This last polar vortex has got me dreaming :lol:
What’s the Santa Barbara/ Santa Maria area like to live? I only saw it in the winter and it was about 60 degrees and GREEN. Lots of grass. I assume that isn’t the way in the summer, no?
Property cost is actually decent if I’m up in the mountains. What’s hay costs like? Horse shows? Cost of living? Will the police come and arrest me if I water my pasture?
Santa Barbara and surrounding areas are extremely expensive to live in and or buy property to keep horses. The cost of board and training is very expensive. Especially for H/J. Most shows that are rated and well attended are at LAEC, Hanson Dam or Paso Robles and north. The reason the properties in the mountains are cheaper is because most of those properties burned in the Thomas Fire or are so remote that it will be difficult to get in and out in a disaster. And there are plenty. As far as water goes, there is none. There is a rate hike during the summer months and most barns that you board at will only allow a sponge bath or you get fined. Santa Ynez valley is insanely expensive and the water situation worse. The further north you go towards Paso Robles land gets cheaper, but be aware of water rights. They may say that they have a well on the property, but you can’t get a permit to build, etc. It’s best to buy with a house already there.
All negativity aside. The area is beautiful. The traffic north of Santa Barbara is non-existent. A great place to live if you can afford it.
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Oh my. That sounds… not great.
Graduated from UCSB and spent years in SB as a professional hj trainer. It is a gorgeous place to live but you do pay for it. No there’s no grass in summer, nor is there a lot of turnout because of land costs; which is true across much of CA. This takes a lot of getting used to if you come from a land of sizeable paddocks and 4-8+ hours/day turnout.
But there is no better climate to ride in year round and it actually has quite of bit of equestrianism woven through it’s history. There’s horses in back yards + community trails & arenas in Hope Ranch, which is designated equestrian and hosts trails up mountains and down to the beach. More Mesa is lovely to ride across and easy to access. There are the old Vaquero traditions, Earl Warren show grounds, Fiesta Parade (one of the largest equestrian parades in the country) the SBCRC country show circuit, the hunt clubs… I assume at least, it’s now been 15 years since I left…
I also worked at a barn on the side of a mountain and a couple notes on that. Those approach roads can be quite hairy, especially with a trailer. The driveways tend to take it up a whole 'nother notch with their single lanes and perpetually eroded shoulders. When it does rain - which is not often but can be for 2+ weeks at a time - those steep jaunts that go up & down from barn to paddocks to rings can get real treacherous. Throw in a horse-kite of the sport type and it’s a real special Don’t Die experience.
Beyond that, I did not love that every time a horse came out of a stall (and remember, turnout on the side of a mountain is very limited) they had to go straight up or down a fairly steep hill. They weren’t long inclines, but there was just nowhere flat to walk the old one, the injured one, the stiff one etc. Like at all, and you never really realize how important that is till it’s not there.
Fire risk sadly must be considered as well; a good part of the lands I knew, hiked, had friends that lived on, and just generally enjoyed, have burned; and they were all in the mountains & foothills.
Still love it dearly but it’s an LA escape and priced accordingly. I’d consider a good look at the Paso Robles area though, there’s a brand new horse park there.
Santa Barbara is gorgeous. The challenge isn’t just the cost of the property but getting a job to pay for it… it’s notorious for a mismatch in salaries vs. housing costs. The Santa Ynez area is also excellent horse country. Santa Maria less so.
There’s also a strong horse community in San Luis Obispo/Paso Robles. Those areas aren’t so accessible to Los Angeles and so are a bit more economically rational.
There are lots of places in California that are functional and lovely for horses if you bring your own income. It kind of depends on what you need - for example if you need paying training clients vs. you’re selling babies vs your telecommute job.
In general, with any property in California, water rights and availability are the first questions to ask. If it doesn’t have a house on it, or if it’s not already irrigated, very possibly neither of those are possible.
