My dad lived in Maryland and I didn’t add it to my list because he always complained about the lack of rural areas and how it was so built up. I also wasn’t sure of the horse scene. I never visited him while he lived there, so really, I’m totally ignorant.
Maryland has more horses per capita than any other state! (We share this title with NJ)
Huge horse scene. TONS of open space away from the DC/Baltimore metroplex.
Maryland has a lot of pride in being a horsey state.
Cost of living is very location dependent. Cost of horse ownership is not bad at all because so much competition keeps the prices in check. After living in the south, I laugh when I hear people complain about it being expensive to keep horses in Maryland. Lots of things are expensive in Maryland, but horses aren’t one of them.
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Chester County has many facilities with excellent trainers and quality amenities. It also has the highest per-capita income of any county in the state (except for me!). I know that there are also facilities in Lancaster County, but I am not as familiar with them. I am no longer competing, so I do not stay up with what all is going on.
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I travelled to Aiken with a friend looking at property a while ago. It remains the only place I’ve ever heard someone use the N word in casual conversation- a man who was showing us property. A single data point but this was in one of the large horse people developments. That combined with board/ hay being the same cost or more as southern CA convinced her to stay in SD county, although with all the show venues closing she is still looking east but now further north. I would very much like to live somewhere with grass fields again myself but the salaries are so much lower in the east and horse costs seem the same or higher + housing is now also very high so … ?? Maybe I will go back to Europe.
You should be aware: there are parts of CA, OR and WA that are very bit as conservative and to my mind, more radical and crazy than the south. These are often the cheaper parts. Lots of meth and crime too making them not good places to have children if that is a concern.
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Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, I just ran the numbers and Maryland’s horses per capital is 0.016 or 16/1000, CA is .014 so you have my state beat but TX is .026. NJ is “just” .006
What surprised me is that Idaho is .068 or 68/1000! I wouldn’t have even checked Idaho but it came up in my initial Google search!
sources:
You are right. The statistic is horses per square mile, not horses per capita. My mistake for misremembering.
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Great information here! I had heard about there being scarily conservative areas in the PNW, but I probably wrongly assumed they wouldn’t be the same areas where there is an active horse scene. As for Maine, I have an older friend who frequently laments about the dressage scene in Maine back when she was in her teens and 20s, and I guess I was hoping maybe there are certain areas where that is still intact.
I, too, would be in Canada if I knew of a way to get a visa. British Columbia sounds nice, though I’ve never been. I always loved Quebec and Prince Edward Island, and my cousin went to vet school on PEI, which I really loved when visiting.
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uh, what?
I can direct the OP to at least 6 places to board in Vermont that are under $700/mo, and they will have 50 acres of turnout to boot.
And you can buy a house of your own with 50 acres of property for $700k and enjoy it all to yourself, if you’d like.
Northern VT is a very interesting place. Burlington is fabulous, and there’s very good healthcare with the Fletcher Allen system. However, it can be a bit like living on an island, because it’s an isolated metropolitan area. Some people like that, but in the winter, it can be a bit of a slog.
That said it is beautiful.
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I pay significantly less than $700 for board. Also when I looked last year the places near the larger towns in New England, including Burlington, with a good indoor + trail access were more like $1200 and there was limited turnout a good chunk of the year sadly. And many had mandatory lessons or pro-rides, which- no. I could board and train with Hilda for $1500 or maybe even a bit less, which is about what they wanted for board + some 20 something to hack my nicely trained horse around.
You CAN pay more in SoCal- if you live right in LA or on the coast or you join one of the east coast style training board places but most locals outside the cities don’t. One of the benefits of so many facilities is the choices, which I keep pointing out as a good thing but most people are ignoring in this thread. Options are good. One of my good friends is paying $350 right now for board in Ventura County, which impressed even me as a frugal owner.
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I ride/ live in the Central Valley and commute to the bay for work (a few times a month; long commute). It’s much (like half as much) cheaper than Bay Area barns but way less selection for trainers. More turnout too, since there’s actually land, and though we get the smoke, not as much fire risk on farmland than where the hills are. You can evacuate in all directions and less fuel for the fires.
It’s very hot in the summer but not humid - I’m fine riding early or late in the day.
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If you are considering PA or VA, you really should check out Maryland. I board in Montgomery County and the areas around the Agricultural Reserve are beautiful. It’s probably less than 40 miles from DC but feels like you are in farm country and there is truly an embarrassment of riches when it comes to horses, horse professionals, and all kinds of riding. I went on a 9 mile trail ride last weekend and didn’t double-back once. It is pricey.
Baltimore and Harford Counties are also beautiful with lots of horsey stuff although I am less familiar with that area. Cecil County is next to Harford and I think is home to Fair Hill which hosts one of only two 5* events in the US.
I agree with other posters about the Charlottesville area in Virginia - it’s beautiful for hiking and it’s horsey with good restaurants and a good hospital at UVA. We wanted to retire to Charlottesville but are likely to stay in Maryland, sadly because it’s blue. I am from Richmond but I think it doesn’t come close to what Charlottesville offers from a horse perspective. Good luck!
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I live in Los Angeles and board in the Simi Valley/Moorpark area. It’s getting very expensive to board here, and many facilities are shutting down or being sold to private owners. If I was relocating now, I’d look in Encinitas, where many top dressage trainers have relocated.
