Big Oak Farm & Stables Inc

I absolutely love big oak. Jess is an amazing person with a huge heart and anyone who says otherwise obviously doesnt know her. A few people on here wouldnt even have their horses if it wasnt for her. There is a difference between training horses and abusing them. Its the same as spanking a young child. Jess does not abuse animals. more

My Daughter who is 5 was taking lessons at another barn and was learning the same thing never moving on from a walk trot on her own and posting and after 1 lesson with Jess she perfected posting, 2nd lesson jumping and is amazing at it. She has moved on from doing leadline at barrels and poles to doing it on her own. She has learned so much with Jess. She teaches kids as they are ready to move on and doesn't limit them because of their age. And as for people saying her horses are skinny do you not realize she rescues ALOT of horses? That is why she has some skinny horses. She does good by rescuing them. Everyone has pastures that get muddy come winter and spring. She has alot of nice green pasture. Her riders are damn good riders!!!! Because of their teacher. more

In the time that I spent at Big Oak, I personally witnessed outright abuse, as well as mistreatment and neglect of both horses and other animals. Many of the horses fear the owner, and for good reason- her patience is short and she regularly uses verbal and physical abuse as part of her interactions with, and training of horses. During group lessons, the little attention she gives to the students (which is primarily yelling) goes mainly to the advanced riders. The farm itself has enormous potential, but is very poorly managed, at best. I would not recommend Big Oak for lessons, and most certainly not for boarding and/or training of your horse. more

During a lesson I was riding in a few years ago, I watched Jess beat a horse so badly it bled severely and fell several times trying to get away from her. I think that says enough about her character to hopefully convince a few people not to give her their money or risk their own or their horse’s safety. more

I took my daughter to Big Oak because she had said she wanted to try horseback riding. Jess (the owner/trainer) seemed to be knowledgeable, pleasant, and capable of teaching her well- gathered from a brief phone call and some online research. When we arrived for the first lesson, I noticed several issues: 1. The barns were not clean, organized, or even seemingly safe in most aspects. 2. The stalls were dirty- even though I have little horse experience, I'm pretty sure it's not ok for there to be puddles of urine in most stalls and a layer of feces that smelled like it was starting to compost. 3. Most of the horses seemed to be either fat or skinny, with very few exceptions. Again, I know I don't have much horse experience, but when I can see all of a horse's ribs, established that it didn't just give birth, and am informed that it isn't sick, there's probably some other issue there. 4. The trainer was running around screaming at her daughter and was not ready to help get ready for the lesson. She passed us off to a student of hers instead of helping us personally because she had to go into her house for some unknown reason. I figured that maybe it was just a hectic day, so we continued on and had the lesson. The trainer was fine when she was teaching my daughter, but she also had a more advanced lesson going on simultaneously and was screaming at those students. One horse refused to do what it was asked and Jessica proceeded to hit it repeatedly. Again, thinking maybe she was just having a bad day, we agreed to come back for another lesson. The following lessons got worse and worse, with Jess becoming more distracted, yelling more at my daughter, and giving no explanations as to what was going on. In short, I would definitely not recommend this as a place for young children- or anyone for that matter- the trainer is unpleasant and I don't doubt her ability to become physically violent. more