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Switch Willo

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Written by Grant Fuller Tuesday, 07 August 2007

Horse riders train on hidden patch of land.

The sky is big, the quiet wind blows, and a hundred horses make their home on these 22 acres of Texas soil.

But this isn’t some secluded ranch land in Middle of Nowhere, Texas – it’s an Austin oasis, a mere 10-minute drive from downtown. Switch Willo Stables, owned by Phoebe and Glenn Johnson, provides training and lessons in English-style hunter/jumper horseback riding. Phoebe’s father bought the property in 1963 as a place for his daughters to keep their horses.

A Switch Willo student practices jumps at the stable.

“There was nothing here when he bought it,” Phoebe said. “MoPac wasn’t here, no houses, absolutely nothing. There wasn’t even a road into here, so they had to get a machete and chainsaw just to get into this property to look at it.”

The Johnsons took over the land from Phoebe’s father in 1973, using it as a home for their personal horses. However, friends soon wanted to keep other horses on the property, and Switch Willo became something of an accidental business.

“When we first started, my husband and I did all the teaching, we cleaned the stalls, groomed the horses, everything,” Phoebe said. “It was either that or take up another career, and we didn’t know how to do anything else.”

Although Phoebe and Glenn now have plenty of help from their staff, they still work 12 hours a day to keep things running smoothly. In addition to boarding and lessons, Switch Willo offers a summer camp for kids to learn the basics of English riding.

The horses, including the 30 that are reserved for lessons, regularly perform with their riders at shows run by the Texas Hunter and Jumper Association. Phoebe Johnson herself was an alternate for the United States Equestrian Team in 1969, and after more than 40 years at these stables, there is nowhere else she’d rather be.

“[I like] that you’re not in an office, sitting there looking at the four walls,” Phoebe said. “You can get up, go outside, there’s a lot of different places you get to travel. Even though the monetary benefits aren’t great, you get a lot of other benefits that most people in the world don’t have.”

About 120 people currently draw upon Phoebe and Glenn’s equestrian expertise every day at the hidden stalls of Switch Willo. According to Phoebe, her clients – especially the younger ones – made a healthy choice by seeking out this patch of land to practice the art of English hunter and jumper riding.

“It gives them some responsibility and it keeps them out of trouble,” Phoebe said. “If you have to take care of your horse, you have riding lessons, you go to horse shows, then you’re too busy on the weekends to go partying. So it gives you good grounding.”