Super disappointed and still owed money after 5 months! Did a camp where my daughters were bullied. The girls were very rude. My novice riders were pushed beyond there capability. Consequently, they were placed in a dangerous position where horses were too close and bucked. Put my daughter off riding to the point she quit. I was contacted the morning of camp. She canceled the day due to lack of interest. I was to be credited 3 private lessons, for which there was no availability and I was waitlisted. It's been 5 months.!! I contacted for a refund with no response. Accounting is a mess, they constantly miscalculated my payments and attempted to charge me for lesson package after we were no longer riding here. She kept trying to charge me for past lessons, when I paid for all our lessons and lesson packages upfront. And in addition, to sending incorrect invoices, they included some other person's credit card info, which is funny because they told me they only take checks and a real bummer for the other guy. Over 3 months I never saw one stable hand anywhere on the premise. The girls paying for lessons take care of all the lesson horses, completely unsupervised. This is an accident waiting to happen. They still owe me money for lessons. Red Coat is a mismanaged barn operating in the dark ages. I've asked around since then and other professional riders have had similar experiences. We are at another barn in Lake Forest. The experience has been night and day! And they take Venmo, like normal people. read more

I rode and boarded here as a child and now adult. The horses are well taken care of and many of us have been there over 15 years.

My daughter has been riding at Red Coat Farm for the past 5 years, beginning in the school program. We chose Red Coat because of the reputation of their trainers. I can't say enough good things about them, and the "barn family" that they have built. Mary Goldman's years of experience and knowledge in this sport cannot be beat in this region. Lisa Goldman's experience as a world class rider has made her invaluable as a trainer. In our experiences traveling to horse shows, it is easy to see that the Goldman's are well respected in the equestrian community. In addition, both Sari Reid and Kim Woodsum are excellent trainers who work extremely well with young/novice riders as well as seasoned competitors. And the grooms and barn staff at Red Coat are the hardest workers out there. I would (and do) recommend Red Coat Farm to anyone looking for the best training, as well as a welcoming, family feeling. read more

See all

Loved my time riding with Kim, am currently riding with Maria. School horses are all well broke. Worth getting a lesson package if you ride weekly. read more

What a welcoming, spectacular staff at Red Coat Farm! I was so impressed at my first lesson with Kim, how she knowingly directed me to succeed and feel so comfortable on the calm, sturdy horse that she chose for my lesson. Both the trainers and other riders welcomed me and adjusted their training to accommodate my re-introduction to horseback riding. I had the additional joy of watching an accomplished equestrian ride and and another jump. The stables are well kept; there are smiles on everyone's faces and I can't wait to return for my next lesson. Thank you Kim and owner Mary Goldman for a wonderful morning at Red Coat Farm and Stables. read more

Red Coat Farm is a great place to ride and receive excellent training! Everyone there is inclusive and friendly

Red Coat is the best place to be!!! Arenas are spacious and footing is perfect. Riders help each other grow and are always supportive. Each horse has access to top care to keep them happy and healthy. Training is top notch and you will leave all your lessons with something to work on. At the end of the day everyone leaves feeling accomplished with a strong support system behind them. Red Coat exposes riders to many different opportunities, with proper preparation to lead them to success. read more

Red Coat Farm is a terrific barn. My two girls have been riding there for 5 years, and the instruction is absolutely first rate. Mary, Lisa, Sari and Kim are all fantastic teachers, and are able to really push riders to improve and be their best. The barn is also extremely trustworthy--when one of them recommends a horse for a rider, you can trust that it is really the right horse. Their ability to match horses and riders, as well as find more reasonably priced horses, is really amazing and unparalleled in the Chicago area. The atmosphere is also friendly and riders really support each other at shows. Red Coat also has an excellent school program, which is great for beginning riders. There just aren't many other barns with the same profile. I would highly recommend Red Coat to anyone. read more

This place use to be a wonderful and inviting place but not so much anymore. Red coat farm use to be very open and inclusive, people that didn't own horses and used school horses were able to ride in the very nice indoor arena(about 200ftx80ft) but once more "rich" clientele started boarding their horses there all school horses were kicked out of that arena and all school horse lessons could only be held in the outdoor arena(if there wasn't a boarder lesson going on) or in the very tiny indoor arena(about 100ftx60ft). The only way you could ride in the bigger ring was if you leased or half leased a horse(but you would still have to pay an "arena fee").The prices are EXTREMELY unreasonable. Board is $950 and they use straw instead of shavings! It always smells horrible in there especially during the winter because the doors are closed and the straw doesn't soak up any pee so there's just nasty old pee sitting in the bottom of the horses stalls! They say that the boarder horses get plenty of turnout time but in my experience my horses would only get turned out for maybe an hour a day if they were lucky and the workers didn't just skip over them. The main barns look decent but is definitely not worth $950. The school barn and middle barn however, are not taken care of at all. Most of it looks like its falling apart, planks of wood missing everywhere, there are unpatched holes in walls, dirt floors(the main barn has cement and rubber matts), the stalls are so old and worn down that its like stepping down into a hole. The one pasture the barn owner allowed the school horses to use is basically just mud and piled up horse poop while all of the "border" pastures are either grass or sand. The "school horse" paddock is basically unusable most of the year unless the ground is frozen or the weather has been completely dry, if the ground is wet you'll sink up to your knees out there. And don't even get me started about the bathrooms! There are only 2 bathrooms in the club room of the main barn that are labeled "women" and "men & women". There aren't any stalls in there just two toilets in an open room in the women's and the "men & women" room has one toilet and one urinal. The pluming hardly ever works too, most of the time the toilet wouldn't flush correctly if at all and they would leave a bucket of water next to the toilet for YOU to refill the toilet water. It was absolutely disgusting, does that sound like a facility that charges $950 to for board? The answer is NO! That's something you'd expect from a barn that charged $50 for board! The barn also felt so segregated between privileged boarders and school barn kids that the school barn kids were scared to go down to the club room and use the washroom and the barn owner was so cheap that she refused to get even just a port-a-potty for the school barn. Not to mention the barn owner is completely money-hungry and rude. Mary Goldman is a horrible person to interact with, every person that has taken lessons with her have said that she made them cry at least once while riding with her. She has always looked down on and basically ignored the people that didn't give her enough money, so if you just rode school horses or didn't go to horse shows with her she basically wouldn't give you the time of day. Mary's daughter, Lisa, is also rude. She talks down to you as if you are incompetent and acts like she's better than everyone else. Mary and Lisa both put themselves on a pedestal and influenced their young students who all began to act the same way after they started riding with those two. All of the riders with Mary and Lisa are "strongly encouraged" to buy a brand new CWD saddle and if you didn't buy one then they would not treat you as nicely as their other riders. Same deal with horse showing or owning/leasing a very nice horse, if you didn't spend all of your money (or in most of their student's cases their parents money) on showing or expensive equipment/horses Mary would not care about you. The only way to get Mary Goldman's attention was to literally buy it. Mary Goldman would also use other people's horses as her own without the owner's permission. She would take more advanced school barn kids and let them rider her nice fancy horses to persuade them to ride for her and ended up stealing most of the kids from the school barn trainer. Mary Goldman recently chased out the old school barn trainer. The old trainer bought all the school horses and leased out the small barn and small arena a few years ago because Mary was planing on shutting the school program down. Mary still treated everyone from the school barn like dirt and always tried to make things difficult. Recently Mary made things so difficult and restricted for the school barn trainer that she had to move. Mary also called local barns "looking for new school horses" but would also tell those barns to not help the trainer that was leaving. To summarize: Don't come to red coat, they just want your money. read more