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middle - Horses run through a pasture outside the Golden Gate Equestrian Center in Jordan. Lessons and training are available and it will be at full capacity for boarders this spring.
Nick Tow-Arnett always loved horses as a child in Redwood Falls, but didn’t have a chance to really pursue the interest until after winding down his NFL career. “It’s very humbling the first time you get on a horse,” he said. “Especially jumping.”
Phyllis (left) and Little Ralph are miniature horses who live at Golden Gate Equestrian Center in Jordan. The facility is also home to Curly, a former Budweiser Clydesdale (not pictured).
Vivi Tabor of Eden Prairie, 13, leads Maple from a pasture to the arena of Golden Gate Equestrian Center in Jordan. “It’s very fun and it’s a very happy environment. They treat their horses very well,” she said.
Golden Gate Equestrian Center in Jordan not only has a large indoor arena, but also pasture and a wood area interlaced with trails that were cut this fall.
Lauren Wood finishes adjusting the height of a jump at Golden Gate Equestrian Center while her puppy, Goose, investigates.
Lauren Wood pauses to greet a horse named Wordsworth at the Golden Gate Equestrian Center in Jordan. Wood is the facility’s teacher and trainer, offering lessons every weekday.
Faith Gabriel of Victoria, 13, grooms Noah, who belongs to Golden Gate owner and former professional football player Jeff Tow-Arnett.
Faith Gabriel of Victoria, 13, rides Noah around the arena of Golden Gate Equestrian Center. The indoor arena is the second largest in the state and allows riders to go through a full hunter jumper course, owner Lauren Wood said.
Lynn Gabriel talks to one of the residents of Golden Gate Equestrian Center in Jordan. Her family’s pony is one of the facility’s boarders and her children take lessons there. “They want everyone to enjoy the equestrian experience and it’s just obvious,” she said.
The Golden Gate Equestrian Center in Jordan was modeled after Kentucky facilities and features rubber barn pavers, which are easier on hoofs and joints than stone or concrete.
The Golden Gate Equestrian Center in Jordan opened to boarders in September and is expected to be fully completed this spring. When finished, the center will be able to house 26 horses in heated stalls.
A large, historic barn was moved to 4125 County Trail West, the site of Golden Gate Equestrian Center, last year. The barn will eventually be converted into a duplex for the center’s owners.
middle - Horses run through a pasture outside the Golden Gate Equestrian Center in Jordan. Lessons and training are available and it will be at full capacity for boarders this spring.
Nick Tow-Arnett always loved horses as a child in Redwood Falls, but didn’t have a chance to really pursue the interest until after winding down his NFL career. “It’s very humbling the first time you get on a horse,” he said. “Especially jumping.”
Phyllis (left) and Little Ralph are miniature horses who live at Golden Gate Equestrian Center in Jordan. The facility is also home to Curly, a former Budweiser Clydesdale (not pictured).
Vivi Tabor of Eden Prairie, 13, leads Maple from a pasture to the arena of Golden Gate Equestrian Center in Jordan. “It’s very fun and it’s a very happy environment. They treat their horses very well,” she said.
Golden Gate Equestrian Center in Jordan not only has a large indoor arena, but also pasture and a wood area interlaced with trails that were cut this fall.
Lauren Wood finishes adjusting the height of a jump at Golden Gate Equestrian Center while her puppy, Goose, investigates.
Lauren Wood pauses to greet a horse named Wordsworth at the Golden Gate Equestrian Center in Jordan. Wood is the facility’s teacher and trainer, offering lessons every weekday.
Faith Gabriel of Victoria, 13, grooms Noah, who belongs to Golden Gate owner and former professional football player Jeff Tow-Arnett.
Faith Gabriel of Victoria, 13, rides Noah around the arena of Golden Gate Equestrian Center. The indoor arena is the second largest in the state and allows riders to go through a full hunter jumper course, owner Lauren Wood said.
Lynn Gabriel talks to one of the residents of Golden Gate Equestrian Center in Jordan. Her family’s pony is one of the facility’s boarders and her children take lessons there. “They want everyone to enjoy the equestrian experience and it’s just obvious,” she said.
The Golden Gate Equestrian Center in Jordan was modeled after Kentucky facilities and features rubber barn pavers, which are easier on hoofs and joints than stone or concrete.
The Golden Gate Equestrian Center in Jordan opened to boarders in September and is expected to be fully completed this spring. When finished, the center will be able to house 26 horses in heated stalls.
A large, historic barn was moved to 4125 County Trail West, the site of Golden Gate Equestrian Center, last year. The barn will eventually be converted into a duplex for the center’s owners.
The snow-swept pastures surrounding the Golden Gate Equestrian Center near Jordan create a sense of serenity that belies the flurry of activity inside.
A carpenter moves supplies in a wheelbarrow, a contractor adds the roof to a viewing platform, and in the indoor arena, professional hunter jumper Lauren Wood calls out instructions to one of her students.
“Low hands... sit back in the saddle... get control of his head... elbows!”
Faith Gabriel, a 13-year-old from Victoria, responds wordlessly as she speeds around the area on Noah, a thoroughbred who ran in the 2009 Kentucky Derby. The shifts in their movements are so subtle and so quick, it would take a practiced eye to catch and interpret them.
