So my husband retires from the military soon and I’ve been looking albeit lazily at us moving roots from the middle of nowhere Northern NY (think Ottawa without the healthcare). Weirdly I’ve been asked for three interviews. 2 in Nashville and 1 in Philly, within 24 hours of each other!
So obviously a horse forum isn’t going to make decisions for me; but if you were looking at a move strictly from a horse life where would you move??
I have a TB mare who’s strictly dressage and a driving mini. An area that offers plenty of turnout and good access to shows is a must.
I’d go to Nashville in a heartbeat before Philly. Nashville has some of the best food and people! Such a fun city. When I retire, or my kids move out, I’m moving to Nashville.
If shows are very important I would venture to guess Philadelphia is a better choice since you’ll be close to a lot of the east coast shows (PA, VA, NJ)
I live in Chester county and commuted to Philly for many years on regional rail. They were long trips in but totally worth it. I am in eventing mecca but dressage is not too far behind. Two venues that offer day shows several times a year within 30 mins, and of course Dressage at Devon which is going on now.
That being said, I’m from TN, and the weather is certainly nicer there, and the cost of living much lower. For me it would be tough to move back, though. Especially once you get out into the rural areas the people are for the large part, well, let’s just say not very progressive. (And this is my family I’m talking about lol!) If that’s something that would bother you.
TN has no income tax and low property tax. PA has income tax AND a property tax that is thru the roof (school tax).
Some states cap the amount that a property tax can increase per year…not so in PA. And not good if you are on a fixed income in retirement. Locally, retirees are selling because after county-wide re-assesments, the real estate taxes are pricing them out of the homes they’ve owned for +50 years.
Weather is better in TN. All the morning news start out with the number of murders that took place the night before in Philly.
Born and raised in Chester County about an hour from Philly.
Spent 11 years from my mid-20s through my mid-30s in Nashville.
Moved back east to Maryland this past summer, just an hour south of where I grew up.
I love Nashville, but boy is it good to be “home.” I’m glad for the time I spent there and everything, but… horses.
The Nashville equestrian scene is mediocre at best. SE PA has one of the best equestrian scenes in the world. If anyone tells you differently, it’s because they haven’t lived in the mid-Atlantic horse Mecca.
Moving to the eastern shore of Md, my cost of living and horse expenses have actually gone DOWN from Tennessee. Ruminate on that for a moment. Nashville is an “it” location right now and prices have inflated unsustainably. Land is a little more expensive here, taxes are a bit higher, but sales tax and commodities are cheaper so everything cancels out. And competition drives the price of the horse scene WAY down.
I wouldn’t mind keeping the TN weather, though. Dreading winter at the moment.
So interesting thank you! My biggest worry is housing cost in philly and commute times. I figured the horse seen was better as I’ve actually heard of Bicks County. Winters are most definitely not worse than where I currently live and I hate hot weather…
Nashville has 4 seasons, but if you hate hot weather, you’re definitely going to be miserable from May through September, and probably April and October as well.
Middle Tennessee is some of the best horse country in terms of climate and land IMO, but the horse services don’t reflect that. The horse community is made up a lot of old money and new money with little of what I call the “middle class horse scene.” There is a notable lack of trainers and boarding options given the size of the region. The good ones are very expensive with waiting lists, because they have little competition (“big fish” in “small ponds”). There is still this elitist treatment of all English disciplines.
The Central Tennessee Dressage Association is wonderful, but they are the only gig in town hosting dressage shows. They offer a mix of schooling and recognized shows spring through fall all over the southern part of the region. A relatively new phenomenon is that everyone “snowbirds” in central Florida over the winter months-- even trainers and riders who aren’t even particularly competitive. People will talk about how “convenient” middle TN is to Florida, but no one was ever able to convince me that 10 hours with a trailer is “convenient.”
Would you be working within Philly proper if you explored that route? That does make commute and housing more expensive. Philly is the kind of place that is rough around the edges, but has a lot more going on culturally once you scratch the surface. Nashville is almost the exact opposite, with a lot of glitz and glam at the forefront, but not a lot of depth once you dig deeper. Winters in Philly are not bad compared to other places in the northeast or midwest, but they are colder and grayer than Nashville. But the wonderful thing about that part of PA is you can throw a rock any direction and hit horse activity.
What makes the commute into Philly bearable is the extensive regional rail system. Not cheap but worth it. Especially if you can work on the train (and they have a quiet car now!). I like Philly; I don’t think it is any more dangerous than any big city. I have friends that live in South Philly and it si so cool there!
I mentioned the recognized shows earlier, but the number of schooling shows around is very impressive. It’s rare from Spring-Fall that there is a weekend without a schooling show scheduled with about a 45 min radius. And a winter series as well. There are two GMOs, DVCTA and OVCTA. I am a member of the latter, even though their “base” is in northern CC, since they offer more for eventers.
Bucks county is also good, but not quite as horsey as Chester county.
For non-horse Nashville is tough because i’m pretty much a big bad liberal.
I guess one of the things I Really didn’t want was an hour long commute to work. I’d work right in downtown Philly at a hospital and would need to take the train in. Having to spend 350k on a house that’s actually just a townhouse makes me cringe a bit.
But Philly is central to so much! And the schools are much much better. Boy the decisions are really hard.
