Horse Communities near Seattle

[DressurLeben]

Are there any equestrian communities or neighborhoods within an hour’s drive from Bellevue/Redmond?

While traveling I came across a community in Gurnee, IL called Hunt Club Farms. The neighborhood has several (not all) lots that are zoned for horses to live on the property. Additionally, homeowners have the right to use the riding facility with arenas, lessons, and trails. The facility is called Fields and Fences and is a boarding facility in its own right. It’s maintained to the standard that people that show horses would expect.

Is there a neighborhood in the greater Seattle area that offers a community like that? Perhaps just a well maintained covered community arena, neighbors that have horses, that kind of thing?

[RedmondDressage]

Bridle Trails in Bellevue is going to be the closest thing you’ll find to that to my knowledge. It’s not cheap to say the least, and its quickly becoming less horsey because it’s so close in. I believe there might be some kind of community up in Arlington but it’s fairly far out and I know little about it other than having seen MLS listings for raw land in the community for years.

[costco_muffins]

Bridle Trails is the closest, but horse property near there sells for upwards of 1M within days with multiple offers - often to non horse people who tear the houses down and rebuild mansions on the horse acre lots.

Rockmeadow in Sammamish also could be considered a horse community. There are houses surrounded by barns and pastures and a huge equestrian facility in the middle. Its very HJ oriented and most people choose to board their horses at the main barns.

[Groom_amp_Taxi]

Canterwood Golf and Country Club near Gig Harbor was conceived to have an equestrian component; however at the time we lived near there, the emphasis was on golf. I believe there is currently an active riding program operating there with a boarding facility, some turn-out, a shared arena, and some bridle trails. However, the homes that are part of the development aren’t on lots that accomodate horses.

There are some subdivisions in South King County (Enumclaw, Covington, Maple Valley) where many lots accomodate horsekeeping on a small scale, but they aren’t built around shared amenities.

[RedmondDressage]

[QUOTE=costco_muffins;8989136]
Bridle Trails is the closest, but horse property near there sells for upwards of 1M within days with multiple offers - often to non horse people who tear the houses down and rebuild mansions on the horse acre lots.

Rockmeadow in Sammamish also could be considered a horse community. There are houses surrounded by barns and pastures and a huge equestrian facility in the middle. Its very HJ oriented and most people choose to board their horses at the main barns.[/QUOTE]

I can’t believe I forgot about Rockmeadow! Our farm growing up was just down the road from there. It’s a beautiful neighborhood - I’m guessing houses in there will be comparable in price to Bridle Trails, albeit on a bit more land.

[costco_muffins]

Redmond - you must have lived very close to me! I grew up less than a mile from Rockmeadow and rode at a bunch of places all over the plateau - Spiritwind, Cedar Ridge, then Rockmeadow and finally Tower Farm. Of all those only Rockmeadow still exists

[partita]

I grew up very near Issaquah. Used to ride the trails all over Cougar Mtn.
Showed at Bridle Trails. Rode horse trials at Rockmeadow.

Not sure there are really true horse communities left, as more and more city slickers move in. Less boarding barns in the area too, as the arenas get torn down and replaced with housing communities. My prediction for years has been that Bridle Trails will be gone one day for horse use.

But the areas mentioned do still have horses. There actually are LOTS of places within an hours drive of Bellevue/Redmond where you can have horses and horsey neighbors, but you will also have lots of non-horsey neighbors around you.

[RedmondDressage]

[QUOTE=costco_muffins;8989725]
Redmond - you must have lived very close to me! I grew up less than a mile from Rockmeadow and rode at a bunch of places all over the plateau - Spiritwind, Cedar Ridge, then Rockmeadow and finally Tower Farm. Of all those only Rockmeadow still exists :/[/QUOTE]

Ok, there’s no way we didn’t ride together growing up. I also boarded at Spiritwind and Cedar Meadows! We also leased the farm on the other end of 212th from the Rockmeadow Development after Cedar Meadows closed… We called it Horse Heaven but I’m not sure if that was its name before we were there. Yellow indoor and barn just before you headed down the hill toward E Lake Sammamish toward the Redmond side of the Plateau.

Is Tower Farms gone now? If so, that breaks my heart. I rode with Nancy in Pony Club and my eventing trainer taught us over there in her outdoor. My mom ran into Nancy on a plane several years ago, she told her that having us kids around was one of the happiest times in her life. It kind of surprised me but made me smile ???

[Tuffytown]

I boarded at Shiloh horse farm long before it became Rockmeadow. Only the original farmhouse and cow barns converted to horse barns were there and all the area that is now houses were hay fields.

I also lived at bridle trails in the old Jimmy Rainwater complex when Central park stables was still there before the atrocity of small barn and McMansions that stands there now was built. My Friend that currently lives in Bridlewood circle has nothing but trouble with new non horse owning neighbors making her horse life hell.

There is a place in Arlington that has 5 acre parcels and a large community arena with some stalls. Last I heard the arena-barn was pretty vacant as few in the community have horses there and the management has no idea how a barn operates. I have a friend that recently built a house there but has her retiree at home. It is a flood fringe area so all building have to be built to floodplain standards.

[Donnerhall_uber_all]

I was recently driving past the place North of Arlington, and saw a tack sale advertised - followed the signs to the very cool round community barn, which was sadly pretty empty. I would not consider it to be an hour’s drive from Seattle, except between midnight and 4 AM. However, I will point out that Snohomish County is a “right to farm” county, and if you have livestock, your neighbors can’t do anything about it.

[TheresanAppfurthat]

Had to chuckle about the comments that Bridle Trails (Kirkland) is being overrun with non-horsey people. When I had purchased an out-of-state equestrian facility twenty years ago and needed to sell my horse property in Silver Spurs (across the street from Bridle Trails Park) I insisted to the listing real estate broker I would only sell to other horse people. The buyers lied through their teeth and talked a great game, so I caved and sold. Six months later the barn had been gutted and made into a “stall” for their 45 ft luxury motor coach, and the paddock had been paved so that winter mud wouldn’t bog down the vehicle. All of this because the CCRs still in place said you couldn’t “visibly” park your motorhome in your driveway, but the buyers weren’t horse people anyway. Sad! I had paid less then $200K for the place in 1980 but sold before the “bubble” grew. Property now appraises at almost $1.5M.