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Location: The Cowboy State | Can I get some information on the area around Velma/Duncan/Ardmore ? They are thinking of transferring my husband and I don't know anything about the area, housing, where to keep horses, economy, schools and barrel racing/gymkanna/rodeoing?
I would appreciate what information you can give me. 
Thanks
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 334
| Lots of barrel racing jackpots and rodeos in this area. Lots of arenas with good ground. Really large participation at NBHA events. Really really tough competition with usually several NFR contestants competing a local jackpots. Close proximity to some of the top futurity trainers in the nation. Joan Morgan and Morgan Ranch are located in Velma, but I am unsure if they board horses or not. In Ardmore the Hardy Murphy Coliseum hosts several really large three or four day barrel events each year with nice stalls. This summer, you will be close to many small local rodeos like Comanche, Walters, Duncan has two, Rush Springs, Carnegie, Apache, etc. Good luck with the move.
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 Veteran
Posts: 224
Location: Southern OK aka God's Country | MistyMae - 2014-02-05 10:37 PM
Can I get some information on the area around Velma/Duncan/Ardmore ? They are thinking of transferring my husband and I don't know anything about the area, housing, where to keep horses, economy, schools and barrel racing/gymkanna/rodeoing?
I would appreciate what information you can give me.
Thanks
There is probably more in the Ardmore area than the Velma-Duncan area, but both are great and within reasonable driving distance of lots of barrel events (5Ds and rodeos). Velma was a good school when I was growing up, heavy in ag and sports, but I've been out of school for almost 15 years so i can't really tell you much about it now. Duncan has a nice agri-plex/indoor arena and they've had several nice, big jackpots there. And the other poster already mentioned Morgan Ranch in Velma. Ardmore is probably more ideal as it is right in between OKC and Dallas, so you can get to either in about 1.5 hours. Lone Grove, Dickson and Plainview are all good schools and within about 10-15 minutes of Ardmore. Ada, Pauls Valley, Gene Autry, Gainesville, Whitesboro, Purcell, Velma, Coleman and Wichita Falls are all within about an hour or so drive and have weeknight jackpots/exhibitions and usually something bigger once a month, or have buckle series pretty regularly. Hardy Murphy has 2 major barrel races every year, the Jackson Hall Memorial in April and the Jud Little Barrel Bash in September. Both bring in anywhere from 400-800 entries per race over a 4-5 day period. There are several high profile trainers and competitors in the area as well: Jane Melby, Pete Oen, Michele McCleod, Kim Thomas, Fallon Taylor, Benette Little (and all the amazing talent at the Jud Little Ranch, which was where Kassie Mowry, Jolene Montgomery and several others took off with their careers), Janae (Ward) Massey, Ryan Ivy, Kay Young, PJ and Mary Burger to name a few. It's not uncommon to go to a local jackpot and run against any of those people training horses. We don't really do "gymkanna" here in Oklahoma--I think they are "playdays" in this area. There are several of those too: Ringling, Sulphur, Gene Autry, Gainesville all have monthly playdays. And there are rodeos every weekend somewhere in the summer--Madill, Duncan, Pauls Valley, Velma Picnic, etc etc.
As far as housing in Ardmore, it just depends. Renting in Ardmore is actually very high. If you want a nice rental (i.e. not a former meth lab), it's probably going to be $800-1200/month. If you're looking to buy horse property, then I would look around the outer-lying areas of Ardmore, like Lone Grove, Dickson, Overbrook, Gene Autry. You can do a search on Realtor.com and set it to where it picks anything up within 5-10 miles of your zip code. If you're wanting to board, the only legitimate place I know of is Johnson Performance Horses in Plainview. Anywhere else is probably going to be through an individual. The economy here is generally pretty good. We haven't really felt the ups and downs of the national economic strains. It has stayed pretty steady because of the oil field.
Good luck, hope that at least gives you some buzzwords. | |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 376
Location: Stillwater, OK | Here is my not so lady opinion on this matter. Duncan is a great location for barrel racing. You're an hour or less from Ardmore and Chickasha, an hour and a half from OKC and the TX border. There are quite a few jackpots and such in the area, no shortage of trainers and tough competition either. Plus, there is a VERY nice arena right there in Duncan that has a few barrel races a year!