Golden Gate provides boarding for horses as well as lessons, training, summer camps, community programs and injury care and prevention. The 60-acre property boasts pastures dotted with small shelters, woods replete with trails, and a historic barn painstakingly relocated from a neighboring farm.
The project at 4125 County Trail West caught the attention of Jordan residents last winter and will be the site of further activity when Wood and co-owners Jeff “Jeffy” Tow-Arnett, Nick Tow-Arnett, and Jessy Jones begin converting it into a duplex.
The four plan to live in it once completed — Wood and Jeff are dating, Jones and Nick are married — but will remain in Prior Lake as they focus on completing the center this spring.
Brothers Nick and Jeff began the project in partnership with their uncle, Keith Tow, who died in March.
Tow was the one to find the Jordan property and was “very excited” to see his nephews’ ideas become a reality, Nick said.
“You only meet a couple people in your lifetime that are like him,” Jeff said. “He saw the opportunity and always believed that, whatever you do, if you’re passionate and do it the right way you can be successful.”
Part of the property was seeded with wild prairie grass and native flowers, something Tow really wanted.
“I know the landscaping was probably going to be one of his ways of making this place look like a piece of jewelry,” Jeff said.
The center’s gently sloping roof, neat white fences, and weather-vane-topped cupolas look like they could have been pulled off a postcard from the heart of horse country. And in a way, they were. The whole facility was modeled after barns in Kentucky, Nick said.
“You visit and you can tell they take a lot of pride in the upkeep and how the general facility looks and that’s kind of what we wanted to be able to bring to Minnesota,” Jeff said. “There’s no way you can go there and leave that state and not want a horse.”
Once completed, the center will house up to 26 horses. Currently, 14 stalls are completed and filled with horses belonging to the four owners or boarders who live in New Prague, Prior Lake, Lakeville, Victoria and Mankato, Wood said.
An additional 10 horses used for teaching and camps mostly live outside, with insulated blankets and shelters to ward against the cold, though there’s space for them inside on the most bitter days.
The arena is one of the largest of its kind in the state and allows riders to go through a full hunter jumper course. It’s also one of the few hunter jumper centers in the southwest metro area and easily accessible by highway, Wood said.
It’s about a 25-minute drive for Lynn Gabriel of Victoria, whose children, Faith and Blake, both ride. The family boards its pony Dav’ar (also known as “Jon Bon Poni”) at Golden Gate and drop by to ride most days.
“They’re such incredible people. They love their animals with all their hearts. And their people,” Lynn said. “It’s an amazing barn. The facility is just beautifully built and they thought over every fine detail for the horses’ health and safety.”
That includes springy, four-inch-thick stall mats, and rubber barn pavers, which are easier on hoofs and joints than stone or concrete.
“It’s very cool,” said Eric Haines of Dutch Creek Contracting in Northfield, as he worked on the arena’s viewing area. “The stalls are almost nicer bedrooms than my kid’s. Bigger at any rate.”
There are also equipment rooms, wash and groom stalls for the horses, and a full kitchen for the boarders. Touches of gold can be found throughout the facility — playing off its name — and a pair of gold-colored gates await installation.
“We want everyone to feel welcome to hang out here,” Wood said. “But I still want it to be a quiet enough place for boarders and the horses.”
Wood, Nick, Jeff and Jones all own thoroughbreds from the Maker’s Mark Secretariat Center in Lexington, Kentucky. The center focuses on rehabilitating racehorses and helping them find second careers.
“Thoroughbreds are the definition of an athlete. But they’re not always wanted after they’re done racing,” Nick said.
It’s a mission that means a lot to the four — all of whom are professional athletes themselves. Jeff and Nick both played football at the University of Minnesota before going on to the NFL — Jeff played for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Nick for the Dallas Cowboys and Seattle Seahawks.
Jones played volleyball at the University of Minnesota before competing professionally in Puerto Rico, Austria, Azerbaijan and Turkey.
“My brother and I always wanted horses at some time in our life, but it really wasn’t feasible,” Jeff said. “Plus we didn’t have any experience with having horses.”
But then Jeff met Lauren, who grew up working with horses. As a girl, she would do anything to be around horses, even joining Girl Scouts and sticking with it for five years just so she could attend horse camp.
“Then Jeffy got a horse, then everyone else got a horse and it just kinda snowballed from there,” Wood said.
But bringing Jeff’s horse home was not a simple task.
Noah, who competed under the name No Where to Hide, suffered a tibia fracture and needed intensive care after retiring, but remained a fierce competitor. Meanwhile, Jeff was an inexperienced rider. And, unsurprisingly, professional-football-player big.
“I think the director [of the Secretariat Center] thought I was a guy that was just getting a horse because my girlfriend had a horse,” and she hesitated to let him bring Noah home, Jeff said.
But he persisted and was eventually given his chance after promising to take riding lessons three days a week, make weekly calls updating the director on his progress and travel to Kentucky for a riding test.
“He’s a special horse. One of those that you get once in a lifetime,” Jeff said. “And I guess if I was a horse, that would be my personality... they just couldn’t get him to go 60 percent. It was always 100 percent or more. Every time.”
Tory Cooney is an enterprise reporter with a love of features writing. She is vivacious, resourceful and enjoys cooking, quilting, snowshoeing and Post-it-notes.
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