I’ve thought about Kentucky because I have a relative who lives there and is very happy with it, and it seems to have some very nice socially conservative places to live, but it’s just so danged hot and humid in the summer. I know that I don’t want to go anywhere too hot as I hate the heat, and I also don’t want to be close to anywhere affected by hurricanes.
There is a lot of trail riding around here, especially Big South Fork. I haven’t done much trail riding though. For showing there is a lot in a two hour radius (Knoxville, River Glen, Nashville)
Before we moved here we lived about an hour southwest of Lexington, KY. The proximity to the Kentucky Horse Park was outstanding. I loved being near Lexington, but finding nice horse farms that are what I consider affordable in the area is difficult. Our farm was in Washington County and was really to steep and rocky to be an ideal horse farm. Which I feel like is a common issue for a lot of people I know when they are farm shopping. Either to expensive or to steep and rocky.
The overall tax burden is better in TN than it is in KY.
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Tennessee is my top pick! Love it.
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And for you (we) old folks looking for cheap taxes: Are you sure you want to do your ailing and dying in a very poor state? It seems to me that “you get what you pay for” is true… and also that medical care is often important and more than you can just pay for by yourself.
What I have learned keeping horses in high-end markets and pretty mediocre markets is that you cannot quite insulate yourself from poor care. That is to say, you might be able to get most things done your way on your farm with your (imported) money and standards. But that won’t help you find the expertise in vets, farriers or trainers that you’d like local to you, no matter how much money and knowledge you’d like to throw at the problem.
I imagine that this is true for medical care as well, only with higher stakes.
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I’m not sure you can necessarily make a blanket statement about cheap taxes and lack of resources/ care. I am less than an hour from Vanderbilt University and their medical center, and about two hours from the University of Tennessee and their medical center. The quality of care we have received here has been no less than what we received in a heavily populated Northeast state, where property taxes were literally thousands of dollars PER MONTH, whereas our property taxes here on much more acreage are well under $1000 per year.
I do live in a county that has a poverty rate of 19%. Are there areas that are questionable? Most certainly! But, we have found that in every place we have lived. Do I feel safe in my home and on my property? Yes, but it does not mean we do not lock the house, vehicles, the farm shop, trailers, etc. Locals laugh about us doing that, but it was the way we were raised in the Northeast, and it certainly does not hurt.
We paid exactly the same amount for our current property as the property we sold in PA. This property has over 4 X the amount of acreage, with the house being comparable and barns slightly less valuable. The difference in taxes would be $603 now versus $5600 in PA. I hate to imagine what we would pay in property taxes on a farm this size in PA. We had a neighbor in PA, with a similar amount of acreage as to what we have here, who was paying $40,000 per year in taxes. And that land was all enrolled in Clean & Green, so it was taxed at ag rates.
There are pluses and minuses to every location, but when we relocated here we did extensive research into the area, resources like health care, human services, etc. We know people who moved here at the same time we did, in a different area, and they have been sorely disappointed. They have had issues finding work that pays much more than minimum wage, and they moved to a county with very limited job opportunities. BUT, they did no research and bought a property sight unseen because it was cheap. That in itself turned into a fiasco!
The only thing I really would change here is there is no place to get “real” pizza!
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I agree. There are lots of other variables that need to be taken into account.
For example, we don’t have state income tax in Florida, but we tax the heck out of tourists. Your visit to Orlando helps subsidize my budget.
And, then you have the impact of having local industry. I used to live in Georgetown, KY before Toyota built their big factory there. The taxes paid by Toyota filled the county’s coffers to overflowing, funding everything from firetrucks to new schools to county animal control services.
Or, on the flip side, the lack of local industry. One of the issues faced by the city/county I now live in is that the university and associated entities are tax-exempt and there is no serious industry or big commercial entities. It doesn’t matter much what the tax rate is if your biggest “businesses” are all tax-exempt.
And so on…
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I’m in Tucson. We now have microwave internet in most areas, so high speed internet has become more possible in the more rural areas in the last couple of years. I haven’t gotten it at home yet, but it’s on the horizon - right now I use my phone, and connect to work through my work cell, so have gotten away without it, since it came to my area.
I would look at Oracle or Catalina, AZ, which are a bit cooler (10+ degrees) than Tucson - and Tucson can be 10+ degrees cooler than the Phoenix area in summer. Oracle and Catalina will get small amounts of snow in winter, but not much. LOTS of trails if you’re into trail riding. And they’re basically rural Tucson suburbs, so you can get to hospitals and Tucson trainers - but you can also get to some of the Phoenix area trainers if you’re willing to drive about an hour. Tucson seems to be improving as far as our dressage scene, and most of the trainers here seem to be improving themselves, as they seek more education and growth. It’s fun to watch from below them, and know even whenever my trainer decides to retire (hopefully not for many years!) there should be other options for me here. I expect that Oracle and Catalina are probably conservative, as most more rural/farming type areas are, but Tucson as a whole is definitely a blue area.
There are also areas with horse property in Tucson which are affordable as well, just a bit warmer than Oracle and Catalina. 