If you were going to live in Philly where would you board? Don’t need fancy, need safe and either access to good instruction or they allow someone to come in. And to make things more difficult they need to take my mini too.
Nashville itself is very liberal, having a high percentage of non-Tennesseans who tend to work in education, health care, or the arts.
BUT… the surrounding communities are the polar opposite. It creates a lot of tension. That political and societal tension was part of the reason my husband and I wanted to come back east. We also did not feel the tension as badly when we lived in the city itself vs. when we lived on a farm in a small town outside the city.
Real estate prices in desirable areas of Nashville are not much different than Philly at the moment. AND, Philly’s housing market is stable, while Nashville’s is in an inflated bubble market that will likely come back down to a more sustainable level.
Traffic logistics in Nashville are becoming a real problem, as the city has almost no mass transit. The catawampus interstate system wasn’t quite ready for the influx of people and it has caused a lot of growing pains.
There are good and bad schools everywhere. It’s all location, location, location. I’m a high school teacher who grew up in the suburban Philly school system, then taught all over middle TN. In the cities themselves, you will find a lot of issues with the public schools in both locations. The suburbs will generally have the best public schools either place. PA’s school system tends to be better than TN’s collectively, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t good schools in TN.
But if horse activity is a serious motivating factor, you cannot beat Philly. Where you board will end up on where you find housing, but I don’t think you’ll have a problem meeting your needs. The boarding market is a veritable buffet compared to Nashville.
(Just emphasizing again, I love Nashville. If I hadn’t been horse-spoiled growing up in Philly, I may have never left.)
Working in downtown Philadelphia, if I had an unlimited budget, I would live in Malvern (express trains from Paoli at rush hours would bring commute to well under 1 hour) and board somewhere thereabouts in Chester County - dressage and eventing are stronger there than Bucks County (IMHO). Board in Radnor/Malvern area will be close to $1k a month minimum, so if a 350k house is making you cringe, you’d probably want to board farther out into the countryside. I worked downtown for 15 years so I’m used to the long drive to the barn after a 45 minute commute (6 miles within the city limits - that’s public transit and traffic for ya). I believe there are some really nice barns farther out in Chester County for less - and decent field boarding options as well. I just don’t know them because they are all too far for me
Currently I have GREAT schools, good house prices (but taxes make up a bulk of my mortgage I have a beautiful renovated 1895 victorian (2500 sq ft) for $135k BUT taxes are almost 6k a year.
Jobs are non existent. I have a good one, but there’s not a lot of upward mobility and if we want to move I’d like to do it before my oldest is in HS (next year)
There is NO horse market. I have a nice low level eventing barn, but I either have to go to Canada to show OR travel 4.5 hours anywhere in the US.
So nashville is actually better than where I am now. I’d be willing to travel to Alpharetta too for shows.
All of you have listed so well the issues I have! I really need a fairy to come down and go THIS is the right choice. The one plus for Nashville is I’ll then have three VERY good friends within 2.5 hours of me.
Friends are great! But, as a horse person, when you can’t find a good farrier, or vet, or trainer, or shows with good attendance and judges… I’d rather talk to my friends long distance!
I love Nashville. It’s a fun city with a lot more going for it than it looks on the surface. If you’re a dressage/eventing person, finding a barn shouldn’t be as big a challenge as other posters here have claimed, as long as you make a decent income. I never had a problem locating excellent hoof and veterinary care, although feed stores are in shorter supply than you’d expect. Housing can be trickier, especially if you are concerned about finding a great school system. The best public schools in the area are in Williamson County (Franklin/Brentwood), but the cost of real estate in that area is astronomical. Nashville and most of its more upscale suburbs are fairly progressive. Out in the rural areas, not so much…
The one HUGE con for me, as someone who used to work in Nashville, is the TRAFFIC. It is truly, truly, truly AWFUL, especially on the Williamson County and Rutherford County (Murfreesboro) sides of town. I worked on the south side of Nashville, not downtown, and lived 30-ish miles south of my office. My commute time was theoretically only 30-40 minutes, but in reality it often took me 2+ hours each way. I am not built to handle long commutes, especially in stop-and-go traffic. It was maddening, especially because the traffic rarely involves an accident or anything like that. The problem is that Nashville has severely outgrown its infrastructure, and three of the four major interstates in TN all converge smack in the middle of downtown, so there is significant non-commuter traffic mixed in. If people in the area could just learn that “merge” doesn’t mean “fly to the top of the on ramp/end of the lane you’ve known was ending for over a mile and then slam to a halt when a clear spot isn’t immediately apparent”…but I digress…
If you can stand the traffic, Nashville’s a fun town. And the weather is much more tolerable than PA.
I in no way have a job offer from anywhere. But after a LOT of research, I"m really hoping the Philly job pans out. I"m looking at Paoli, for an area to live.
So next is the search for a barn that will take both horses; 9yo TB mare (who this past year has tried to kill herself a few times) and a 4yo mni mare, who is a sweetheart, but is an escape artist so I had to run another line of electric (which luckily she respects).
TB can live out maybe, but considering the last year a stall will need to be available for when she makes poor decisions. Mini can live out but will have to have a muzzle if the grass is decent. I can trailer to a lesson, so just good safe care is mandatory. Oh and the ability to store my trailer at the barn.