Now for the bad news. There are no good places to sit down and eat there. Seriously, there is a golden corral and a mexican food place that you'll never find unless a local shows you where it is. Better like cooking or fast food. Don't know about the housing situation but seeing as there are a lot of large companies that have some sort of headquarters there, I bet there are rentals or some sort of living accommodations there. | |
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Rad Dork
Posts: 5218
Location: Oklahoma | 
I'm dying about your second paragraph!
I'm a huge foodie myself and this exactly how I feel about Chickasha. My husband works in the Lindsay/Chicksha area and if he has to work on the weekends I go out and stay with him. Thankfully Chickasha is just a short drive from Norman/South OKC, but he isn't always feeling up for the drive after a long day of work.
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I don't have any experience or anything to add on the area (other than that I would LOVE to live that close to some bigger cities), but I know that when I was in HS (6 years ago) a lot of the strong FFA chapters came out this part of the state. We took a gelding to James Ward in Addington, but I've never raced there and can't truthfully comment on what the competition would be like, but I'm gonna say TOUGH.
OKC always has the Summer Shootout, so you'd be close to that! | |
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Veteran
Posts: 224
Location: Southern OK aka God's Country | LopinOkie88 - 2014-02-06 10:15 AM
Here is my not so lady opinion on this matter. Duncan is a great location for barrel racing. You're an hour or less from Ardmore and Chickasha, an hour and a half from OKC and the TX border. There are quite a few jackpots and such in the area, no shortage of trainers and tough competition either. Plus, there is a VERY nice arena right there in Duncan that has a few barrel races a year!
Now for the bad news. There are no good places to sit down and eat there. Seriously, there is a golden corral and a mexican food place that you'll never find unless a local shows you where it is. Better like cooking or fast food. Don't know about the housing situation but seeing as there are a lot of large companies that have some sort of headquarters there, I bet there are rentals or some sort of living accommodations there.
Actually Duncan did recently get an Applebees, so that is a vast improvement (sad to say, although strangely I love their boneless wings!). And Marlow (outside Duncan) has an amazing Italian restaurant, Giuseppe's, but it's only open on the weekends maybe? The mexican restaurant was on the backside of the strip mall, and they have good queso blanco.
But yeah, overall, not great in the food department. | |
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 Dog Resuce Agent
Posts: 3459
 
Location: southeast Texas | I thought they had a good all around eaterie just south from Duncan not to far from the arena. | |
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 Cheerleader Beer Girl
Posts: 5658
| LopinOkie88 - 2014-02-06 10:15 AM Here is my not so lady opinion on this matter. Duncan is a great location for barrel racing. You're an hour or less from Ardmore and Chickasha, an hour and a half from OKC and the TX border. There are quite a few jackpots and such in the area, no shortage of trainers and tough competition either. Plus, there is a VERY nice arena right there in Duncan that has a few barrel races a year! Now for the bad news. There are no good places to sit down and eat there. Seriously, there is a golden corral and a mexican food place that you'll never find unless a local shows you where it is. Better like cooking or fast food. Don't know about the housing situation but seeing as there are a lot of large companies that have some sort of headquarters there, I bet there are rentals or some sort of living accommodations there.
Hate to burst your bubble, but we haven't had a Golden Corral for a couple of years now.
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 376
Location: Stillwater, OK | You very much did burst my bubble!! I obviously haven't been in a few years. My last trip there I threatened to swim through the chocolate fountain. | |
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 Ms Bling Bling Sleeze Kitty
Posts: 20917
Location: LouLouVille, OK | I can speak for Ardmore and surrounding, it's a great place to live, lots of nice little country towns surround Ardmore as well.. you are about 30 min from the Texas border if you hit 35 down. 1.5 hrs from OKC and Dallas, so you are right smack in the middle of the 2. Lots of races around, and good peeps.
There is decent shopping and eating places around as well.
Finding a rental with land,,,, good luck... there aren't any... and if they come up they are gone quick.
Economy is good around here as well, at least I think it is...
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Regular
Posts: 68
Location: oklahoma | Duncan is a nice place I use to live there. There is some gang activity on the east side of town. Marlow is a nice town but really clicky. Ardmore is known for a lot of gang activity as well. But in this day and age what town isn't. Velma is not a big town at all. If you are looking for a place to buy that is less than 45 minutes north of Ardmore of if you want more information about Duncan and surrounding areas just send me a pm. | |
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Location: The Cowboy State | Bumping. Any more info? | |
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