If you’re looking for a place your child can have a good time, but stay out of trouble, Clean Acres stables is the place to be.
Located at 5981 Thomas Rd., the 13-acre farm made its home in Oxford last fall, when it took the place of the former Maple Leaf Farms.
Clean Acres offers a wide range of programs for kids age five and up. Their mission is to make the rider and horse one solid team.
Services include day camps, lessons, training, trail rides, boarding horses, roping clinics, cattle corralling, Girl and Boy Scout merit badges and even birthday parties.
For the birthday parties, parents can rent out barn space and have cake, ice cream or pizza.
Oxford resident Shelly Sylvester, owner of Clean Acres, has worked with horses her whole life. She even remembers her mother setting her on a horse while she weeded the gardens.
To Sylvester, her farm is about having a personal relationship with the four-legged friends.
That’s the main thing she wants her students to learn.
‘Clean Acres is about raising a healthy child that gets to understand the responsibility, the caring, the sharing, the ups and downs that come with having a horse,? she said.
Clean Acres began in Lake Orion, then moved to Goodrich and now to Oxford because the business outgrew the farm. Sylvester averages about 30 students a week.
She believes that each horse tells its own story and learning to listen to your horse is a large step in excelling in horsemanship.
Through her own determination and knowledge, she’s trained many horses deemed unrideable and turned them into lesson horses that many children can learn to ride.
‘They will tell you what they need if you listen,? she said. ‘God has blessed me to do what I love.?
Currently, Clean Acres has 18 horses it’s boarding. There are a few openings left at $350 a month.
Clean Acres will be hosting their First Real-Pretend Show on Saturday, August 25 beginning at 9 a.m. (rain or shine). Cost is $45 to participate the whole day or $4 a class. Call Sylvester if you’d like your child to participate.
For more information on pricing and programs, visit www.cleanacresstables.com, e-mail them at cleanacres1043@charter.net, or call (248) 613-1043.