I am contemplating relocating to Scottsdale/ Cave Creek, AZ. area from North Texas. How is it to keep a horse there year-round. Unfortunately, I can’t go to Michigan to escape the heat every summer, wish I could, LOL. There are not really any show venues around DFW . I would like to live in a more horsey area. I know they have a lot of AQHA stuff. I keep going back and forth between AZ. and Ocala. I also prefer the heat. I just wonder how the horses handle it out there in the summer. Is it windy all the time??? Snakes? Which we have here, copperheads etc. We don’t see a lot of rattlesnakes unless West of Waco. Is everyone on a dry lot out there? Thanks for any input !
It’s hot and dry. Phoenix had over 100 days last year of over 100 degrees and it doesn’t cool down much at night. They do have a lot of shows there. Snakes? Most rattlesnakes will do anything they can to avoid you. I’m not in that part of Arizona, but every rattlesnake I’ve seen was running away as fast as possible. Do not expect to graze your horse in Arizona. Not only is it hard to find grass but we are running out of water and spreading it around on land so your pony can nibble on it, isn’t a realistic or environmentally sound idea. Expect dry lots.
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@Work2Ride, sorry that North Texas has lost its horse show mojo. I’m a lifetime H/j rider, kinda retired from the show scene, but I have been here in greater Phoenix for decades.
Horses survive in good barns with lots of ventilation, and in some cases, swamp coolers, or misters. The summers are hotter every year, with the lowest night temps rising. Coolest part of the day in the summer is around 5am. It’s not windy all the time. That’s Oklahoma 
, or maybe other parts of Arizona. Snakes happen, but not often and I don’t worry about them.
Parts of greater Phoenix have flood irrigation, so there is pasture. Scottsdale and Cave Creek, or really anything north of the Salt River, do not have a canal system to serve irrigation, so yes, expect dry lots. SE part of the area, like Queen Creek, and the west side, like Buckeye, have irrigation options, and so pasture there is sometimes offered for some boarding.
As far as shows, I don’t know much about AQHA. There are some HJ shows, in Phoenix and Tucson. However, nothing like Ocala… Lots of roping action and reined cow horse here. Those venues are not generally suited for hj shows, or dressage either. Some schooling shows. Showing is crammed into maybe Sept, clearly October and April, maybe May.
The option that I like best for the summer: ride at night. Find a lighted arena and stay out of the sun. Around sunset, there is always a good breeze, and it’s pretty doable, meaning, no, you won’t die from sunstroke :).
One thing to think about: we do have a lot of great vets in Phoenix, and excellent farriers. There are at least 7 vet practices who serve the very large general boarding facility where my horse lives.
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Hey, thanks for the info! I love the heat/ vs cold. Especially as I get older LOL. I just wasn’t sure about horses year-round. Seems doable.
Ocala is 10,000,000,000 times better for hunter jumper activities the trainers in the phoenix/scottsdale area are really the bottom of the barrel for quality and honesty it’s not a hub for it.
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Having lived in the Prescott (Az) area and now living in Lexington Ky and having never actually been to Ocala I’d still pick where water comes out of the sky and things grow, Ocala.
yeah it comes out of the sky non stop for about 5 months starting next week. Especially when we get hurricanes. then when it’s not raining non stop its so humid you can hardly breathe and the mosquitos are carrying you off. Then the rest of the year we are overrun with tourists and snowbirds and can barely move. I’m in N Fl and we actually are also looking at AZ to relocate once we get everything situated
If I were picking, I’d pick Arizona over Florida every day. But if you are looking for lot of h/j action in arizona, it’s not here. Jen Baltrus is laboring to keep the A shows for 2 weeks in Tucson and is doing an Herculean job. But that’s all there is and trainers are thin on the ground in the entire state. Phoenix and north have a few trainers but no A shows and that area is hotter than Tucson and getting hotter. There are towns outside Phoenix that are battling for water for homes. I’m not trying to be discouraging but keep in mind that you will be reclining in AC and your horses will be out in very hot weather all the time. Fans and mists can only do so much when it’s 115 for weeks. On the positive side, Arizona is changing and, I think, offers opportunities for people to build their horse life in a different way and to build a state in a different way. If I had all the money in the world, I’d do like the WEF people do and spend my winters in places like Arizona and my summers elsewhere, if only for the sake of my horses.
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I get it, getting used to the humidity in Kentucky was brutal (we moved here in August 
)and I’m betting ocala is worse.
But water is a bit like oxygen, you don’t think about it too much until you don’t have any. Even in areas like Flagstaff many places have to haul water in. Where I lived the well level was dropping drastically and that was 18 years ago.
I lived where it was 5200’ so the temps were not terrible and would go “down The Hill” to phoenix to compete or lesson.
Just be highly aware of the lack of water and the increase in heat from even when I was there.
It’s definitely nice to not have the water issues that they have outwest. However, even in FL now especially more south they are experiencing during certain times of the year (like now) and where I am people’s wells are starting to run dry. There are just too many people from Central FL down and when we aren’t getting rain it’s having a massive effect on the aquifer.
I couldn’t allow my horses to live in these conditions if it wasn’t absolutely necessary, it seems cruel to me and I would probably feel too guilty to ride them in such heat.
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It’s true you really can’t even ride in the evening the ground is still too hot. Friends I have that live in Carefree area get up at 3-4am to ride as that will be the coolest. The sun comes up super early too as they don’t do DST.
I only ride before 9 am. There are people who ride at any hour of the day however.
What about the rest of the day, is your horse confined to a stall in order to take advantage of fans and misting?
He is in a covered pen that is in tree shade 24/7 open to any breeze. I have found that that is actually cooler than in a barn fan/misting situation. It’s not ideal for sure but where in the USA is ideal any more? PNW can be very hot and smokey in summer, east is humid, buggy and hot, Midwest the same. Rocky Mountain area smokey as is California. Seems to me we’ve messed up the environment so much that there really isn’t anywhere perfect.
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That sounds pretty good in those conditions.
