Where would you choose for the best hunter scene? Bonus points closer to the ebaxh
I don’t know what a ebaxh is… but you really got 4 options. I shall rate them in my favorite to least favorite
Tryon: excellent weather, great showing opportunities. Close to a major city and airport. Some snow in the winter though.
Aiken: good weather fall/winter/spring. Some really excellent shows at high fields, Bruce’s field, and stable view. TEIC is only 2.5 hours away. Atlanta is only 2.5 hours away.
Raleigh: rated shows throughout the summer. One of the indoor shows is held at the fairgrounds there. Lots of local shows. Pretty low cost of living considering you are right next to Raleigh and Greensboro. Good if you are concerned about being in an area that is too ‘red’
Southern Pines: beautiful horse community but very few showing opportunities. Shows 2x a year at the horse park, about 40 minutes away. For most shows you have to drive up to Raleigh or the 3 hours to TEIC.
Honorable mentions to the area around Savannah, GA (not in the Carolinas but pretty close) Charleston, SC, and Camden, SC.
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Just want to note that the cost of living around Raleigh has exploded in the past year. Our house has appreciated over 100k this year and the constant streaming of incoming businesses has kept the market hot. I’m worried about the future of boarding/land availability, but it’s super convenient to both A and C shows and the vet school.
The Carolina horse park is a lovely venue that has taken over what used to be the Greensboro shows. There’s 10+ C shows there this year. The Walthour-Moss foundation is another huge selling point for SoPines. We trailer down on weekends but bring able to hack over must be amazing!
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I’m glad to hear about them moving more shows the the horse park! When I left the area southern pines was kind of in its horsey death throes… so I’m happy to hear they are trying to revive it.
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I’m in the Savannah/Hilton Head area. It’s beautiful and there are several nice barns. No rated shows locally but Aiken, Camden, Charleston, Tryon, Ocala, and Atlanta are all a reasonable drive and there’s a decent local hunter circuit. Cost of living east of 95 is pretty high but west of 95 is still quite reasonable.
If my only consideration were horses I’d move to Aiken. It’s about 2.5 hours to the beaches of Charleston and Hilton Head
What major city and airport? It’s over an hour to Charlotte. The thing I like least about Tryon is it’s middle-of-nowhere-ness. But the small surrounding towns are very cute.
I believe nearby Hendersonville has an airport, but I wouldn’t call it big. I think you’d need to connect somewhere if you wanted to go across the country.
OP, I live in Aiken and I checked out Southern Pines and Tryon (and then, briefly, the Shenandoah Valley) about three years back before choosing Aiken.
Two points I’d add:
I see more and more H/J pros moving to Aiken since I arrived. There are also some folks here who are “imported”-- meaning that they lived and work for some BNTs elsewhere before choosing the quieter, more anonymous life here. It’s lovely (as well as relatively inexpensive) to be able to show and sleep in your own bed at night without sacrificing quality footing and show grounds. I don’t know if WEF-quality competition is here, so if you need to win at that level to be happy, you’ll need to make the 9 hour drive down there (or up there to northeast shows) to do that.
Also, some of where you want to live will depend on how much land and farm you need and how much you can/want to pay for that. Also, do you want to be able to find a place where you can hack off your property?
Real estate everywhere is on fire and some of your decisions might be sorted out by your ability to pay for a farm. Can you afford $1-2M? If so, a Farm in Tryon that’s on one of the trail systems can work. The days of the $500K farm in Aiken are, I think, over. I don’t think you need to spend $1M+ to get in here, but bring more than $700K if you want enough land to ride on yourself or if you want to get into a development with a smaller farm, but with rings and trails. Southern Pines is a bit like Tryon. The Walthour-Moss Foundation (open riding space and trails, also where they drag hunt) has created a center for horse farm real estate. Living within hacking distance of that will jack up prices to the $1M or more. If you don’t mind trailering there, farms even a short distance away are cheaper. But in all these markets, there’s not a lot for sale right now.
With all of these places, be sure to do a deep dive into internet access during your Due Diligence phase. That might not be true for the Raleigh area, but topography and/or technological backwardness (or both together) work to make speedy, reliable internet access from farms a real question.
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Charlotte. To me an hour and a half is close 
however that’s based off of me living in Aiken where you had to drive to Charlotte or Atlanta to get a decent flight anywhere. I lived in southern pines and that was a hour to an hour 20 to the airport too. Maybe my idea of close is off
I agree. I fell off in front of a Hunter BNT who I swear has an article about winning something every week in COTH.
It was pretty embarrassing. The walk of shame out of that arena was real
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I guess you win, then.
I hope you find the right place for you. Aiken is a quiet Southern town.
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