SoCal Horse Keeping and San Diego area horse scene?

[JLR1]

Many years ago my husband worked in La Jolla and we lived in Carlsbad moving from AZ. His evening rush hour commute was 35 minutes so definitely not horrible. Since owning a horse only in AZ I never had the luxury of pasture but found SD county barns much more limited than AZ regarding turnout. Particularly because land is expensive, many properties especially closer to the coast sit on 5-acres max and thus space for turnouts is really limited. As an add on service and to get around the lack of turnout the eurosizer/hot walker is popular. I’m not a fan, but some like it. I also don’t like the cramped feeling of a small facility and really hate fog and dampness (the May Grey and June Gloom) so looked for a boarding ranch more inland where fog isn’t an issue and settled on a place in Escondido that had large half covered paddocks with no turnouts versus a facilitity that had a smaller barn but turnout for an hour max. My horse adjusted since she was ridden daily, and I think the lack of turnout probably bothered me more than her. If you expand your boarding search inland to areas such as Escondido, San Marcos, Ramona, Poway you might be able to find a larger ranch with something like pasture…but it’s not green and grassy :winkgrin:As far as horse boarding I recall the prices weren’t that much more than AZ, most decent full service ranches in the Scottsdale AZ area are in the $600-$750 + range so SD will obviously be more depending on the services you need and quality of the facility. A covered arena really isn’t a necessity. Yes, during the winter months when it rains…January and February you might lose riding days, other than that it’s usually 76 and sunny. Access to excellent trainers, clinics and shows is a big plus of the area. The San Diego Chapter of the California Dressage Society is very active. If you go to the CDS website there is a listing of trainers and their respective facilities to help with your search.

Housing is ridiculously expensive for the type of home construction and square footage (although not as bad as the Bay Area), as well as gas, vehicle taxes, and state taxes. But there is a savings on energy costs since most homes don’t have or need an air conditioner and I don’t ever remember needing to turn the heat on.

[FEI_JR2004]

I work in La Jolla and keep my horse at a beautiful barn in Encinitas. I end up paying about $1250 per month in board, but that includes a 12x12 stall with a 12x12 run and daily turnouts in a grass paddock. The barn itself is very high end, well-maintained, with great footing. I know there are a couple other places with grass in the area as well, if that’s something you’re interested in. Encinitas is only about a 15 minute drive from my office in morning traffic (I usually ride in the morning, get ready in the bathroom at the barn and then get to work around 9:15-9:30).

Pretty much everything has at least dirt turnout, I think, so your horse won’t necessarily be in a stall 24/7 even if on stall board, although sometimes even dirt turnout costs extra. Agree with the others who have said that an indoor isn’t necessary. There are maybe 4 places in the area that I can think of with a covered arena, and although it’s nice, it’s definitely not a big deal not to have one. If you’re interested in being relatively close, I’d try to stay in these areas (the list of barns in each is probably still missing some, and they’re in no particular order):

Del Mar/Carmel Valley/Rancho Santa Fe: Arroyo Del Mar (Steffen/Shannon Peters, Dawn White O’Connor, Marie Medosi), Del Mar Horsepark (Angela Paltram), Sunset Horse Ranch (Bettina Loy), Ridgemar Equestrian (Jeremy Steinberg), Albert Court (Christine Traurig, Guenter Seidel, Sarah Christy), Seabreeze Farms (Janet Peters, Teri Rich)

Encinitas: Dove Hollow (Laurie Falvo, Michelle Reilly), Caballos Del Mar (Birthe Laufer), Ad Astra Stables (David Blake and Rebecca Rigdon)

If you want more info on any of those, happy to give more detailed recommendations via PM. A lot of these require you to be in at least partial training. If that’s not something you’re looking for, there are some others that are worth looking into.

In terms of a place to live, it depends what you have in mind. It will obviously be more expensive to live closer to the coast, as a general matter, but the coastal areas tend to be younger and more fun if that’s something you have in mind. There are also lots of great suburbs. There aren’t really any barns to the south of La Jolla, so if you want work/barn/home to be somewhat of a triangle, I’d look into Del Mar, Carmel Valley, Solana Beach, Cardiff, etc. If you’d prefer to go a little bit inland, Carmel Mountain and Rancho Penasquitos wouldn’t be a terrible commute either. Traffic coming south into La Jolla in the morning generally isn’t too terrible. Traffic leaving La Jolla will suck going north or south until about 6-6:30, although I think it’s a little bit better going north, particularly until just south of Del Mar/Carmel Valley. I live to the south a bit, but basically never leave work early enough to hit traffic. Traffic generally is better than in LA, though, and if you’re used to an hour commute, I don’t think you’ll find commuting here too painful.

[Silverbridge]

@Jarrn;8685169

Seabreeze lists a dressage trainer (Teri Rich) on their website, so I assume they have one?

Seabreeze was one of our first choices to try to get into, but in the end they decided they didn’t have stalls for short-term boarders and we only needed a place for the Summer.

My mare heads to Ad Astra in Encinitas on Monday. I am really going to miss her, but it’s for the best for this Summer. I hope by the Summer of '17 to be able to take her to Michigan with me and to ride her there five days/week with once- or twice-weekly lessons.

[Absolut_Equestrian]

Seriously, thanks for the suggestions guys. It will definitely be a big move, but I’m starting to get more excited!