Hi all, I live in Connecticut and currently board my event horse at an awesome place with wonderful trainers (rough life, huh?). BUT, my dream is to have my horse at home with access to trails. The trouble is, I’m visually impaired and do not drive. So… I thought I’d crowd source. Can anyone think of areas in the United States that have rural-feeling areas with horse trails close to a town/city? I can’t see myself living somewhere super rural because of the driving issue.
Thanks in advance!
You need to find a purpose built equestrian community where the trails loop around the subdivision.
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Are you thinking of walking to town to shop or a short Uber ride? I’m trying to think of horse trails in state parks
near small towns. Do you want to move out of Ct.?
I’d do uber for sure - that’s what I do now. I’m open to moving to another state.
Jamestown, TN. Many different equine communities with 250 miles of trails in Big South Fork National Recreation Area.
But you will be outside of town.
There are places like Blairstown, NJ, that have the Paulinskill Trail running through it.
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Foxhill Farms, pleasantville ny has access to state park (Rockefeller park). It had NYC riders who took the train and Ubered to the stable.
As someone above posted govt parks are more likely to have public transit access, so stables near them (with access) are a possibility.
Edited because I didn’t read for comprehension. You want your horse at home, trail access and your home to be within walking distance of town. Sorry, I’m not helpful.
Where’s Simkie? I think she’s in Ct. I’d start looking in Ct. if you can afford horse property there. I lived there for many years but the prices are a little higher now, especially in nice areas. Have you checked out NW Ct., some
beautiful areas there.
How much town do you need?
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I’ve always wondered about Norco, CA since I saw a horse going through the Starbucks drive through there! And the spots where people live in riding distance to the Tevis trails. But that’s very rural . . . not what you’re looking for.
Aiken, SC is a town, not a city, but has Hitchcock Woods if you can afford to live in the middle of it, and equestrian communities outside of town like Three Runs. Flat though, not exactly “trail” more like, nice dirt roads.
If you want to stay in the northeast, there are little pockets of properties that abut state parks for trail riding. Like, around Woodstock, VT and the Green Mountain Horse Association trails. A handful of houses abut Myles Standish park in Plymouth and Carver, MA. Hamilton and Ipswich MA have horse properties that abut two state parks and conservancy lands and the Myopia Hunt/Polo grounds. These last two feel rural but have great little downtowns with coffee shops and commuter rail stations – it’s 40-60 minutes into Boston, depending on the stop.
Scribbler, I don’t need much of a town - a few restaurants, grocery store, basic necessities would be nice.
Frog Pond- Aiken holds some appeal, since I’m also an eventer. I’ll check out properties…
I’ll bet you can find that type of property in every state, especially if you stay away from large cities. Simply bringing up Google maps will give a quick visual image of where parks are. Then all you have to do is investigate which of those parks have horse trails and then look for property near those parks. All of the online real estate sites like zillow, redfin, and realtor.com have map options which make it really easy to locate properties in the areas you want, even to just get an idea of property values.
The problem is finding a smaller town that also has Uber. That has been one of my problems thinking about moving away from the city. You might have a problem even getting cabs, and forget buses.I know of some residential communities that have boarding barns with access to trails, but no shopping of any sort within a couple of miles and no public transportation. I’m not sure about Uber in those areas.
Do you want to stay in the US?
Decatur Texas… LBJ Grasslands … all together there is 20,000 acres in plots all over the county… lots of private property adjoining the Grasslands
http://wherethetrailsare.com/2013/11…ds-decatur-tx/
also check this site … click on Resources …it is a list of trails in various states
http://wherethetrailsare.com/links/
Areas around Chester County, PA and Cecil County, MD- it’s very easy to have property to back right to trails in these areas. And we’re rural but not far out of towns and some bigger cities and we have uber. It’s not cheap to leave here but coming from CT I wouldn’t imagine it’s more
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In NY look for areas near state forest land. Alfred, in the southern teir is a college town so it has necessities and probably UBER, but there is a lot of state forest not far out of town and land costs are pretty cheap.
My guess is that if you are in a commuting town with a train station, there will be some kind of taxi and uber infrastructure. Deep country, not so much.
On the other hand, in true rural small towns there are often people looking to earn more cash and fewer job options. You might well be able to come to an arrangement with a stay at home mom or a senior citizen to drive you into town several days a week for a set fee. Or deliver your groceries!
https://www.raveis.com/agentprofile.asp?AGENT=13473&AGT=13473&SITE=agt
A couple small but decent properties, not rural but not too too suburban, that have trail access, in CT.
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Galloping trails or walk through the woods trails? Manassas VA has great trails due to the battlefield, but I don’t know about bordering properties. Traffic is awful, but if you are not driving much…
OP, you need to give folks more of an idea about your budget and other considerations.
You want to be able to ride off your property with no trailering to a trail head, correct? Approximately how many miles of trails do you need to have in order to happily do your sport? Do you care about proximity to other endurance riders or events?
I just moved to Aiken, SC, so I can tell you a bit about life and cost here. I used to live in Corvallis, OR where they have fantastic national- and university research forests with more than enough trails that are useable year-round. Strangely, there is not a big endurance scene there. It has some other drawbacks, IMO. But if you can afford CT prices, you can afford to buy a place you’d want in Corvallis. I think you could Uber your way around nicely in Corvallis.
Green Mountain in VT and the Valley Forge part of PA look good to me for what you do.
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