Most of my day to day rides occur at home in my front pasture. We rent a small farmette and have access to one pasture with potential riding in the hay field however the guy who maintains it doesn’t really and it is way too overgrown to safely ride in. Plus it is a 5 acre open field without any fencing and borders a busy road. I can only imagine the nightmare that could occur if I fell off and Gem ran into the road. No thanks!
Trainer’s barn is more exciting to write about and that is where I get the real work done. The barn is actually property of the city as part of the rec program (along with several water parks and trail systems). Before Trainer came along to lease it, the facility was sitting empty and quickly going to disrepair. Now Trainer is there and leases out the barn for boarding and runs her lessons. The fact that the rec department owns it means that the place is public and anyone can ride there during the posted open hours. I take advantage of this to go up and ride on the weekends a couple of times a month to get work in a real arena. It is really nice to have that option.
Media is always preferred over lengthy words, so lets take a picture tour!
There are three arenas (though I only have picture of two as the third was built specifically for warm up and we never use it in lessons) with the main arena having stadium lights.
Beyond the arenas and barn are the pastures and woods with trails. I haven’t ridden the trails yet, but I think it is a bout 2 miles or so. Trainer has used the space well to include a variety of solid obstacles to play around with. Her most devious plan was adding coops to the pasture fence line so that once you jump into it, you have to jump back out over the coop. It helped scared little ole’ me because I was stuck and had to do it.
And that is about it. It is a really great barn and I am so glad I found it. I’m not sure what the future will be if we ever move as it will likely double the time to get there, but thankfully Trainer will travel to me too so lessons can continue.
The Roaming Rider 
i love seeing everyone’s barns and set ups! How lucky you have a place near you like that with your trainer. Very cool.
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It is a really nice place to ride. So many different options and it is only 30 minutes away.
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I tried (twice today) to buy some chaps like yours from Just Chaps but their checkout page failed both times. I like the idea of mesh chaps because I have some heavy leather Ariat half chaps I never bother to put on. Then I saw Just Chaps is having a sale on the pin-hole fake suede ones and I tried to order them because they look really lightweight and thin. For only 40Euros including shipping, I really want them still but we’ll see if Just Chaps answers my email. Wow, that Brexit sure made shopping in England better for me! The pound and the euro are almost even.
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They are really nice chaps. I was really worried when I got them with how light weight and soft they were. I didn’t think they would stand up to the abuse that endurance puts on things, but two years later the only flaw is that the velcro strap at the top that are used to make the fit a little more custom are losing their sticking ability a bit. Other than that they look and function great.
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It’s awesome that you have such great options to travel to. Having those resources made such a difference for me and Isabel too
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The fact that it is public is pretty neat. I’ve never seen anyone else there when I ride, but in theory anyone could
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