I’d be thrilled to move to the UK if I could find such a place.
One person’s heaven is another person’s hell.
It is all of the UK. Well, except the extreme north and west of Scotland that is very remote and does have revolting bugs in the summer. On the other hand, much of Scotland is amazingly beautiful.
Does being close to rivers count almost as much as being near the coast? Eastern Washington would work for that, too. Part of Oregon. Oregon is the grass-seed capital of the world, so while I couldn’t live there (allergies), there is plenty of grass hay made. Central valley has flat land, hills, and the coast can be lovely.
I’m near Salinas, California, which would check some of your boxes, except maybe the horse property for half a mill. Salinas isn’t “city California” in that respect, but it’s still more expensive than that. Lots of good riding (hills and coast) down there and if you get on the coastal side, your summers are less hot.
I’m quite sure that excellent pasture is probably lacking in central London.
Pretty much. I was able to ride way more often with no indoor in NC vs my WV location.
Honestly my horsey heaven area is outside of RTP in NC. Just ride in the mornings during summer. The winters are so mild, and I don’t mind humidity.
London is a very green city: some 18% is green open space. Except for the several hundred horses in Westminster and The City, there are many yards in London that actually do have pasture turn out, often in surprising places e.g. Mudchute Farm, 32 acres on The Isle of Dogs, East London. www.mudchute.org
The only part of Arizona that would suit you is probably somewhere outside the greater Phoenix area. To avoid godawful heat, you’d have to look around Wickenburg (very horse friendly). There are shows in Phoenix and Scottsdale regularly and good vet hospitals.
Prescott and Flagstaff (my neck of the woods), lack easy access to big surgical vet clinics, a major city or a regular show series. And winters can be messy with snow, mud and ice. Dewey-Humboldt, Chino Valley and Camp Verde are all nearby and very horse-friendly, and winters are a little more predictable, but are missing the same amenities as Prescott and Flag.
I’d suggest looking in the hinterlands of Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego counties in California. Not the go-to, popular areas, but further out. You’d be close enough to a major city and good vet services, have moderate temps, a day trip to the ocean, lots of shows of all disciplines and acreage for horse property.
Yes. This has been confirmed in all the many discussions here about the “perfect” place to live. I have lived in places that I thought were awful and places that I thought were great and inevitably someone here will have the complete opposite opinion.
Reading your link, they’ve closed the stables because they were too expensive and not profitable.
That is a great pity. There was a thriving lesson programme a few years ago for the local kids. As a City Farm it is heavily dependent on it’s volunteers so interests wax and wane. It was slightly surreal seeing grazing animals with a backdrop of the Canary Wharf towers.
We are in the middle of Fort Worth and Dallas and can see the high rises of both downtowns (also Arlington where the big football stadium also within eyesight). Less than a mile away are two shopping complexes.
But here we are in the middle of all this with our three soon to be four again horses, three miniature horses , five goats (two headed to Hollywood this week, leave tomorrow), two dogs, and of course two cats.
When people who have never been here first arrive they just look around not believing what they see. We are not a huge operation but to find a place of acreage setting in the middle of other lots of undeveloped acreage in the middle of a few million people is not what they expect.
As for keeping horses here, summers can be hot but for the most part every one survives without a problem. We did have one horse who was allergic to flies, his stall was enclosed with a mesh to keep the flies out and he wore a flysheet when turned out daily. We did air condition his stall for his comfort.
Otherwise it all that is needed is to provide shade and turn on their fans.
There are several areas in DFW that have very high concentrations of horses that might fit many of OPs requirements, they could look at the areas north of Lake Lewisville, also along US377 Aubrey to Whitesboro (mainly closer to Aubrey for Hunters, north is a lot of QH activities) or over east by Rockwall. West of Ft Worth there are a large numbers of horses but mostly QH.
When we brought in our old line Morgans most here assumed they were King Ranch Quarterhorses… sort of correct as before the QH Registry started in the early 1940s the King Ranch had one of the largest herds of Morgan in the country with many going into the QH (many of the Morgans used by Hearst to start the Morabs in California came from the King Ranch)
Vet support is pretty good, we have not had any problems getting large animal vets here if needed. Since we are sort of in the middle of all this mess they crisis cross through there daily.
Feed/hay stores are plentiful and competitive.
As for the comments regarding the west coast, I was working for a major company who bought a Chatsworth, CA company they wanted me to move there. But after reviewing the challenges of moving my family there it was decided that I would commute to Los Angeles which I did for about eight years. I just flew out on Sunday and returned on Thursday night, did this usually two to three times a month (I had other corporate obligations at the same time covering our plant in Nogales, MX where I was also required.) That part was just a job managing others and keeping track of raw materials and finished goods as I knew what/where and how most parts were, they could show me a part then I could recall its part numbers (previous and current)
Real estate prices have skyrocketed in the Greater Sacramento area in the past few years. Most horse properties - at least, ones that don’t need a massive overhaul - within an hour of Sacramento will be selling for $700k+. A realistic budget for a nice little farmette, at least one with an outdoor arena, is closer to $900k. The harder part is that a lot of those properties are in fire-prone areas where you’re going to need to pay a handsome sum for fire insurance, at least if you’re planning to buy via mortgage vs. in cash. If you go closer to 90 minutes outside of Sacramento, there are more options, but you’re likely heading further north or east, and might be even further from the coast.
That being said, I really enjoy the area and if you’re willing to drive a bit, there are lots of options. The turnout situation isn’t as good as I thought it would be considering it’s the Central Valley, at least among the show barns, but there are a few barns a little further out w/ more space. The weather isn’t bad - hot during the summer, but it’s a dry heat. Another thing to keep in mind is the smoke from wildfires can get bad along the west coast, and sometimes that means weeks on end where the horses only get handwalked because the air quality is so poor.
I think Oregon might be a good choice for OP as well. It does rain a bit, but it doesn’t get much snow, and most decent boarding facilities will have indoors. There are also less expensive housing/horse property options within an hour-ish of either Portland, Wilsonville, or Eugene.