Still on the Search

I missed another gorgeous day that would have been great at the barn.  New Year's day was warm, sunny, and nice.  But laziness got the best of me and I stayed home.  It's harder and harder to motivate myself to drive 30 miles to see the horses when I may or may not be able to do anything when I get there.  This is definitely the time of year when "indoor arena" is creeping higher and higher on my priority list for new barns.

Wednesday I had the day off of work and I went and checked out another barn.  The barn owner for this particular barn wanted to interview me for her open spots.  I'm not sure when I'll hear back from her but I might be leaning away from that barn the longer I think about it.  The location is perfect, 4 miles from work.  And it has the amenities and price that I'm looking for.  Unfortunately they have a waiting list for tack room space and the barn owner has a lot of rules and tends to be quite possessive of the boarded horses (self-proclaimed).

I found a Craigslist ad last night for a barn 2 miles from our house.  For some strange reason the ad was flagged shortly after I found it.  Luckily I had the information and the number so I was able to call and set up a meeting for tonight.  Like I said, it's 2 miles down the road, has a small indoor arena, has some good reviews from some folks, is reportedly clean, and is a smaller barn/less horses.  I really want to like this place (of course I really wanted to like the last place as well) so hopefully it'll work out.  It is a tiny bit more expensive than the last two barns I looked at but depending on if they charge for feeding supplements or not it could be about the same.  I don't think there will be on-site trails but I think it's on a dirt road.  I think with the location it might mean more frequent short trips and just riding in the arena or on the road instead of less frequent long trips and riding on the trails.  Plus if I'm riding alone I'd rather do it in the arena anyway.

One thing is for sure, Jeff will be happy when I pick a barn because perhaps then he will get to stop hearing about all of this constantly.  At least that's what he thinks!