My daughter is in her final year at UCSB. She has her horse with her and has been riding and showing H/J the past four years in SB. Sadly the SBCRC is slowly getting smaller and smaller, as a lot of county show circuits are. Earl Warren is still an active show ground but host a large variety of horse activities. Not much H/J shows. The National Santa Barbara Horse Show does come to town once a year and that’s fun. But for rated USEF USHJA shows you need to either travel to LAEC, Hansen Dam or Paso. For some reason the really nice H/J show series at the new Paso Robles park was cancelled in 2018. I hope they bring it back in 2019.
My husband and I have been looking for property in the area from north of Goleta all the way to Paso Robles. You can’t buy a shack for less than $500,000. And usually they are in a remote area with a questionable well/water situation. There is vacant land to buy. Some have producing wells on them, but the county or city they are in will not issue a building permit. Or if they do its a restricted permit.
Hands down the area is amazing and beautiful. The atmosphere and culture is fun and relaxed, but it does come with a hefty price. Our biggest motivation to move is to get out of the Southern California traffic and congestion. You can’t move down here anymore and it’s frustrating.
A few posters have said that you have to travel to LAEC or Hansen Dam for shows. There are indeed shows at these facilities, but they are more like county shows now. You have to go to Coachella (aka Thermal) or Blenheim in San Juan Capistrano if you want to go to a big horse show.
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I work in Paso and keep my horses in Los Osos (beach town just west of San Luis Obispo). It’s a struggle as COL is high, salaries are low and job market is tough for career roles. Santa Barbara is a little better in the job market and salaries, but the COL is also higher…so it tends to even out.
As for green? Ha! only for a few months in the winter. From about mid-May to mid-Nov/Dec, it’s brown, brown, brown. If you’re from the area, you come to appreciate the golden hills dotted with oak trees, but it can be pretty shocking if you are used to green.
Weather also runs the range. Coastal areas (SB, SLO, Arroyo Grande, Los Osos) are usually lovely with temps from 60-80 much of the year…colder the closer you are to the beach. Areas that are more inland can get really, really hot. Paso, Atascadero, Santa Maria, Los Alamos, Santa Ynez are 80 to 115 late spring through early fall. It’s a dry heat, though. :lol:
We do have more riding opportunities now than ever before. SBCRC is doing their best to revitalize. Earl Warren did have a plan to modernize, but I don’t know if that will ever happen. Too bad as some of my fondest memories are of the Turkey and Flower shows there.
We now have the Paso Horse Park which is a really nice facility that is continually improving. They really listen to competitors and try to make it a fun destination. As Amycree mentioned, they did have 4 weeks of West Palm “A” rated shows for a few years, but they were cancelled when certain players weren’t living up to their end of the contracts (or so the story goes around here). No worries, PHRP is now holding their own rated shows along with their lovely schooling shows. It is HOT as heck up here, but the shows focuse on spring and fall to try to avoid some of that…but you do have to grapple with wind. 
Housing costs are ridiculous here. $500k gets you a tiny fixer upper in SLO. You can get some land in the $700k range in outlying areas, but as others have mentioned, you have to be very careful about water/permits, etc. For instance, Los Osos, one of the more affordable areas, has some lots available for under $100k, except you can’t actually build on them. You’d be banking on the county actually finishing up the Water use plan that goes along with the new sewer…all of which has been in process for almost 20 years?
What we do have going for us over SB is most horse facilities at least have small turnouts available for some time to stretch legs. It’s not like having 4-12 hours out, but at least it’s something. Also, most stalls have some sort of run so your horse can at least move a bit…
I LOVE it here, but dang if it isn’t a compromise.
I have a friend who lives on more than 150 acres in the SB mountains. He loves it, but I couldn’t live with the many fires/evacuations he has gone through in the last 10-15 years. So far he has been untouched, but it requires a lot of work keeping a large cleared distance from his home and other buildings on the property in hopes that they don’t catch fire. He does not keep horses there.
