Not everywhere. Nampa area has lots of clinics and vets to chose from, I’ve asked other horse peeps in the area because I keep feeling the draw east.
Haha I get it. I grew up in Seattle and I always say I’d need to win the lottery to move back to the west coast, so I could have 30 acres in the hills, a private jet, a helicopter, an a chef. Then I don’t need to leave and if I do I don’t need to be in the traffic
I feel like this is very relative. I’ve lived in several of declared ‘horse capitals of the world’ so my idea of an equestrian scene and other peoples’ ideas would be very different.
To me, it’s a slow weekend if there isn’t at least 3 shows going on within an hour radius of me. I’ve got my pick of some of the best equine vets in the world and if I don’t like those I’ve got an equine hospital 10 minutes away and 2 other top of the line equine hospitals within a day trailer ride. There’s more tack stores in this area than I could count; I think there’s like 15 within an hour drive of me.
Buuuut if you had asked me 12 years ago if that area of Idaho was horsey I would have said yes. Because I lived in an area where it wasn’t uncommon that there wasn’t more than 2-3 shows a month going on.
Unfortunately there’s just no place on the west coast that has become as horse focused as many of the places on the east coast. Which is weird because there is definitely the market for it.
Western disciplines take up a lot of horse focus in the west. Our back country has lots of rodeos and people still ride range to check on cattle and do pack horse hunting trips and barrel racing. Loads of horses. No dressage and very little jumping.
I didn’t realize we have the California upbringing in common (San Diego in my case.) I generally agree about not wanting to go back, though I have always loved the eastern Sierra region. (But would be very isolated.) When I was a kid, we visited a Morgan breeder near Bishop who used his horses for ranch work. There was actually a little Morgan scene up there at the time – all ranchers but their horses sold to show homes, too. I think that’s all gone now.
I have visited Central WA. It’s dry, mostly. I have a friend in Benton City, and also some friends in a couple of towns in eastern Oregon. It is beautiful, but can feel pretty remote. My Benton City friend says access to water is really important. They have an irrigation allotment and are able to keep a 5 to 10 acre pasture, even in the driest summer, that way. The hay grown out there is wonderful! She takes any non-basic vet cases amongst her horses and her dogs to Washington State vet school which is a few hours away. Her husband has complex medical needs so they make a lot of trips to Seattle for that.
Winters can be very cold, and yes there are times that driving directly to Seattle is not possible. This was an issue for a former student of my father’s, many years ago. She was a professor in Walla Walla and had Type 1 diabetes. When she got pregnant, she had to move to Seattle for the latter half of the pregnancy.