Hummingbird Equestrian and Training for Gwyn

I had gone for a drive past Blue Ribbon on Monday because it was supposed to be up in the 50s. None of the horses were turned out. I had an immediate sinking feeling. On my drive back to the house I saw a sign for a boarding barn that I didn't remember before (despite it being on a fairly major road). I called and on Tuesday the owner returned my call and we set up a time for me to come out Wednesday morning.

It turns out, I remember the facility from December because it still had a For Sale sign! It looked nice and I bemoaned the fact that it was no longer on the market to Eric. It had already sold by then and they only got the sign at the end of January, so my confusion at not remembering the place totally makes sense now!!

Anyway, this was a GREAT facility. The owner was nice and down to earth. It's not huge, that big building is both stalls and an indoor arena. I'll describe more of the visit with each picture. 

The barn with two aisles of stalls. The indoor is past all the stalls. Some stalls have windows, some do not, but it's nice, light and airy inside.

The property sits on over 100 acres. All the way back to that tree line. It will be a hay field but you can ride on the edges. 

Wash rack. Too cold to wash anything but muddy blankets right now.

Grooming and tacking area. No cross ties, but very much a social/central spot to be.

Indoor. Nice sand footing and a square arena. Apparently it had been used for cutting horses previously. 

Tack room. This is overflowing and she'll likely convert a stall on the other side to more storage.

The unfilled side of the barn (lots of open stalls!) with wash rack. The stall next to the wash rack is going to be more tack. Also feed stuff and barn supplies.

The occupied side of the barn. See? Nice and airy. Big stalls too.

Paddocks. Horses are out all day (YESSSS). Pastures are rotated. Horses are in small groups of 2-6 depending on temperament. No mare/gelding strict splits.

Shelters in the paddocks.

From the road.

Biggest herd group. Happy, fat horses. They get hay out in the pastures and lots of hay morning and night. 

This has become my newest top contender. It sounds like the age group is older lady and the owner is there as her main job doing the work too. That always bodes well in my mind. I could definitely be happy there for a couple months while we house hunt and get our own property ready.


In other news, I contacted Beth back at Shadows to see if she could fit a couple training rides on Gwyn in a few times a week. So now Gwyn will be ridden by a trainer 2x a week until she moves. Hurray! Beth also said she'd be present for the pick up day when Gwyn gets loaded into the trailer to come to Michigan. Knowing someone is there who can read my horse and report back how it went makes me feel SO much better about this whole thing.

Now it's time to decide on a barn, set up shipping and schedule the vet to come out to get the health certificate and make sure Gwyn is caught up on everything so she can travel!