Moving to Houston Area- Know a Place for My Horses?

[MovingToTexas]

Hello everyone

I am planning to move to the great state of Texas in the Houston area and would love some suggestions on where I could board one or two horses.

I am open to a variety of situations.

I do both the hunters and dressage and would be willing to put my horses with a trainer of either discipline or with an eventing place.

I am also ok with a “no trainer” facility as I am an independent rider who is confident to manage my own horse care and training and would be happy in a nice, private facility where owners do their own thing. Ideally such a place would allow trainers to come on site and teach.

My absolute ideal situation would be a situation where I could live on site and keep a horse or two in exchange for taking care of the barn (and some additional rent/board if necessary). Again such a place, if there is not a trainer on site already, would ideally be ok with someone coming on site to teach. I have excellent references from both disciplines and have held barn-care positions before.

I am also willing to give up my ammy card for a working student position in either the hunters or dressage.

I am ok with pasture board, although it would be nice to have at least one horse in a stall in case of an stall-requiring convalescence (sp?).

Additionally if anyone wants to PM me places to stay AWAY from I would also appreciate it since I am coming from across the country blind to the area.

Also, any thoughts on the hunter/dressage scene in the area would be great. How far do you have to drive for horseshows? Are there lots of schooling shows? Clinics? Many trainers? I’d love to know!

I apologize for the crosspost in advance but since I am talking toward two different disciplines I hope the mods will humor me briefly before, I am guessing, merging the threads into the one that gets the most responses.

Thank you very much for any suggestions; if you don’t want to post publicly please feel free to PM. No need to post “You have a pm”- believe me, I am hot to trot on moving to Houston and will check!

Thanks again!!

[narcisco]

Yep, it is indeed hot to trot in Houston Have fun!

[jcotton]

Where in Houston are you planning to locate to? Texas, much less Houston is large, and your opening post is vague.
Need more details.

[MovingToTexas]

I am willing to get the horses housed first and move to suit.

Ideally within an hour radius of the city.

[jcotton]

Still vague,
…north, south, east, west,…
hard to be helpful, if you don’t give more information…
There are lots of places-trainers…options…

[MovingToTexas]

[QUOTE=jcotton;4442806]
Still vague,
…north, south, east, west,…
hard to be helpful, if you don’t give more information…
There are lots of places-trainers…options…[/QUOTE]

I am really willing to go anywhere.
I am happy to find a good place for me and the horses and just move near it.
My plan is to gather together some options and then travel down for a week doing the tour (N, S, E and W) to make the final decision.

I don’t have specific requirements as to where to live so if you have suggestions of one area over another I would appreciate it.

[Bethe_Mounce]

Houston and surrounding area is rather large. Plus there are many outlying little towns that are within an hour or more distance of Houston proper. Houston traffic sucks! I thought the traffic here in San Francisco was horrible. It cannot hold a candle to Houston. Perhaps deciding on how far you would like to travel from your barn to your home would the first thought. Google Greater Houston Hunter Jumper Association. There is a listing of trainers and boarding facilities I believe. Get on google maps, type in something like equestrian boarding facilities, Houston, Texas and see what you get. Just some thoughts. Good luck.

[Bethe_Mounce]

One more question, more out of curiosity, why the Houston area?

[MovingToTexas]

[QUOTE=Bethe Mounce;4442863]
Perhaps deciding on how far you would like to travel from your barn to your home would the first thought. [/QUOTE]

Since I have not moved there yet, I don’t have a home.

My plan is actually to place the horses first and THEN myself.

ETA:
I would like to move there because I went to a wedding there shortly after getting laid off, and I said, “Heh, I like it here and am laid off anyway, may as well move here and try something different.”

[Bethe_Mounce]

Not to make any negative comments about Houston, but it gets hotter than Hades in the summer. Two seasons…hot summer and cool summer. I like Houston for its culture etc…but living in Houston proper, not a chance. Finding a barn, as you said, is the priority. Check the GHHJA website. I am pretty sure they have a listing of facilities. That should at least get you started.

