[QUOTE=Fig;7777292]
I wouldn’t want to live in Aiken after hearing about all the crime there.[/QUOTE]
Where did you hear about the crime? Aiken is on our possible retirement locations list and I had not heard that.
[QUOTE=Snowdenfarm;7777683]
Where did you hear about the crime? Aiken is on our possible retirement locations list and I had not heard that.[/QUOTE]
There is a long thread on here about Aiken and the crime rate. I’ll do a search and see if I can find it.
*found it! People have different views about it. Also a good forum on different places to live.
http://www.chronofhorse.com/forum/showthread.php?438335-Oh-where-oh-where-to-relocate/page3&highlight=Aiken+crime
[QUOTE=Valentina_32926;7776927]
Another vote for Lexington, Ky. Looking on Craigslist you can find farms (a bit of a drive from Lexington of course, but if you can work from home NP) very inexpensively.
Look East/North east of Lexington - Like the Mount Sterling area. I found a beautiful place (sent to a couple of friens) for around $200K - with log cabin, 2 barns, fenced, near a lake, lots of wildlife, etc…[/QUOTE]
Noooo! This area is NOT Lexington or the immediate surrounding counties. The bluegrass region is where I’m referring to. I didn’t get the impression that the OP is looking to buy a farm, but for what it’s worth, I have a 25 acre farm 30 minutes from Lexington, 20 minutes from the horse park. The price of land is not outrageous here.
Anywhere in the Greater Chicago Land area!!!
[QUOTE=HJEq;7776384]
Caledon, ON![/QUOTE]
I’ll second this. I live not too far from Caledon. It allows me a doable commute into Toronto for work and you can find shows/events for pretty much any discipline within an hour or two drive!
My retirement future home
[QUOTE=Lace;7777310]
Ahh, what great answers! You guys have given me a lot of thinking to do. I can attest to the beauty of the Tryon area, I loved it when I visited. Clearly I need to go on some more vacations in the Southeastern United States. Thanks for the thoughtful responses.
By all means, I don’t object to a healthy injection of realism! That said, it’s not like I am putting a down payment on a house anywhere, just curious about the various horse communities in North America (especially those that don’t usually get the hype). I would also never actually expect to receive a comfortable salary, but for the sake of discussion I introduced that parameter. Texas I do hear is great for all things horse involved though!
Texas has a pretty active Hunter/jumper scene that is concentrated in the DFW area and Houston. There are a few barns in the Austin area as well. The rest of the state, not so much. We have a decent show circuit here except for during the summer, when anyone who has the means gets the hell out of Texas for cooler climates. It is definitely more affordable then northeast coast boarding costs, and the cost of living here is reasonable. Growing job market as well.
The downside to living in Texas include hot summers (oftentimes 30 plus over 100 degree days), bad traffic congestion that is getting worse due to insufficient investment in transportation infrastructure and the fact that you can drive 5 or 6 or even ten hours and still be in Texas! Really. Getting out of state, unless you’re talking Oklahoma, isn’t easy unless you fly. Plan on LONG hauls to horse shows. DFW to Katy Texas pulling a trailer is about 5 hours, and you’re still in Texas!
Nashville, TN area (e.g. Franklin), Lexington/Georgetown, KY, and Austin, TX are at the top my list.
I’d say Gainesville/Ocala, FL, too, but you said you already know about north Florida.
Canada, you’d at least need a work visa and it could be more complicated then you think to get permanent status and be able to apply for citizenship.
Plenty of places in the states.
[QUOTE=paw;7777445]
I’ve traveled up and down the east coast, and never not found horses when I looked. The Upper Connecticut River Valley (Hanover, NH and surrounds) can be gorgeous, though cold in the winter, and more eventing/endurance/driving than h/j (but h/j and dressage are there, too). I’m now in San Diego (not cold! no snow!), and there’s every kind of riding here, though h/j is more expensive.
