Looking for a horse to ride in or around Boston. Videos added

[Release_First]

I have a client who is starting school in Boston in September. She is in her late 20s, a good horseman, a lovely rider, and an amazing person. She has been home for a month and has made such a difference in the horses that she has been working with that I am hoping that she can find some riding opportunities in the Boston area.She has always done all of her own work around the horses. She loves the flat work. We have spent the month working on her automatic release.

If there is anyone who could use a rider who is fun to be with and good for your horse, I have one.:yes:

She is also looking for barn recommendations in the area.

[M_Owen]

I think there were some recent threads on this topic. Where she lives in the Boston area will make a big difference in which barns are accessible. To help people give better suggestions, you may want to mention which area or town she’ll be in.

[Release_First]

Looking for riding opportunities near Harvard.

She is going to Harvard Law and she said she has near-by apartment. Since I don’t know the area that is te best I can do. She has been in New York and was traveling about 40 minutes to ride another ex client’s horse on the weekends. She has been riding one or two horses daily since she has been home for about 45 days. She has the horses going so much softer with better self balance and longer strides in that time. It has been a joy to watch the change.

[islgrl]

Try equinesite.com

[Hunter_JumperMom]

How about Newbury Farm in Littleton, MA. Will she have a car??

[jcraig10]

http://www.chronofhorse.com/forum/showthread.php?227167-Riderless-Horses-and-Horseless-Riders-matchmaking-service!/page52

you could try posting on that thread

[quietann]

If she has a car, she’ll have a lot of choices. Some of the “bigger” pro barns go to Florida for the winter, but there are still plenty around.

If she has any skill and desire to work with younger or greener horses, she’ll REALLY have no problem at all.

I will PM you the name of a jumpers trainer I work with (flatwork only as my horse and I are both limited). He knows “the scene” pretty well and he’s been pretty successful setting up his better students with “training rides” on hunters.

[BostonHJ]

[QUOTE=Hunter/JumperMom;7120805]
How about Newbury Farm in Littleton, MA. Will she have a car??[/QUOTE]

Newbury does not have any lesson or consignment sale horses, and Cory (trainer) picks up 90% of any extra rides. Board there includes all training so most people understandably want a pro ride. The few remaining rides go to the big eq kids for the most part, and occasionally one of the adults.

I would also recommend Equine Site - she can even post a horseless rider thread in the Bb and will get responses.

[Hunter_JumperMom]

@bostonhj. Wasn’t sure what they had there but figured I would throw it out there

[M_Owen]

I used to live in the general area of Harvard (I was just over the line from Cambridge in Arlington) and the good news is that there are lots of farms accessible northwest of the city (assuming she’ll have a car). If she can work out her schedule to avoid heavy commute times in the afternoon/ early evening, she’ll be able to get to many places within 45 minutes- 1 hour drive.

I would suggest she try Equinesite and the riderless horse thread and look into farms that are accessible from route 2/ 495/ and 2A (that will make sense if she looks at a map of the area). There may be some opportunities, but she may need to take some lessons to network a little bit so people can get to know her and her skill set. There is someone who posts on here who is a trainer at a farm in Acton- Fair Harbour, I believe her user name is toomanyponies. I have been there for a clinic and it is quite a nice facility and friendly group of people. Maybe your friend could take some lessons there to get to know the area a bit and start making some connections.

[Anteup]

Does she have any money? I’m looking for someone to half lease my guy.

[vagabondrider]

[QUOTE=M. Owen;7121104]
I used to live in the general area of Harvard (I was just over the line from Cambridge in Arlington) and the good news is that there are lots of farms accessible northwest of the city (assuming she’ll have a car). If she can work out her schedule to avoid heavy commute times in the afternoon/ early evening, she’ll be able to get to many places within 45 minutes- 1 hour drive.

I would suggest she try Equinesite and the riderless horse thread and look into farms that are accessible from route 2/ 495/ and 2A (that will make sense if she looks at a map of the area).[/QUOTE]

I was in the same location as your student, and I would encourage her to look at barns out the Mass Pike (I-90), e.g. in Dover, Sherborn, Sudbury, Millis & Medfield.

Getting onto the Mass Pike at the Newton exit via Soldiers Field Road is quite reliable from Harvard Law School, as long as she figures out which smaller 1-way roads to take. It’s much faster to get on the Mass Pike that way than at the Cambridge exit if she’s coming from near HLS. I also did the route 2/2A/495 commute for a while, and getting out of Cambridge in that direction is horrendous for large chunks of the day. There is a rotary (aka traffic circle to non-New Englanders!) where everything gets ridiculously backed up, and the Alewife T station (aka subway) is also a source of major traffic as people drive there & take the T into Cambridge/Boston. Going to barns out the Mass Pike was faster & more consistent (drive time didn’t vary as much with time of day).

[Release_First]

Thank you and videos

Thank you, everyone, for the information and the recommendations. I know she will make the best of the information. Below are two Youtube videos. One of her warming up a horse for a lesson and the other one is over a few jumps. None of this is practiced or planned or perfect but should give you an idea of the type of rider she is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGYfhTy7XhE&list=FLplarhkZrYY_c1lgiBM_WcQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_F1v9w5npSU

Again, thank you everyone!

[Tucked_Away]

[QUOTE=vagabondrider;7122776]

Getting onto the Mass Pike at the Newton exit via Soldiers Field Road is quite reliable from Harvard Law School, as long as she figures out which smaller 1-way roads to take.[/QUOTE]

Getting to the Pike from the Harvard Square area is actually a total disaster right now. The main drags are logjams due to a couple of long-term construction projects and the sneaky side-street routes are not much better because everybody else is also trying 'em.

It’s not insurmountable, especially if the rider is a student with a flexible schedule, but it sure isn’t pretty and that doesn’t look likely to change any time soon.

I live and now board north of the city, and work right across the street from Harvard Law. I go straight up 93 or 93/95, which I never in a million years would have expected to be an improvement on anything but in reality is surprisingly non-awful even when I get stuck at work late and end up on the road during rush hour. Much, much better than crossing the river.

[BostonHJ]

[QUOTE=vagabondrider;7122776]
I also did the route 2/2A/495 commute for a while, and getting out of Cambridge in that direction is horrendous for large chunks of the day. There is a rotary (aka traffic circle to non-New Englanders!) where everything gets ridiculously backed up, and the Alewife T station (aka subway) is also a source of major traffic as people drive there & take the T into Cambridge/Boston. Going to barns out the Mass Pike was faster & more consistent (drive time didn’t vary as much with time of day).[/QUOTE]

I totally agree - also, there is a major, five year construction project on Route 2 going on right now that is making things even worse. There is also ongoing construction on 95 that is making this super unpredictable. If I were to pick a best-of-the-worst route, it would be the Pike. It does backup like everything else, but it seems to be more consistent.