OMG... this is so nice!! You would not know you are in barn. So clean and even smelled fresh. read more

Johnna Stables - loved watching the foals!! - Horseback Riding Near Me - Carlisle, Pennsylvania

Excellent care, quality service catering to quality show horses and clients. friendly atmosphere, comparable rates

Great facility that I run my business out of! Beautiful stalls and quality care. Nice pastures and plenty of riding space with two arenas, a derby field, indoor, and trails read more

Beautiful facility and quality horse professionals who know what they are doing. Everyone is very friendly.

I have been with the farm since the day it opened and have always seen the best are care for the horses. I would recommend Johnna Stables if you are looking for top notch care and trainers that strive to do what is best for the horse. read more

BEWARE My family came across this barn in June of 2020. We had the experience of boarding three horses here and having all three of our children taking riding lessons. When we first got there, we were very pleased. But as the months passed, our opinions gradually changed. As the place is beautiful to the untrained eye, the inter-workings are horrible. One of our horses was used in a lesson program there, until they started over using him. When we found out, he was immediately pulled from the lesson program in writing. Then they continued to use him, even though they were instructed not to. We ended up Incurring medical expenses for that horse due to their carelessness and disregard of our request. Another one of our horses had a medical condition that he was born with and needed to be on a special diet. The grain was changed without notice nor permission and jeopardized the health of our horse, as it contained ingredients that our horse wasn't allowed to have. That same horse also had a very bad case of thrush that we couldn't seem to get rid of, no matter what he was treated with. When the owner of the barn was confronted with these issues, all she provided was excuses instead of an apology and an offer to correct the situation. During a previous discussion with her, she wanted me to put my horses in the western program they recently started running. I told her that as the training methods of the program might be normal to her, but their methods are not something that I agreed with or wanted my horses involved in (I strongly believe their methods are cruelty to animals). She actually had the nerve to tell me that, "Horses are not fluffy lap dogs, they are livestock and should be treated as such". Last I checked, they were my horses that we spend our hard earned money on. As the staff continuously changes for lack of poor management, the owner assumed the position of "barn manager" when she lost the employee that held that title. That's when things really started to get bad. With the title of barn manager, you should be aware of everything that goes on in that place, especially since you have cameras that you watch constantly. Excuses are not acceptable. You should be aware of any medical conditions of the horses you are caring for. You should be aware of how your lesson program is being run. And let's not leave out the BARN DRAMA! I have never in my life experienced more stress than I did with the drama around that place. There were times where it was so bad, I would actually avoid going. We moved our horses to another facility about a month ago. Since then, our horses are doing much better but will live with the permanent damage caused by this barn. And amazingly enough, the thrush our one horse had that we couldn't get rid of has now cleared up. It's amazing what proper bedding changes and fields with grass instead of mud can do. Now that my horses are moved, I was going to let things go. But seeing how the owner still has to audacity to contact me requesting money for the following month after my horses were moved, instead of offering to help correct the damage my horses received under her care. I decided to share this brief review as a warning (and yes, this is brief. I could write a book on this place) If you think horses are livestock and should be treated as such, then this is the barn for you. For everyone else, you have been warned. Between board, training and lessons, I spent over $2000 a month for my horses to have the best of the best. All I received in the end was lies, blame, drama, deception, lame horses and a lot of medical bills. I regret ever stepping foot in this barn, as well as the fact that I can't give less than 1 star. read more

The definition of a poorly run, wanna-be show barn. Out of all barns in the area, I can confidently say this one is the worse. My family and I arrived in June of last year and while the place was amazing for the first 5 months, it quickly went down hill as more of the knowledgeable staff started leaving and the owner became more greedy. We left in February of 2021. As soon as you step in the door, the barn reeks of ammonia. The current hired staff only removes feces and skips the part of changing the urine soaked bedding. They just layer new shavings on top of the old stuff. The owner does not seem to care as properly cleaned stalls require her to spend more money on bedding and all she cares about is the job getting done fast, not correctly. Which resulted in our horses having intense thrush that we couldn't get rid of. A month at a new clean barn later and it has cleared up. The barn is advertised with heating and heated floors but the entire winter neither were turned on as it also apparently costed too much money. However it was okay to constantly run an open flame kerosine heater in the one wing the owner and the western trainers' horses are kept so that they don't grow coats. Thus amplifying the ammonia smell and causing the horses to constantly be sweating and at risk of respiratory infection. Not to mention the added factor of the whole barn being ready to go up in flames if one shaving or piece of hay makes contact with the heater. Their wash stalls are not maintained and the drains are constantly clogged causing a nice layer of poop water to form with every usage. So most of the time the place you go to clean your horses is always dirty. On top of the other poorly looked after features, the pastures are constantly nothing but mud. They spread all the bedding and feces from 50 stalls all over every small pasture. Most of the time the horses do not get turned out because of the way the fields always are. When the horses are turned out, typically the pastures are overcrowded and constantly changing with too little hay for every horse. The storage spaces in the "tack room" are a joke. No matter how many horses you have you are given the same little space. If you have your stuff on the saddle racks or bridle hangers, they're constantly moved. We had an HYPP N/H horse being boarded there since the first day of September 2020. The previous barn manager at the time created a special diet just for him as any amount of molasses, corn syrup, potassium, or too much alfalfa can send him into a fatal seizure. The owner was very informed of his needs as well as she advised the testing. After having a major presentation and nutritionalist come out as well as upping the board $50 a horse for the higher quality grain, the owner changed the feed a few weeks later without anyone knowing. The feed they have for the barn now is a cheap corn and molasses mix. Which when we brought this to her attention in regards to how it hurts our horse, she had no clue apparently what she was feeding. We had to hunt find a bag of it to buy to transition our horses off of once we left because feed stores say it's too crap to carry. The only decent trainer there is the Hunter Jumper trainer, Abbie. She's great in what she does and her students are always happy with her lessons. The only thing she lacks is honesty and maturity. I cannot say the same for the other trainers. The beginner trainer Cami takes it upon herself to ride whatever lesson horse she wants in whatever style she desires and cares zero for any injury or off day the horse may be having. She will use the same horse 3 times in a row in hour long lessons without giving the horse a water or food break. The western trainers are in a whole boat of their own. I have witnessed countless instances of their abusive training methods that range from tying them to themselves, to all out giving excessive beatings for natural horse behaviors. Their methods are not the norm for the AQHA industry and I doubt they would have the titles they do if the quarter horse association was aware. Every horse for sale out of there has some sort of issue not advertised. Whether that be something simple or all out life changing like arthritis, kissing spine, or a genetic defect. DO NOT buy a horse that comes out of this barn. The facility would be gorgeous if it was run by a competent owner and staff. Never would I ever recommend this place to someone again regardless of the upgrades they make. read more

