We believe in horses running!  It is the nature of the horse to be out and we want our horses to be out as much as possible.  If it were feasible, we'd have them all out 24/7!  Instead we do the next best thing: give them 10-14 hours of daily turnout and always ample space to RUN.  It is rare to find this much turnout this close to the city.  Most facilities either over-horse their pastures or keep their horses in to keep the grass pretty; since we are diligent in our year-round maintenance, we don't do either.

Rather, our horses are outside in almost ALL weather.  We have shelters in every pasture so that our intelligent, instinctive friends can choose when they would prefer to get out of the weather.  Typically the only time our horses are ever stalled is when we know there will be significant hail or freezing rain.

Pasture maintenance is year round here at Rebel Woods.  In the spring we fertilize, in the summer we mow and rotate, in the fall we no-till drill (seed) fescue and fertilize, and in the winter we downsize to winter pastures with hay rolls and drag twice a month.  We have two pastures (a 10-acre and a 6-acre) that are cross-fenced for rotation.  Cross-fencing is extremely important for pasture longevity and health!  For 7-8 months out of the year we are moving horses to the rested pastures and giving the other pastures a break.  The other 4 months horses are on winter pastures with hay rolls and kept off a bunch of the pasture to rest over the winter to prevent overgrazing.   Suffice to say there is ample forage.  We believe forage should be a horse's #1 source of calories.  In the winter the horses are kept on a third of our acreage to give the grass rest while it is dormant.  Hay rolls are provided full-time. 

We believe it is natural for horses to be in a herd and do not provide individual turnout (there is ONE exception to this, the retirement stall with run but that is the only turnout for that horse).  Herd dynamic is something we care about immensely.  When your horse arrives, we facilitate a 1-week introduction period in our small paddock.  This enables the new member to meet his/her new friends as safely as possible when potential tensions are highest.  Our herds here have 4 to 5 horses which makes for little bickering.  We mix mares and geldings but also have a gelding-only herd. Two mixed herds are year-round day turnout, and one gelding-only and one mixed herd are year-round night turnout.   Since we have 4 herds, we are able to move a horse to where it fits best

We believe in clean water troughs and fresh water buckets.  Believe it or not, this is the number one complaint we hear about other facilities - empty water troughs and dirty water buckets!  Therefore it is our priority to always have fresh, clear, glistening troughs and stall water.  We stay "old-school" with 5-gallon water buckets so we can always monitor your horse's drinking activity and report any changes.

At Rebel Woods, we want to provide you with peace of mind.  We understand this only comes with time, as a relationship is built.  Our goal is to be consistent so that you can learn to trust us.  We have boarders here say they have never left for vacation with such calm hearts (or left at all) until moving here!.  

Go green!  We try to be green conscious.  Since about half of our property is on flood plain, we are aware that whatever we do to our pastures goes into the water supply.  Thus we try to have a minimum impact by avoiding herbicides (unless absolutely necessary) through mowing down weeds more frequently.  We also keep our manure piles covered as best as possible so that concentrated run-off is minimal.  We compost our manure for about 1 year so that the parasite and weed seeds are killed before we spread the nutrient-rich compost back onto the pastures as a natural fertilizer.  We release Fly Predators every 3 weeks which are sterile flying bugs that kill the flies in the larval stage, thus no need for feed-through fly preventatives going through your horse's system.  We also recycle all plastic and paper bags used in feed, Smartpaks, shavings, etc.

Drama-Free?  Can it be?  Somehow we have managed to have a very inviting, mature, healthy group of boarders here at Rebel Woods.  We think it is the combination of the boarders being well-balanced individuals, Dustin and Jenny being open communicators and inviting discussion of any issues, as well as the trails tend to entice those ready to relax a little more and compete a little less.  We push no "one way" of doing things so we have all different disciplines (dressage, eventers, western pleasure, reining, endurance and trail competitors, etc.) and most people are doing their own thing.  Some people coordinate with other boarders for trail rides, while others are more loners and come out to be alone with their horse.  Both are doable here!