Revive the dome!

Hello everyone! We are the Savage Riding Academy, Elkhart County's largest horseback riding program! We provide equine education and community programming for over 100 families per week from all across the region, serving ages 3 to adult in riding lessons, summer camps, horse shows, birthday parties, horse training, and more. The owner, Kristen Savage, was a public elementary teacher, and then decided to combine her passions of education and horses to create a place for our community to come together and experience horseback riding. She had been teaching riding lessons and training horses for 8 years at various rented locations, and then purchased the Bristol farm in November of 2019, just before the global Covid pandemic hit. Through lots of hard work and sacrifice, the incredible team at Savage Riding was able to keep the newly established farm operating throughout a very tough first year. 

Then, on August 12, 2021, storms swept the area, and along with a number of trees down on the property and a long power outage, the fabric roof of our indoor riding arena was shredded by the wind. Due to the age of the dome arena, repairs are not covered by insurance. 

We are still waiting on the final estimate, but through crowd research we are expecting between $20-40,000 to replace the dome covering, so we are putting the initial goal at $30,000. We could not be where we are without our incredible community, and at this time we are reaching out for help to be able to continue offering our equine programming. Any amount helps, and we so appreciate everything that our community has already done to step in during this time of need. Our goal is to have the dome redone by October 16 to prepare for our brutal northern Indiana winters. 

To celebrate and give thanks to everyone who contributed, we will host a music festival inside the dome on September 25, featuring a number of live musicians and bands throughout the afternoon and evening, followed by tent camping in the back field. Thank you again to all who have helped and will continue to do so - each and every one of you are giving us the opportunity to continue making dreams come true for our community! 

For more information on our farm and programs, visit www.savageriding.com, www.facebook.com/savageridingprogram, and www.instagram.com/savage.riding