I usually am not quick to give places bad reviews, as my standards are not too high, but the people here are awful. The pricing is manageable for the facility, but the management changes almost every three months, the trainers are childish and tend to curse around the minors in the room. A few of the stable hands are very kind but some of them are rude and entitled, not to mention when you put your thirty days in they starve your horses. The training offered here is quite awful and they tend to ruin horses and work horses before their bones are developed. The owner of the barn is barely seen and the lessons move far too fast. The kids and lessons students that roam the barn are rude and disrespectful, and the teens are a whole different story. The amount of drama at this facility along with the crowded arenas, extremely stuck up and strict rules even for those who are adults and have prior experience, and overall toxic environment is vulgar. I do NOT recommend you board, take lessons, or come anywhere close to this facility. It is not worth your time, or mental sanity. read more

One of the nicest equestrian facilities in Central PA I have boarded at Johnna stables for over two years and have two horses there. It is among the best facilities in central Pennsylvania. I was shocked and dismayed to read the accusations in the review by Khayla in a previous review.. So much so that I felt compelled to answer some of these unfounded claims. I believe the comments show a lack of knowledge and understanding and were perhaps written out of emotion while certainly not grounded in fact. I really think people need to be careful what they say about a business especially if they do not have the experience to really know what horse training or care should look like. In addition, you should make sure you have your facts straight before making claims about someone being money hungry, abusing animals, or talking about a particular feed when you don't even know for sure what may have been changed and for what reason. These are serious accusations. I have two horses at this facility, and one has been there for over two years. They have never had thrush even once like you claim your horse did often and since I am there often, I would know if his stall was not cleaned properly. In case Khayla didn't notice, horses are turned out as much as they can be in the winter and of course is sometimes determined by the weather. Johnna has decent pastures, and another has just been made over the last year that is very nice. Horse feces as your say being thrown in the pastures with the horse, really' where are you getting your information?? If you believe this, I have a great deal on beach front property in Arizona we should discuss. Utterly ridiculous. The floors at Johnna are heated and turned on when needed. My saddle has never been moved from its rack by anyone in over two years. While we all could use more room everything has always been very accessible and easy to put away. In fact, the tack stalls and tack are in close proximity which makes it very easy to take care of your horse when you are getting tacked up and after you ride. Everyone makes a very respectful effort to make sure the wash stalls are cleaned and I have never seen one a total mess. As far as the drain, have you ever not seen hay or manure not get in a drain. The four, count them four wash stalls at Johnna are all well maintained. As far as the beginner trainer overusing horses, this is just not the case. I have been in the ring countless times when beginner lessons have been going and I have never witnessed a horse being overused or abused. The western trainers are in a boat of their own as you say, but it's a world class boat. They have clients coming from North Carolina, Virginia, and other states weekly to train with them. Do you really believe people would be coming to see them if they were abusing horses? This was just a ridiculous statement and accusation to make. How someone could make such an unfounded claim is beyond me. Abbie Gibson is my trainer and making a comment that she is not honest and lacks maturity is in and of itself very immature. Abbie is one of the better trainers I have trained with in almost fifteen years of riding and training in PA. There is change that occurs in every business and in every barn. Johnna stables is one of the nicest facilities in central Pennsylvania. The horses receive the best care possible, and the staff does a great job at keeping the barn clean and top notch. Donna Snyder has created a wonderful state of the art facility and in the two years I have been there she has done nothing but work to make it better. In just a few weeks we will have an additional large hunter ring. The new pasture is almost ready, and the training she has brought to the facility is the best among western and hunters. If investing in your business to make your facility the best and offer the best to your customers is money hungry, I think Khayla's definition is a little skewed. I would highly recommend Johnna Stables to anyone and would recommend visiting the facility to see for yourself. read more