Here’s an idea of approx monthly costs:
- $1125 board
- $50 extra shavings (only 2-3 bags provided weekly in 12x12 stall)
- $100 orchard grass (only alfalfa included in board)
- $100 trailer parking
- $1500 full training (inc. grooming and turnout)
- $216 farrier ($250 every 5 weeks)
- $130 grain and supplements
- TOTAL: approx $3200
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When I looked at prices to board in Vermont (not near Burlington, but Woodstock and Ludlow areas) they were more around $500. I am sure with inflation and hay prices, they are higher now, but I’m not sure how much. You make a great point about turnout, which I didn’t realize might be an issue in Vermont. It’s one of the cons of California to be honest. I know in Massachusetts, turnout is very limited because of crowding and lack of land, which makes for expensive boarding.
It sounds like there are plenty of good deals to be had in parts of California if you are willing to look. I don’t anticipate wanting to be more south than Sacramento, but I am in the preliminary stages of really delving into this. Incomes are higher in California than in Massachusetts, but in some areas, so is cost of living. Maybe all areas. Not sure how it will all pan out.
Right, but you’ve said that board doesn’t include grain, turnout, or labor, so it’s basically a dry stall fee.
Rough board around here runs that cost too. If you have to pay for everything else, that’s not the total cost of horsekeeping, you’re just ignoring the rest because it’s not specifically called “board.”
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I’ll second Lazaret’s point about dry stall vs full care. Having boarded in Los Angeles for as low as $400 (admittedly, 15 years ago), and now board in Maryland for $1000, the cheap Los Angeles board pricing tends to be, as Lazaret said, essentially a dry stall fee - no feed, shavings, turn out, etc. The board I pay in MD (admittedly, at one of the nicest facilities in the area), includes everything except vet, farrier, and trainer. There are horses boarded at my barn whose owners live out of the country and the horses are completely taken care of without an owner checking in on them. While full-care seems to be the norm here in Maryland, it was definitely not in Los Angeles. So, OP, definitely keep those differences in mind.
That being said, I’ll also throw in a thumbs up for Maryland. It’s not dirt cheap like some states in the middle of the country, but the state has a lot of options as far as pricing goes (e.g., Montgomery County is not the cheapest option, there are others), and the NOVA/DC/Montgomery County area is very well educated, science-oriented, and progressive. It is also a WONDERFUL horse hub. The dressage scene may not be better than Southern California (although the eventing certainly is!), but I’d say it’s pretty darn close. Like, really, really good trainers, lots of GMOs, lots of schooling and rated shows. Access to lots of great vets, farriers, and equine hospitals and specialists. And the horse living is way, way better than SoCal - e.g., my horse goes out in turnout every day. On grass. In a field. It’s amazing.
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I never said that? I have a bedded and cleaned covered stall area inside a larger paddock area which is the norm around here. They feed hay three times a day, water, clean the stalls daily etc. I’ve never fed grain- most people out here don’t. If you want supplements or turn out or medical care you pay a bit more or hire a kid or I just trade it with my friends who board there too. A lot of people just feed supplements after they ride. Most people here ride 5 days a week and only trainers from other places keep horses in small 12x12 stalls pretty much. Most are at minimum in a 12x24 paddock. I am getting the sense that is not common in other areas to be at the barn so often.
A stall with no feed or cleaning would be very unusual here, except maybe at a private barn or if you rented a block of stalls. My barn owner would never allow it because of flies and the risk the horse wouldn’t be cared for. She actually won’t let you board a horse as an absentee owner and I think that’s common also, the last place I was at would only do that for people with a SAG card or in a film union, otherwise no you had to come out a minimum number of times. You also have to have a credit card on file with a vet and have to keep up with the farrier or you will be billed for it.
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I was a bit confused about if people are referring to dry stalls or full-care facilities. I can get a dry stalls for as low as $160 in Massachusetts without an indoor, and I only have to go out once a day. Some of the nicer facilities have dry stalls for $350, but it’s hard to justify when the costs are almost the same as full-care facilities if you add up hay, shavings, grain, and labor. That being said, I don’t even know why people are arguing about LA and southern California. I am interested in northern California, which might have gotten lost in translation somewhere.
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People keep arguing with me about my own experiences and costs. I know what they are! I will just ignore them and stop derailing your thread.
If Sac is as far south as you will consider I am not sure CA is for you as a dressage rider. The horse scene drops off sharply an hour or so north of Sac. Here is the CDS show calendar if you look by month there is a map for each show, see for yourself- I think the most northern show is Murieta until you hit Oregon.
https://www.california-dressage.org/show-calendar-lp
If you want horses, rural life and access to public land I would look more in the Sierra Foothills or Central Coast than choosing a north/ south cut off line. It’s rural. There is public land and outdoors people. You risk fires though and will have long drives.
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Don’t worry about derailing. I’m sorry people are discrediting your own experiences. I think plenty of people living in Massachusetts would be shocked (and not believe me) to hear the of the amazing boarding deals I’ve hunted down over the years, because in general my area is just exorbitantly expensive. There are always places and connections.
I am not familiar with the more southern parts of California, which could be part of the aversion. That coupled with a certain expectation about boarding costs and the landscape/geography, as I like forests, mountains, wildlife. I assumed more south would be too crowded and more treeless. As I’ve, said, I’m more than happy to be corrected and learn, as I’d hate to miss out on a nice areas due to my own preconceptions or ignorance.
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Personally I find the Central Valley a good balance of pricing, fire risk and access to the rest of California. If you want to be safe® in fire season, you’re better off out of the hills.
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