For those of you who live in Illinois can you provide me with information regarding dressage facilities? My friend is moving there soon and is an excellent rider/instructor looking for some nice dressage facilties.
It is a big state. What area is the friend moving to?
And is she looking for a place where she can train out of or just a place to board her own? Does she have her own clientele coming with?
Location? North, Central, South?
Starwest in New Berlin is one. But make sure you own a WB and are an upper level rider.:rolleyes:
Traumeire Farms in Charleston (guess she is still riding) 
I think she mentioned Champaign area. She only moved to this country from Germany over a year ago and husbands job is relocated. I will truely miss her as she is a beautiful, sensitive rider and has helped me more than she realizes. No, she currently does not own her own horse but has hopes of purchasing and training one in the future.
The trainers at Starwest are dear friends of mine, and you will be hard-pressed to find more kind, well-trained and honest professionals in the area. Alice Martin has a background in breeding Arabians, and the farm currently has several Fresians and crosses in training, for their riders from beginner to FEI. Any rider who wants to learn to ride their horse well would enjoy their experience there. Sorry you had a bad time, Kathi.
Shortstuff, please give your friend their website - www.starwestonline.net. I’m sure they’d love to meet her and show her around.
There are some barns out by Homer, which isn’t too far from Champaign - Urbana, and one out by Mahomet – they are dressage oriented (Madaleine Cartwright, Dee Weston, and Terri Elsesser-Stark are the names of the owners). She could also try contacting Thomas Monfort DVM to get some leads on some barns in that area. There’s also Kim Kennedy’s place, but it is more attuned to h/j and event horses, same with Terri Foreman’s barn out by St. Joseph, it’s more h/j. In Springfield there’s StarWest and also Paula Briney’s(sp?) place. In Charleston you have Traumerai and a new facility – Ottertail. And there’s a western barn, Rockin A, that will allow instructors to come in and give lessons. There’s also a old western facility up by Tuscola that is now owned by a warmblood breeder (supposedly, that may be a rumor) and the old StarFire Farms that is owned by a reining trainer, but I think they have “english” riders out of that barn as well. There’s also a couple over by Clinton/Bloomington area, as well as Hunter Oaks in Carlock. I don’t know if any of those places would be able or what your friend would even want, but they might be able to help her find a place – there are a suprising amount of horses in the area, just “hidden” in private barns.
And if she’s really a good dressage instructor as you say…please please please yes, we’d love to have her in the area! Could she teach o/f work too? Oh Gawd, if she does I think I’ll start to cry (we have a dearth of instructors south of C-U in the “english” realm, and my girl and I just lost ours to a decision to quit the facility she was at; haven’t hear from her in a month and think she’s left the area:cry:). I’d say she could come and move in with me, but I have neither room for horse nor human at my small abode – would just be happy to meet up with a new dressage rider in this area …we have so few…
Oh, and there’s a DW breeder down in Marshall, Peggy Mills.
I understand she has certification in Germany and has been riding for 20+ years (she is a young 27). Beautiful, talented and awesome rider/trainer and I am crying as I type. I’ve only know her a brief few months but she has taught me more than all the years and money I wasted on the local trainers. We ride without spurs to help me learn and understand to use my body and leg aides properly. Both my horses are now SUPER responsive and light and my position and timing of aids is so much better. All this progress in 6 weeks with daily work and I became obsessed with how much fun and how much I was learning! Thank you all for the information and I will pass it along to her. If a soft spoken petite blond with a german accent visits your barn - - - you will be truely blessed to meet such a wonderful horseperson.
Yes, by all means tell her she is more than welcome at my barn or house any day – we will abduct her though:lol:
Seriously, if she moves within an hour or so of where I live I would LOVE to meet up and possibly lesson with her …and so would my daughter (daughters when one gets to come home on leave).
Terri Elsesser-Stark in St Joseph has a wonderful, but not very large dressage facility. That would be my choice for dressage in the C-U area.
Oh man why is she moving here. I cant wait to get out of IL. But thats just me. A lot of people like it here. (dont ask me why)
Gallop – some of us are born here, and hence have no choice in the matter; some are brought by the winds of fickle fate:winkgrin:
I like to think of residence in IL as character building – especially for horse people:lol:
Although S. Illinios (down by Shawnee) and N. IL (up by Galena) are quite lovely.
