I’m bored and love looking at new places to move to. So if you could choose anywhere to live, with a good horsey area, not so high living costs, and things to do around the area, where would you go? I’d love to be near some horse shows, in an area with a bit of a city like feel. I can work virtually anywhere so I’m lucky in that regard!
AIken, SC. Horsey, nice people, cute town, near Augusta, Ga, low cost of living… Hot in summer but so is everywhere else.
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Hehe. I moved to Aiken and I’m happy here, so that came to mind immediately.
But! This place might not check all the OP’s boxes.
OP, how much city do you mean? Manhattan? Charlotte, NC?
How much money counts as “not too expensive” to you?
What discipline(s) do you want to do?
Do you need access to really high-end trainers?
Any weather that you hate? Would you rather be too hot or snow/icy cold if you had to suffer one extreme?
Do you care about the ambient politics of an area?
Do you want/need to get old in this new place?
Will you be keeping horses at home or boarding them?
I have lived in a few places on both coasts in large- and small horse markets so I can speak to this a bit. I can’t tell you jack about places like Colorado or Ohio, but again, as someone who has moved around a bit with horses, my mind would not be closed to those places. One thing you can do is know yourself really well.
Lexington, KY.
New horsey activities can be found almost weekly, I never seem to get bored. All within about a 45 minute drive. Price of living is reasonable, most services for equines are easy to find. I’ve lived all over and absolutely love it, I can ride year round. Aiken is awesome for fall/winter but I find it way too hot and buggy after late April.
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I realize I gave little to no info mostly to see what others would reply. But in getting down to the nitty gritty:
I grew up in South Florida, so I’m used to a built up area, but not necessarily high rises. I officially hate the heat though. I’m currently in NC and its not too bad. I’m an ICU nurse so I need to be able to afford both living and board/training on a less than forgiving budget unfortunately. I’m a HJ whose used to high end trainers which has been the pit falls of NC for me. I would love to find a really good riding younger trainer whose in the know with some higher end trainers but I understand that is tough to find. I also really miss having a real barn family. I don’t mind snow as long as there in an indoor lol. I’d love to be somewhere more liberal as well, but it doesn’t necessarily need to be my final settling place. It’s just me, the pony and the cats so it’s a good time for me to move around a bit to find the right place I want to settle.
For the OP I’d have to say Maryland or Northern VA, maybe Richmond area. While traffic can be problematic here, there is also a pretty healthy horse community. For a nurse, there are several hospitals within 20-30 minutes to some decent upper level barns. Montgomery County, MD has 6 hospitals, 1 free standing emergency center which would be withing 20-40 minutes of a good show barn. I work at 1 hospital is 15 minutes from home, which is on my way to barn which is 15-20 mins from my house (or if I went straight from work - 30-40 minutes when school’s in. I’m 45 to 1 hour to DC or Old Town Alexandria.
Howard County, MD is another option, as is Baltimore area - which is quite horsey. We are lucky as we have several good show facilities not too terribly far away. Many trainers will go to Florida, Tryon and up North seasonally when not dealing with pandemics.
Northern Virginia - Reston/Herndon or Leesburg pretty good too. There are several hospitals out there as well as some very good barns. Both areas also have hunt/steeplechases, fox hunting, polo (especially Middleburg area ) so there’s a lot of good equine stuff going on besides the H/J world. And plenty of vineyards. I must say sometimes a weekend ride ending with wine and cheese at one of the vineyards is pretty darn civilized. LOL
Weather can be somewhat unpredictable, we can have a winter with several heavy snows or barely any snow at all, sometimes very cold, or temps that make you wonder why people left for Florida due to mild weather.
There are actually tack stores you can walk into that have things, and plenty of good vets that come to your barn, close to 2 good veterinary schools.
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I always dream about Lexington area, Virginia or the Carolinas.
If I could afford two houses I’d do the NE (maybe Vermont or NY) in the summers and the SE in the winters.
But here I am, in the middle of Missouri. Where it is hot and buggy in the summer and cold and wet or frozen in the winter. And I’m about an hour from a good equine vet. But cost of living is super cheap, so there is that I guess.
This is fun. Definitely Switzerland
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Of those mid-Atlantic areas: What’s the price of, say, a 7 acre hobby farm? Can you find a place that has trails coming off of that? Average price of board? Average rent for, say, a 1 bedroom apartment?
I’m always curious as to “what counts” as inexpensive/affordable but Very Good Horsing. For some places, you can have, say, that farm for $300K. In others, don’t come unless you have $1.5M.
I love it here in Lexington. The summers seemed to have cooled down so much for whatever reason. July had many non humid days in the 70’s and the last two days have been very cool through the morning. Lexington has a fun downtown, amazing restaurants, 1 hr to Cincinnati or Louisville, beautiful scenery. Wonderful grass. I have also lived in Ocala and I loved the huge oak trees and horsey atmosphere, except at the time at least the city was just chain restaurants and hotels and it was SO hot and humid in the summer. Hay was super expensive and fields did not support the horses without supplemental hay.
Southern Pines, NC is gorgeous and very horsey. The forest trails are amazing. I used to want one of the house/barn combo places so badly!
I have also lived in Colorado. A lot of snow in the winter and hot dry summers, but beautiful. I drove an hour from Boulder to Parker everyday and not sure would be doable anymore as I heard traffic is worse so I would probably live somewhere like Castle Rock or Parker if I moved back. Parker is the horsiest area, but it’s still not like Ocala or Lexington (maybe that has changed.) Very few of my friends growing up rode or knew anything about horses.
I think Virginia is so lush and gorgeous and and so much to do with horses. A county like Goochland that is convenient to Richmond or of course Middleburg.
The Scarsdale area of NY and upstate around Saratoga are beautiful. Scarsdale ultra expensive.
Never been to Aiken, but everyone seems to love it besides the summer heat.
I’m in Maryland - Montgomery County so I’d say for this area board starts around $650 and then up depending on the facility and what the trainer’s program is, there are some field board options. For a “show barn” plan around $1200+ for barn with indoor, training/pro rides. There’s a couple of listngs for 20-25 arcre farmettes which are about $800K - $1.5M - the higher price ones have really nice houses.
As far as renting- 1 bedroom apartments say in downtown Bethesda start around $1800, further out in Rockville/Gaithersburg area (closer to barns) 1 bedrooms start around $1400. A lot depends on location - close to metro/subway increases the price and the closer you get to DC the housing prices increase. There are some Work/Live/Play areas near me - Kentlands and “Crown” which are quite popular and offer a lot in terms of amenities and walk to restaurants, a few shops and this area is very heavy biotech industry.
That’s a snapshot of the area near where I live, work and ride. Hope it’s helpful.
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How horsey is it these days? I left the general area quite a while back, but even then horses were getting squeezed out. (I thought Katonah-ish is where it’s at but I’m not really in the loop anymore.)
I was going to suggest England when I saw the original post. Cotswolds, Durham, Dorset… lots of really horsey areas.
:lol:
As long as we’re dreaming: The Netherlands
Great horses, (I assume) great trainers, the barns - called Menage - are lovely, as is the countryside.
Roadways so clean you could literally eat off them - people will stop their cars to remove any trash they see on the roadside.
During my 10-day stay, I saw none.
You need a Metro Fix? Amsterdam!
1 hour drive & you are back in the country.
And the food… OhEmGee! The Dutch know how to eat!
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