[CaffeineAddict]

houstondressagesociety.com should have a listing of trainers and boarding options. Like other posters have pointed out Houston is huge and there are many trainers. I don’t think there are very many options as far as leasing a place of your own, but you might get lucky. Generally speaking the North, Northwest, and West side of town have a larger dressage/hunter horse population. The Region 9 Championships is in 2 weeks, most of the dressage trainers from the Houston area will be there.

[Halt_Near_X]

Agree with what everyone is saying: pick an area first. Use the links already provided to find out where a lot of barns are clustered, than start looking in those areas for barns you’d like.

When I moved down here, I picked out a barn I thought I’d like, moved down, and discovered the barn wasn’t really what I wanted.

I was spending up to an hour and a half in traffic to get out to the barn I switched to. On bad days, I was spending four+ hours in the car between work/home/the barn. All because I originally picked a barn in a location that didn’t have enough other options locally and I had to switch to a different area.

Don’t do what I did and get set on a particular barn. Find a likely area, first, and then look for the best barn in that area. Unless, of course, you prefer driving your car to riding your horse.

[meupatdoes]

[QUOTE=HappyVagrant;4443059]
Agree with what everyone is saying: pick an area first. Use the links already provided to find out where a lot of barns are clustered, than start looking in those areas for barns you’d like.

When I moved down here, I picked out a barn I thought I’d like, moved down, and discovered the barn wasn’t really what I wanted.

I was spending up to an hour and a half in traffic to get out to the barn I switched to. On bad days, I was spending four+ hours in the car between work/home/the barn. All because I originally picked a barn in a location that didn’t have enough other options locally and I had to switch to a different area.

Don’t do what I did and get set on a particular barn. Find a likely area, first, and then look for the best barn in that area. Unless, of course, you prefer driving your car to riding your horse.[/QUOTE]

My horses currently live an hour and a half away from where I live (with no traffic). It is 180 miles round trip. Before getting laid off I had a 7 hour day before I even arrived at work in between the alarm going off and commuting to get the horses ridden in the (wee hours of) the morning.

I have done the googling and have a list of places to visit on my upcoming tour, but if people could share there personal experiences that will give me more information.

I would really appreciate it if people would simply give the names of some trainers and barns that I can investigate further, and relay some of their personal experiences with those establishments.

Then I can do the tour and take it from there.

[MovingToTexas]

[QUOTE=HappyVagrant;4443059]
Agree with what everyone is saying: pick an area first. Use the links already provided to find out where a lot of barns are clustered, than start looking in those areas for barns you’d like.

When I moved down here, I picked out a barn I thought I’d like, moved down, and discovered the barn wasn’t really what I wanted.

I was spending up to an hour and a half in traffic to get out to the barn I switched to. On bad days, I was spending four+ hours in the car between work/home/the barn. All because I originally picked a barn in a location that didn’t have enough other options locally and I had to switch to a different area.

Don’t do what I did and get set on a particular barn. Find a likely area, first, and then look for the best barn in that area. Unless, of course, you prefer driving your car to riding your horse.[/QUOTE]

My horses currently live an hour and a half away from where I live (with no traffic). It is 180 miles round trip. I go 5 or 6 days a week and keep 3 horses in work. Before getting laid off I had a 7 hour day before I even arrived at work in between the alarm going off and commuting to get the horses ridden in the (wee hours of the) morning.

I have done the googling and have a list of places to visit on my upcoming tour, but if people could share their personal experiences that will give me more information.

I would really appreciate it if people would simply give the names of some trainers and barns that I can investigate further, and relay some of their personal experiences with those establishments.

Then I can do the tour and take it from there.

[Velvet]

Since you haven’t lived there, I think you really need to read the replies you’ve received out here first and put together a game plan. I’m not sure where you’re from, but it is very obvious you are not from Texas, nor have you lived there before. It’s VERY different from anywhere else.

While there are a LOT of horses and facilities, what you’re looking for is very hard to help you find unless you really do know where you want to live. Texas is HUGE. Houston is HUGE. It’s actually a city that has two centers–so which one do you need to be near? Traffic is a nightmare, so it’s not just the drive on a highway to the stable. Also, most horse places are not really off major highways and are a bit of a pain to get to. (And lets not even get into hurricanes and why it’s so hard to leave the city in time to escape on your own, let alone with your horse. Or how much flooding there is with just the tropical rain bands even if you don’t get the hurricane. Not to turn you off, just to make sure you know what you’re getting into.)

