Moving north for the summer with horses

I’m thinking of moving north for the summer with the horses. The question is where should I go? I was watching the weather channel and almost everyone is having a hard time with the extreme heat. Is moving north really that much better than hot muggy Florida?

Is it going to be difficult to find a rental property that allows horses? I have a herd of 4.

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I can only tell you about my experience looking for horse people to rent my 2B 2Ba, w/ attached garage, two-three stall barn with a big loft, and 15-ish acres of field, seven or so fenced. I would put up a run-in if it meant getting solid horse-owning tenants.

Since I left Maine in the fall of 2015, I’ve had five tenants.

Two horse households – one needed a spot after they sold their house while they built their own barn; one moved back to Cape Cod; one alpaca farmer couple – had to send them packing because they were illegally AirBnB-ing & HipCamp-ing my property; one organic farmer family who found their own place nearby.

My current tenants are not horse-y. They’re building a home and leaving soon, so I am in mid-debate whether to look harder for people who would use the barn etc., move back myself, or rent to normies :slight_smile: again.

Long story short, anyone like me who wants to rent their horse property would generally like to have their facilities used, so mowing, maintenance, etc. at least get observed if not accomplished. That almost certainly means a year-round rental. I’ve found that people who can afford to shift their operations seasonally also can afford to buy a summer place of their own.

That said, lots of boarding barns in New England lose clients in the summer because a portion of their boarders have horse facilities, but aren’t mad crazy about tending after horses in the winter. You might find reasonable shorter-term boarding situations in a cooler clime and be able to pick from lots of options in the human summer rental department.

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North Dakota is fairly cool now, just checked the area of the ranch we have bought several horses from…today the High is 69F Low tonight 52F currently at 1PM it is 65F (the record Low was 42F)

Here is it is just 98F with a projected high of 100F

My experience living Up North ( MN) is that it is cooler but the bugs are no better and we had gnats, mosquitos and other microscopic flying things that tormented the horses that I don’t have here.

All the same flies but just not as long of a life cycle.

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You might consider the UP of Michigan --currently 58 degrees and sunny in Skanee, MI --population of about 4 I think. Lots of vacant land --and endless, endless trails. Not too many people, though. Put up a fence, lay down a slab and pull you LQ horse trailer up from FL. Pleasant place for the summer. Not so much in the winter. My great uncle’s house is still standing in Skanee . . .

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I’m in the NC mountains, so not really that much farther north, but the increased elevation helps. While it may be hot and miserable during the day, the humidity is usually lower than in Florida and it cools off at night. If you ride in the morning or around dusk, it’s usually pretty pleasant. Don’t come down out of the mountains, though. :slight_smile:

Today is really hot (for here). It’s currently 90 degrees. But, humidity is only 36% and tonight’s forecast low is 66.

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soooooo, you will have to go west pretty far if you’re looking to get away from humidity…

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Exactly. Also, more concise.

Yup. West of the Mississippi at minimum, though Ontario and Quebec both have lots of excellent summer riding days.

Traverse City is slowly becoming the Wellington of the North, they’ve begun construction on a Grand Prix Village across from the show.

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We always said if we hit a big Powerball or megamillions that we’d have a place in Vermont for the summer, Virginia for the spring and fall, and SC for the winter.

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