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C H R O N O F H O R S E . C O M FA L L 2 014 91 B Bob McDonald had carte blanche when, in 1980, Peggy and Parry omas asked the California horseman and his wife Deb- bie to move to their 65-acre estate along the Big Wood River in Hailey, Idaho. e McDonalds were training the omases' horses in South- ern California at the time, but they knew the Sun Valley area resort from vacation visits with their clients, who would go on to become some of the biggest supporters of U.S. dressage in history. But at the time, the fantastic foursome were still many years from their famous 1994 trip to Verden, Germany, where they would purchase the then-3-year-old Brentina, the supermare who still draws between 15 and 30 visitors to River Grove's always-open gates on a typical summer day. In those days, nearly 35 years ago, the McDonald/omas partnership was still evolving. e omases baited the hook by offering free rein in creating a training facility just to their liking. Debbie and Bob were up "for something a little different," Bob recalled, so they said yes. Bob, being Bob, went for a very workmanlike barn. "It had to be really practical," he recalls of the initial center- aisle, 28-stall main barn, the first new structure on what had been a llama farm—basically raw land with a small barn and a house. "We wanted something that would not be so fancy in the sense of requiring a lot of maintenance," he explained. And unlike Southern California, Hailey had serious weather. e Sun Valley suburb earned its name for warm, sunny sum- mer days, but it is primarily a ski resort town. Winters average between 25 and 40 degrees, with a week or so of sub-zero to low- teens in January. In anticipation of keeping the barn closed most of the winter, they went with a heavy cobblestone foundation with big footings for beams to support the metal roof under heavy snow loads. e cobblestone foundation kept things warmer than concrete and, equally important, allowed waste to percolate down through the Above: Peggy and Parry Thomas live in a stunning home right near the barn. Below: River Grove's four arenas, including this one for Bob McDonald's hunter and jumper prospects, feature a combination of GGT footing additive, sand and ground-up Nike shoes.