The closer you stay towards the Clermont area the more you will have any semblance of topography! South of Lake County Florida gets flat as a pancake. My brother moved to Mount Dora and it is lovely but I’m not sure about the horse scene.
I realize that North Lake County is probably too far from Tampa for you – but I second ThreeWishes suggestions of looking in the Mount Dora / Eustis area. I have been here for about 10 years – first seasonal and now full time. The area is developing rapidly but there are still more rural areas where you can purchase 10-15 acres suitable for horses. I own a 15 acre property in Eustis (the town of Eustis is actually geographically much larger than the “city” of Eustis) and developed it as an equestrian facility that my trainer leases and operates. We have good vets and farriers in this area. Trailering to shows in Ocala (or Grand Oaks in Weirsdale) is very convenient but we are quite a bit closer to the Orlando airport. As others have mentioned being in the middle of the state is good in terms of being away from the worst hurricane winds. Good luck!
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Thanks I actually JUST saved a house in Lake Wales. I think I’m pretty careful, I do TONS of research. I spent about 18 months researching and planning my move from Ohio to Florida.
I’ll probably take you up on that, will let you know. Working on figuring out pre-approval before scheduling anything.
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Thanks! I’ll put some of the houses I’ve found in those cities on my list
Sounds good! My show horse is currently boarded at a small farm a couple of miles outside of Lake Wales in a city called Babson Park. My own farm (4 acres) doesn’t have a jumping ring and isn’t safe to trail ride around any longer. We got surrounded by suburbia. It was fine for my retirees but not for my showing goals. Where he is now I can train in the ring and easily hack out the gate into miles and miles of orange groves.
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Mount Dora
Clermont
Leesburg
Eustis
Tavares
Hey this is my area- N. Lake Co. and yes it’s very horsey here but it is also growing. Great for
showing, vets, chiro, saddlefitters etc. Also handy to airport. Not handy to Tampa though.
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Sorry, I guess I’m confused about where you and your family live. I thought you said they were in the Bradenton and Brandon area and all the other places you mentioned are even closer to them than Lady Lake, so I didn’t understand why you were discounting Lady Lake because it was too close to family.
…
Unless you meant that Lady Lake is only 45 mins closer so not close enough to justify the move. If that’s the case, then I get it now. 
I like visiting Tampa a lot. So much to do there. Good luck in your search.
How soon do you need to move? It looks like the real estate market may not calm down for awhile. If interest rates go up a little, it won’t hurt much, but it could cool off this crazy market.
