Toad Hall is the fictitious home of a rowdy toad in a novel and musical and Disney movie. But in the real world a few miles from downtown Crozet off Brown’s Gap Turnpike, Toad Hollow Farm (toadhollowfarm.net) is 38 acres of fenced pastures with horses, riding trails, and outdoor arenas surrounding a stable with eight boarding stalls, two grooming stalls, storage for saddles and bridles and hay, space to park a carriage, and an indoor riding and carriage driving arena. The neighbors are corn fields and a race horse training facility.
The arena is large, more than half a football field, twice the size of an NBA basketball court. It’s all wood, post and beam construction., 100 feet wide and 250 feet long with a ceiling two stories high. Laminated plywood beams span the width of the arena. On the ground there’s nothing to get in the way of horse or carriage. Horses are smart in some ways and not so smart in lots of ways. They can’t be trusted not to bump into columns standing between them and something in the air that spooks them.
Ray Keller and Ann Sutherland built Toad Hollow when the riding school next door closed and its land was put up for sale. Their daughter was a student at that school. They invited its riding instructor, Renee Shifflett, to come along for the ride. Her experience (decades of riding and teaching in Europe before coming to the U.S.) and vision are fundamental to Toad Hollow’s mission: providing indoor and outdoor space where equestrians (on the horse or behind the horse in a carriage) and horses can learn to be their best while being safe…