I live just north of Beavercreek - welcome to Ohio!
You will find many nice places to live in Beavercreek itself. No need to commute a long distance to work if you don’t want to and if you are OK with a suburban environment. You can travel less than 1/2 hour north or east of Beavercreek and find yourself in a rural setting. So, many options exist, all dependent on what you like. Commuting here is waaaaaay easier than Atlanta!
As far as boarding, I would join the Dayton Area Horse Lovers group on Facebook and post your requirements. You will get lots of suggestions and you can then tour the facilities and see what you like. Boarding is more reasonable around here than Atlanta but, like everywhere, more amenities = higher board. My personal favorite is Mill Creek Equestrian, now called Trestle Creek Stables after a recent sale but you will get many suggestions if you ask for info.
We are having quite a cold winter so far. Last year I didn’t even send my horses’ heavyweights to the horse laundry as they only wore them once or twice. This year they’ve been on for 3 weeks and counting. We’ve had some warmer days in between (I swapped their heavyweights for mids last night and will go to lightweights this morning for a couple days) but especially for your hard keeper, you will want a heavyweight blanket.
As someone mentioned above, the area does have a lot of horse activity and at a lot of levels. We have the Dayton Local Show Circuit for schooling shows for dressage and hunter/jumper, lots of rated shows at the World Equestrian Center, and shows of all sizes in Columbus and Cincy. Great trail riding around Dayton, a growing interest in working equitation, tons of local western shows, QH Congress, a good local western series at the Champions Center in Springfield. Lots of clinics for all disciplines.
We have a good selection of farriers for all disciplines. The only horse care issue lately has been veterinarians - the doc who ran the biggest practice in the area retired and people have really scrambled trying to find a replacement. There are more options to the south of town. North of Dayton has slowly gotten some new vets but it is important to find someone who covers your area and get established with them. A lot of vets are telling people to just load up and go to Ohio State for emergencies. OSU is relatively close and good but it’s not hard to visualize situations where hauling there would be impractical or impossible. Keep that in mind when choosing your vet practice.
That’s all I can think of now but ask more questions and I’ll try to help. Hope the move is uneventful!!!
ETA: I think you would really benefit from a scouting trip before your move if you can swing it. Even a day or two here would give you a much better feel for the area and your options. It’s a quick hop by plane here and you could tour accommodations for you and the horses really easily. Hope you can visit first!
ETA2: This will help with blanketing questions I think. Scroll down and look at handy chart.
https://www.sstack.com/blog/blanketing/how-to-know-when-to-blanket-your-horse/b/r0164/
Unfortunately, I’m not on FB, but I did spend some time over the weekend Googling, and have several places lined up to call (including Trestle Creek!).
