don’t own their own horses. Suggest you try the SWVHJA Facebook page and post something there.
Lots of Roanoke horse folks come up to Rockbridge County to board/ride. Probably not what you wanted to hear, but for some reason Roanoke doesn’t have that much to offer for H/J.
Annalisa King is a good suggestion, depending on distance.
Ardmore is just outside of Roanoke; Becky Andrews is there and we visited Ragan Roberts there last week. Looks like Ardmore has been significantly upgraded.
Kristin Oakes is at Centura in Roanoke. I don’t know her well, but it looks like her kids are doing well at the shows.
You should check out the Roanoke Equestrian blog, maybe go to a few shows on the calendar and find what looks like your jam – there are good local options and convenient A’s. That could give you some idea of who looks like your crowd!
Thank you for all of the replies! Annalisa King, Ardmore, and Centura would all be within a reasonable distance from where we’d be living, so I will look into all of those.