Based on all the replies I would have thought you would have picked up on the fact that this is not a simple question. In MANY other parts of the country it would be, but due to the nature of things in Texas (location, distance, and abilities of the trainers in the different areas) it’s not as simple as giving you a list.

Why don’t you go back to Houston and look around, THEN ask questions out here about more specific places and trainers? It sounds like you know people in Houston, they should also be able to tell you what it’s like there and help to explain that it’s not as simple as asking where you should live near Houston.

You might also want to check Cypress or Katy. And I’m sure people out here will give you a lot of other areas near Houston, but near in Texas is a relative term. You’re covering too broad an area in your last posts. Go look at the Houston Dressage Association site and see if their classifieds can help you come up with more specific questions to help other Houstonites out here narrow down their information to something useful.

[MovingToTexas]

[QUOTE=Velvet;4443246]
Since you haven’t lived there, I think you really need to read the replies you’ve received out here first and put together a game plan. I’m not sure where you’re from, but it is very obvious you are not from Texas, nor have you lived there before. It’s VERY different from anywhere else.

While there are a LOT of horses and facilities, what you’re looking for is very hard to help you find unless you really do know where you want to live. Texas is HUGE. Houston is HUGE. It’s actually a city that has two centers–so which one do you need to be near? Traffic is a nightmare, so it’s not just the drive on a highway to the stable. Also, most horse places are not really off major highways and are a bit of a pain to get to. (And lets not even get into hurricanes and why it’s so hard to leave the city in time to escape on your own, let alone with your horse. Or how much flooding there is with just the tropical rain bands even if you don’t get the hurricane. Not to turn you off, just to make sure you know what you’re getting into.)

Based on all the replies I would have thought you would have picked up on the fact that this is not a simple question. In MANY other parts of the country it would be, but due to the nature of things in Texas (location, distance, and abilities of the trainers in the different areas) it’s not as simple as giving you a list.

Why don’t you go back to Houston and look around, THEN ask questions out here about more specific places and trainers? It sounds like you know people in Houston, they should also be able to tell you what it’s like there and help to explain that it’s not as simple as asking where you should live near Houston.

You might also want to check Cypress or Katy. And I’m sure people out here will give you a lot of other areas near Houston, but near in Texas is a relative term. You’re covering too broad an area in your last posts. Go look at the Houston Dressage Association site and see if their classifieds can help you come up with more specific questions to help other Houstonites out here narrow down their information to something useful.[/QUOTE]

OK, since you mentioned two locations, let’s start with “Have you/has anyone had experiences, good or bad, with barns in Cypress or Katy?”

[Bethe_Mounce]

Information about trainers in the Houston area I am reluctant to post publicly…having lived in Tx for 30 or so years and having been in the dressage community there for 10+ years, there are certain folks I trust not only with training but with the care of my horse (I kept mine at home in College Station). There are other trainers I wouldn’t let near anything I have. So…feel free to email me privately, remember, I can only give my opinion based on what I observed. I did not train with anyone in Texas…merely observations of their teaching, their students and performance records.

[CaffeineAddict]

Well as far as Cypress/Katy goes you are still going to need to be more specific (there are probably a hundred barns of varying sizes in this area). In general your options are a boarding barn with no trainer or a trainer’s barn. Most trainers don’t travel, so if you aren’t at their barn, you will need a trailer. If you board at a trainer’s barn, most will expect you to be in some sort of training with them. I also wouldn’t expect to come in as a working student to work off board or lessons, that situation does exist in Houston but not to the extent it does on the West or East coast.

[jcotton]

You also need to have a list of must haves and have nots --to ask about what each barn has.
Do you have your own rig?
Or are you dependent on them for transportation?
How much turnout do your horses have to have? A few hours a day or 6 hour -8 hours, 12 hours?
Individual turnout, large group(mixed or same sex) or do your own horses turnout together?
Paddock with run in sheds or barn & turnout?
Full care or partial care?
Full training or lessons as needed?

[jcotton]

Cypress can be as elusive as Tomball, Waller, Hockley.
Katy can also include Brookshire, Fulshear, Richmond, Rosenburg.
Further away to the west, you have Bellville, Sealy.