I’ll second Terri Elsesser-Stark’s place; it is very small, but very nice, and very close to C-U.
“Character Building” well put, I like that. S IL is actually very nice…I just dont get to see enough of it.
Dressage and Eventing Facility near University of IL
Saw this post and wanted to draw your attention to our new facility Pemberley Stables, which is located about 15 NE of the University of Illinois. We have 37 acres (20 of which are devoted to daily turnout), large box stalls which are fully matted and fitted with automatic waters (with individual meters), large indoor and outdoor arenas (groomed daily), individual tack lockers, daily stall cleaning, blanketing service, horse shower area, full bath, viewing room, and many other amenities. We offer lessons and training in dressage and eventing, and have monthly clinics with top clinicians.
You can find out more about us by going to www.pemberleystables.com
Be sure to check out our “Testimonials”–sound bites contributed by boarders and students about their experiences at Pemberley.
[QUOTE=GallopGal;2816547]
“Character Building” well put, I like that. S IL is actually very nice…I just dont get to see enough of it.[/QUOTE]
Hey, what’d you mean by ‘character building’? As a born and raised Illinoisian, I take offense! :lol:
I am sorry to say this, but I went to grad school at the UIUC and moved away as quickly as possible (2004)! I completed my M.S. in 20mo! The quality of life in Champaign-Urbana isn’t horrible, but a serious dressage person will probably be very unhappy. The one and only reasonable barn that I could find was the one in Mahoment, which has already been mentioned. I seem to remember that everyone was very friendly and the barn was well managed. The other barns that I found were dark, uninviting, and the horses didn’t have turnout. I didn’t move my horse to C-U since it was clear that I wouldn’t be there for long.
Oh, you might wish to tell your friend to be ready for a lot of tornado threats…. I had to defend my research with tornado sirens going off, torrential rain, thunder and lightening happening outside. My research committee was quite impressed with the sound effects and they didn’t have many questions. :lol: The sound of tornado sirens were very common on the prairie! :eek:
I used to live in Champaign and I would add that Terri Elsessers barn would be one to check out. Janis Dulak sp? (author of the Pilates for Dressage riders) has a barn too. It’s a small set-up, but she expanded her indoor arena recently. C-U is a nice community but the scenery is a little dull (flat as a pancake). I used to say there are 2 seasons there: corn up and corn down!! Seriously, it is not a place where you can find anywhere to do hillwork with your horse (unless you trailer over to Hunter Oaks in Bloominton). As far as showing, it’s not too far to haul up to Lamplight, or over to Hoosier Horse Park or down to St. Louis either.
Well, I would start at the top !
Call Dr. Kevin Kline Director of Equine Studies at U of I - PM me for his number. He knows everyone and would be great for networking. Plus if you plan to judge - he is the guy to go to as he runs he certification program for judges as well.
Hunter Oaks in Bloomington would be my choice.
Edited to add: Illinois is a wonderful place to live! Sure our legislature is screwed up and our Governor is HOPELESS - but we have the BEST Lt Gov in the World in Pat Quinn!! Illinois produces some of the best table wines in the World. Some of the finest horses in the country are bred here as well. And If it weren’t for the horse crazy’s at Lamplight, and St James, and the late Edith Kosterka(Morganglanz)where would dressage and warmbloods be here in the USA? Not where they are now certainly!
Pemberley
Yes, Ebony’s Mom, I know what you mean. We moved to Urbana from California, and we were disappointed with the dearth of good dressage facilities in the area. Terri’s place is very nice, but small, so she doesn’t usually have available stalls (and we have three horses!). She is a lovely person in addition to being a wonderful dressage rider. She’s been a great help to us in our transition from California. So has Dee Weston and Janice Dulak. Folks here are very friendly.
Given the lack of available stalls at the places we would have liked to board, though, we ended up deciding to build our own dressage and eventing facility. We purchased a facility that was previously western and did a lot of renovating. Our barn is very open and bright, and the ceilings are high enough to jump in the indoor arena. the Kuhn’s give monthly clinics at Pemberley, and we think they are TERRIFIC!
