Hi, I’m moving to the Seattle area between March and May. I’ll be bringing my 6 year old Dutch Warmblood gelding with me. We are looking at houses in Bellevue, East Renton, and Kent. I’m a jumper rider who would love to get some great training as my options are limited where I currently live in north Idaho. Looking for a boarding facility or private barn where the horses and their care is #1. I don’t need super fancy, but a safe, clean and tidy environment is a must. I would like feeding 3x daily and turnout would be great! I ride around 5x a week so a friendly group to train with would be wonderful.I appreciate any suggestions 
Ballpark budget?
Flexible on budget, $1200 or under is helpful.
Check out Courtney Palmer/Noble Jumpers- its about a 30 min drive north of Bellevue.
Check out Flying Changes stables listing and perhaps WSHJA website for listings. There are a lot of options out there. Some good, some ok and some oh no! Good luck.
Thanks! I have looked at both of those stable directories. Feel free to PM more info on your top picks and maybe places to be cautious of as well. Thank you!
Are you looking for boarding only? That may likely run $1,200+ for a place with a decent covered or indoor arena. Depending on the level of trainer you want, the better ones are easily double that with training. Many only offer all inclusive full board and training programs. Hope this helps.
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Saw Thumbs Up Farm at Thermal last year. From what I saw, top notch care, training, riding and showing. The grooms looked to be outstanding. Their stable sign said Redmond, WA. I don’t have any idea on their fees, but I’d ride with them in a heartbeat if I lived in that area.
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Great barn, wonderful care and training, but more in the 2-3k range I believe. Worth an inquiry to see if they have options. Rode with them in years past and made a lot of progress.
You probably live close enough to have visited and know about traffic and distance, here. Bellevue to Kent is a wide swath and I would seek a barn based on where you land and ehat your work life requires for travel time, if any
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$2,850 per Thumbs Up website. That is about the going rate for the better programs.
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My partner is based out of sea tac so we need to find a balance for both of us, me being close enough to the barn and him to the airport.
The further you go from Seattle the cheaper the board will become. There’s some nice farms out in the carnation/fall city area, or you could go up towards Duvall/Monroe area.
Some of these areas flood; but it’s more of a ‘oh crap, my house is soaked through’ and less of a Noah’s ark/swept away situation. So I wouldn’t buy a house near the River, but most of the horse farms are aware of the issue and take care of it when it arises
What farms do you recommend in the Carnation/Fall City area?
I haven’t lived in the area for ten years, so I can’t help much there. The barn I had horses at has closed since then, along with most of the others I knew in the area. Most have houses built on them now. Strangely a lot of barns just don’t have websites. It was all word of mouth, and I’m sure that’s still the case. Like, you’d be driving along and see a barn and find out an Olympian is running a program out of there 
In sammamish is Rock Meadow; the stall board is probably out of your budget but they used to offer field board too. There’s some smaller farms around rock meadow that used to offer boarding and you could ride in to the trainer.
Ravenswood farm down in Issaquah may be within your budget. The indoor is tiny, but the outdoor is bigger. Turnout is a little weak, but they do actually turn out, which is more than I can say for some of the farms in the area.
Flying Changes stopped production sadly
Two Mountains Farm in Duvall
Legacy Hunters and Jumpers in Woodinville
Archway at Rockmeadow in Sammamish
Brackenhollow in Redmond
Patterson Creek in Redmond
Laina Summers (Bayview Showjumping) is based out of River Run in Carnation