I wouldn’t worry over much about finding horses, wherever you may go. Other factors (landscape, rural vs urban, access to “culture”, etc) may wind up being more important to your overall quality of life in the long term.
Good luck - it’s an exciting time![/QUOTE]
Were you at Dartmouth? Yes, it’s a beautiful area, and I don’t know a lot about the h/j scene besides the school barn. I know the dressage trainers I like most in the area tend to go south for the winter. There is also foxhunting in the area.
Personally, I don’t like humidity or snow. If money were no object, the San Diego area is stunningly beautiful. I’m in Tucson, where we have 3 months of awful heat in the summer but it cools off at night so early/late rides are nice. The other 9 months of the year it’s gorgeous here, with very few freezes and typically little rain.
It’s far less expensive than somewhere like San Diego here, with correspondingly smaller h/j population - you’ll see more western horses instead. However, we do have HITS here and several different show series and schooling shows year-round. Many locals will go to California for big show series which is possible from here, and if you can work remotely wouldn’t even cost you so much work time to go spend a few weeks at big shows if you wanted in the future.
What you have to understand somewhere in the southwest in general is you are unlikely to get pasture turnout. Most board I know of is in the $300-$350 range, sometimes that includes turnout and sometimes not, but almost never does it include pasture. Feeding horses hay year round is sometimes a shock to those who are used to wetter areas, but I personally keep my horses so they have hay to eat at all times, and it makes it so much nicer having less humidity and rain to affect things.
Cost of living here is cheap compared to most horsey areas I know of - the cost of board gives you an idea of that, as I constantly hear of board $800-$1000+ in other areas.
[QUOTE=findeight;7784598]
Canada, you’d at least need a work visa and it could be more complicated then you think to get permanent status and be able to apply for citizenship.
Plenty of places in the states.[/QUOTE]
This…the country isn’t exactly crying out for workers in most areas (even Calgary is starting to suffer and see layoffs!) and there’s issues with jobs being “outsourced” that’s starting to cause huge problems. For Professional positions, they must also be offered to Canadian citizens first and only if they can’t be filled can they be offered to outside of the country! It’s not so easy, as a Professional, to just pack up and move to Canada…lot’s of hoops and interviews to go through (example we moved from England and my dad had to go through some pretty rigorous interviews to be accepted and awarded landed immigrant status…and he’d already been offered a job!)
It’s hard to say, as everything has it’s drawbacks. Of course your prime concern needs to be where can you make a decent living. There are a lot of plusses to Maryland in the central are(er Howard County) as you are within 1-1/12 hr striking distance to many of the major shows. The weather and footing can suck about 1/2 the year. Aiken SC , where I am now, has great footing all year, decent weather all year, but if you’re a show rider the local scene is very limited and after that it’s LONG drives and overnite to anywhere you want to to show.
This is really, really great. It way exceeded my expectations. Obviously step 1 is to find a job, but it is nice to know what areas are good for our 4-legged friends just in case I find myself in the improbable scenario where I have options! I have some ties to Canada, which is why I threw it in the mix. Overall it seems like Southeast/NE area and west coast are the overwhelming winners. Honorable mentions go to Chicago, ON, and Texas.
Personally, I am drawn to Nashville and San Diego out of the ones brought up but obviously I have tons of research to do
I property shopped for many years and I just couldn’t leave California. I know it’s pricey but the closer you are to LA the more expensive housing is. But the closer you are to LA the more money you possibly can make.
WEATHER WEATHER WEATHER… can’t say it enough for me anyway. I am not a cold weather person. We don’t have a lot of bad weather probably why it’s so crowded.
The key to California is living outside LA. Suburbs don’t support many nice horse facilities but northern Ventura and up or way south like Fallbrook have some reasonably priced homes and a lot of horse facilities (and top trainers if you can afford).
If you want to show A circuit and be at an A barn your costs will be very similar throughout the US… higher West and East coasts.