My property was a foreclosure and in the mid 5-figures for 4.13 acres. Not having a mortgage at all is a nice thing… The house was torn apart and rebuilt, and is a manufactured home, but still, that gives you an idea of the difference in prices from California. And living without a mortgage is NICE. 
We certainly aren’t the dressage mecca some places in CA are, but we’re also so much more affordable, and when big name trainers come to the area, we get to ride with them - it’s not limited to GP pros only.
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True… in proximity to Nashville. And IIRC, Nashville’s nickname is “the Athens of the South”- so it’s a relatively wealthy, cosmopolitan gem in Tennessee. By the same token, you’d be lucky to find a horsey area that seemed affordable to you and was near a college town; the imported money (besides yours) really does spruce things up a bit.
But this is all not so true everywhere, e. g. Northern New Mexico where a friend’s mom (with notable amounts of money) really did die prematurely due to lack of first-rate medical care close by.
In addition, I’m thinking of my experience in Oregon where our state is forward-thinking about end-of-life stuff. You can’t buy the same laws in a more conservative state, no matter how much money you have.
And the other truth is this: Most people writing on this thread will be able to use their wealth to insulate them from what the other, poorer folks round them face. But my point about the limits of your ability to hide from that still stands. And that’s just part of the logic of wanting to cash out in a more affluent market and buy in to a poorer one.
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I’m with ya Cutter. I will look you up when I retire! Or, when I come down for work in June
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We just moved to the Treasure Valley in Idaho. We love it. Lower elevation then the rest of the state so the weather is great! Winters we get some snow, but most storms are 3" or less and melt right away. Winter is short and we have all seasons here. It rains, but not too much so not super muddy like the east coast. Many sunny days. Eagle and Star are the horse communities in the area. A small community, but lots of fun shows, clinics, etc.
My only complaint is the expansive development going on and the politics.
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What about water in AZ area? Is it your own private well? Can you irrigate?
Kentucky. No state tax on retirement income. Plentiful hay, vets, farriers, horse properties. Jefferson (Louisville) and Fayette (Lexington) counties are blue. We do have four seasons. Some snow in the dead of winter, but rarely lasts for more than a day or two. OTOH, we don’t have the insect problems that go along with no freeze. Oh, and University of Louisville and University of Kentucky both have fine medical schools, and there are plentiful options for top line medical care.
I love living in KY, it is affordable, horsey, and beautiful, but we are actually considering moving. The amount of rain and cold we have been experiencing the past year just about has everyone at their breaking point. It is nonstop mud and makes horse care very challenging. We have had THREE water leaks this winter bc of the extreme temp changes/swings (60 to 10 in a couple days!), and have lost power twice due to ice storms. Would love to find somewhere warmer but without the extreme humidity usually associated with moving farther south. That said, anything too arid is very brown and depressing to someone used to all this green. So I guess the bottom line is that everywhere has pros and cons! Good luck with what you decide!
I moved to South Carolina two years ago due to retiring, and I’m very happy with the move. I moved my one remaining horse here, but he was already retired too. He liked it here, since he always liked warm weather. I wish that I could still be active with horses, because it would be so much fun here. Our summers are not excessively hot, and most winters are pretty nice. We will occasionally get a snow flurry in winter, but it’s rare for it to stick at all. When my horse was still alive, I really appreciated not having mud in his pasture when it rained. The sandy soil at his barn felt like walking on the beach.
Rebecca
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grew up there, east of Louisville in Oldham County… fine school system… at least when I ws there still a lot of horses and horse activities but not as much as in the old days. St Luke’s Horse show was a one day affair that would draw about 500 to 700 head…it was just a backyard show that was on steroids (I did see one class where the judge refused to tie a first place and she started with second place)
Now as for Louisville and its Blueness… just read some about the taxes they are proposing … and the schools there suck big-time
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LOL. I didn’t address the school system…doubt if the retirees are worried about it… The City is proposing a small increase in the insurance tax. If you find a place where there are no taxes, I’d like to know about it. Still no state tax on retirement income.
small?, the mayor wants to triple the tax from 5% to 15% of the premium
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Skimming through this most posts are more easterly - Nobody has mentioned Oregon. It is pretty, rains a bit, but better than the PNW I am used to…there are horses.
There is ocean, Portland whose motto really is Keep Portland weird, no sales tax.
My main thoughts would be to be near relatives, if I was looking for retirement, instead of disappearing into the ether.
I shouldn’t be advertising this area, realty but everyone of the OP request (not knowing where her family lives) is met in the Chapel Hill/ Durham NC area. Also you can ride year round the summers never get as hot and humid as Ocala and the winters are too mild for me. OK we’ve had a weird year with lots of rain but I’ve been here 25 years and its never been like this .
For the liberal part Chapel Hill durham is as liberal as anyplace in the country. Asheville is good to but expensive and bad traffic. Tryon is conservative politically and very hot 4 months a year might as well be in Florida.
Remember its always summer in Florida , it goes from unbearable to pleasant in Jan/Feb and thats your climate.so maybe you like that but its not CA. heat ,poor horses they hate it except maybe the Arabs.
And I would never move back to the Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill area. Way too expensive and the traffic is unbearable. I really didn’t like it there.
