Round Up Ridge Ranch

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I have never loved a barn more than Round Up Ridge Ranch in all my 30 years in the industry! I’ve boarded at and trained out of at least 15 differ facility’s over the years. I finally got my dream of moving my horses home and all I do is dream about being back at Round Up instead!

You can’t beat the location from the twin cities. The facility is far superior to other boarding facilities anywhere around the metro. Board is insanely reasonable and honestly probably should be raised like every other place has done over the years. The owner cares about every horse as if they are her own. She is extremely knowledgeable and down to earth. Always there to help her boarders out. She goes above and beyond what any other facility would do. Huge pastures with rolling green grass. Each is well maintained with extra large shelters and automatic waters. Never over crowded and leaving most complaining their horses are too fat after being there a few month😂.

The indoor is wonderful in the winter. Heated lounge and tack room to defrost yourself. In the summer there are 2 massive outdoor arenas. Like full size rodeo scale arenas. Big round pen to work colts in. It’s nice to know even if lots of people are out riding you have options to have your own space.

The stalls are new and clean. The barn is kept wonderfully. Nice wash stall too. Heated barn for show horses and timed lighting for cycling mares. Oh and it’s geo thermal so in the summer it’s cooled too!

There isn’t drama here. Very laidback professional vibe. This isn’t a kiddy carousel 50 lessons a week farm. It’s also not for people who feed off the “drama of it all”. Essentially this barn is a sanctuary for those who are their to have fun and work their horses. The least cliquey barn I’ve ever been at! That being said If you are a Karen (or Jill) who expects the staff to run around and take photos of each horse and send daily updates on how your horses morning went… it’s likely you won’t jive with the other boarders.

My experience at Round Up Ridge Ranch was not pleasant. Everyone has different expectations for their boarding facility and for their horse, so my concerns may not be yours. I feel that the “sales pitch” I received when I toured the facility did not match up to the service that was delivered. I am writing this because I am sick of boarding places not delivering on what they say the offer. Here are my concerns:

• The Owner was not welcoming. She showed me where the tack room was but I had to find something to put my saddle on. There were lockers in the barn but I was never told if they were for everyone or not (just for stalled horses).

• The Owner does not answer her phone and rarely returns phone calls.

• I was told that this place had excellent communication – it doesn’t. there were no emails, I never heard about how my horse was doing. There Barn Manager was not able to answer questions. The Barn Manager would refer me to the Owner and the Owner would refer me to the Barn Manager. I asked to talk to the Barn Manager one time, arranged a time, got to the barn and she did not have time to talk to me. She talked to me rudely in front of other boarders and was not willing to talk with me.

• If you blanket your horse, they will not fix a strap that is undone, they do not fix them for the stalled horses either

• The dry lot horses did not have water in the winter. If it froze, they had no water.

• One horse’s feet were so long they were curling. I brought this up to the Owner, she said she knew but he was actually walking better since he had a history of foundering. The owner of this horse was not local.

• The Owner claims that her horse was a fat farm and that the horses ALWAYS had food because her family owns half of Hugo and she had a lot of connections to hay.

o If the bales ran out and I asked when they would be getting more, I was told that bales were very expensive and did I want my board to go up?

• The arena footing is not well kept

• Her dogs are kept out all day in sub-zero temps

• The shelter is not adequate. The dry lot horses have no shelter. The senior horse pasture does not have shelter and not all of them are brought in at night. So they have no protection from the sun or elements.

• The snow was not removed on the premises and I was told one day explicitly not to come out there because my car would get stuck. STAY HOME! That was poorly communicated.

• The pastures/paddocks that did have waterers would be covered in snow. Not sure how often they were uncovered.

• I was told that my horse would be grained twice a day so that they are looked at twice a day. This was not happening. I could tell because there were no tracks in the snow.

• The horses were on pasture until late November. They did not have adequate food. I was told that the grass was plenty green and they had plenty of food

• This place is one big clique –if you are not friends with the barn manager or the owner, nobody will talk to you

• The pasture my horse was in had between 13-15 horses. I was told the one shelter that was provided could fit 15 horses. That is if they stood side by side in two rows. What is the likelihood of that?

• I was told that boarders did not do chores. They do. Horses are favored based on who is working. The pasture horses are second class citizens.

The bottom line was that my horse left this place in rough shape – underweight and with other ailments for which he is under Vet care still (almost two months after leaving). What was advertised was not delivered.