We’re losing Riga Meadow in CT to developers too. Now that CT has become the laughing stock of everything taxes, it’s probably time to leave anyway. I never planned to leave New England ever again, but it’s just financially possible to stay here and keep horses in my life. I’ve started looking south, but all I see on the real estate sites are new construction subdivisions. It scares the crap out of me.
I did not know that :no: That is sad.
The good news is the folks who sold Riga purchased another farm in NY which currently hosts the Millbrook Horse Trials so their event will continue just in a different location.
Keeping with the original post, Flying Horse was my first USCTA recognized event in the mid-70s tho the event ran across the street from the facility, I used to truck there for weekly lessons w Tuny Full Paige in the last 70s when she was still eventing. I also competed at NEDA spring there (early 80s?) before it moved down the road. Former ice skater turned dressage rider Doug Mankovich was videoing tests for a fee. It was so amazing to ride your test then head over to a TV and actually be able to watch it! So many memories. It was such a huge part of the Area 1 community for so many years!
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When I was a kid (and I welcome correction, because I was a kid and kind of oblivious), it felt like the usual pattern was that some of the kids who just about lived at the barn never left and turned into junior trainers and judges and kept the next generation going. Now it looks like kids are getting absolutely buried under obligations as they get towards the end of high school into college, and while they’re very possibly coming back to horses later in life there’s somewhat of a generational gap there where event-runners and officials and the like learned the ropes. Looking at the entry ages for a schooling horse trial last year, for instance, about 2/3 of the field were juniors, then a tiny handful around age 30, and the rest aged 45-60, and that feels representative.
Even when people do want to get involved later in life, there are some things (dressage judging, for one) that one needs to have stayed in horses for most of one’s life to get involved in, and I sure don’t know where the next generation of dressage judges is coming from. (I for one am interested but way too old to start.) This definitely isn’t a “kids these days” rant, as the 4H kids I know and ride with are generally engaged and awesome, but it might be a “the way many Americans live these days isn’t very compatible with horses” observation. Horses are a huge commitment of time (and money, but especially time) that I think is getting harder to make.
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We live in a Boston MetroWest suburb. I don’t keep my horse at home, but the are at a private barn where they have amazing turnout because it’s a property that has been in the owner’s family for some time. We are thinking of moving south because it’s so darned expensive here. Our property taxes are $12K/year . . . we looked at places in SC where the taxes are a mere $800/year. Of course, we have a lot of services here that we might not get there, but it’s a real eye opener to start making financial comparisons.
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