Hi! I am born and raised in Santa Barbara and have relocated east. Just to emphasize the low salaries in Santa Barbara, in my hospital job, I make exactly the same dollar amount in Kentucky as I would make at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital. Which obviously the cost of living difference between Santa Barbara and Kentucky is astronomical. So when everyone says low wages, they mean looooooow wages.
I will ditto everything everyone said about the building permits. If land is cheap it is either not accessible, not buildable, likely to slip down a mountain, or has no water. If you can get a building permit, it will cost you an arm and a leg and months to get. My dad added a garage to his property and between the “environmental studies” they ordered and everything I think ballpark it cost him 25k before getting to break ground. I have another friend up in Nipomo where it is much much cheaper and more relaxed and it still took them something like 9 months if I recall correctly to get a building permit.
I grew up on 10 acres off the 154 in Santa Barbara and we were always worried about the house going up. You can clear your land, but since nothing is done about the forest service land around a lot of properties as far as chapparel clearing etc, your house is still at risk of going up during the fire storms.
There are amazing things about the area, but it isn’t what it was 20 years ago. They are also packing Goleta with high density condos, so don’t expect traffic to improve. Also look at state taxes. Great place to visit now, not a great place to live anymore unless you are made of money.
Oh my. Not great reviews here.
Is there a spot above LA but below San Francisco that you would recommend for someone wanting to move to for a more mild climate, grass at least part of the year, on a budget of under 1 mil? Or is this a fantasy location?
Well, maybe. How many acres do you need? What facilities do you expect? Do you need any kind of urban amenities at all or access to employment? Are you willing to consider north of San Francisco, or inland?
Templeton/Paso Robles area, you possibly could find something. You can also get that in Mendocino or Lake Counties (north of SF). Possibly some locations in the Central Valley would suit. The further north you go, the more winter rain there will be.
California is a big state with a lot of nice places to be. Because the weather is nice and the landscape mostly gorgeous, if it’s commutable to a major city it will be expensive. But a lot of the terrain is foldy and those commutes aren’t doable. Or they’re simply far. Those areas are more affordable if they don’t have major employment. On the downside, for the same reasons it can be tough to run a business or have an income in those areas too.
But for perspective, on the edges of the silicon valley area, $1mil buys you a starter tract home. Where I live, you can get a nice house with 20 acres of irrigated, flat land for that maybe. Or a crappy house with more land. 
Then you’d haul south to Sonoma county to show H/J.
You might also consider Oregon.
Or go south to Temecula or northern San Diego county. You’d be in horse show country.
You can find them ,but like poltroon said, you’ll give up something in the process.
Here is 2 acres in Paso Robles…not too far out that looks okay. I can’t tell if that is fenced with barbed wire or not…would need some work, for sure. https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale/Paso-Robles-CA/pmf,pf_pt/house,mobile,land_type/15406193_zpid/47021_rid/globalrelevanceex_sort/36.125119,-120.061341,35.190083,-121.537629_rect/9_zm/
Temecula is probably your best bet - nicer temps, old horse community and easy(ish) commute to A & AA shows (San Diego, LA, Coachella) and not too bad of a drive if you want to head east to Vegas and Scottsdale or north to Santa Barbara.
However - its still ugly, brown, dry, high cost of living, low pay and TONS of traffic.
As a mostly lifelong CA resident I would never recommend living here.
Check out Colorado (if you can live with the snow), New Mexico or Arizona.
I was raised in Santa Barbara back when it was much smaller and much more horsey. Fond memories of the SBCRC shows. I loved it and still have my parent’s home on Foothill Rd. where I kept my horse, but cannot afford to live in it, with the rent it can produce. I live in Colorado now, and it is usually pretty nice, $8-10/bale hay. Colorado Horse Park is a real plus, but single digit temps recently and my corrals currently covered in ice have me perennially wanting to move to Lexington, Ky. Less winter and green,green. .
I’m just north of SB in Syv and really like it here. Cost of living is comparable or even slightly less than where we lived before but there are fewer employment options. Things are more spread out and my horses are happier. Beyond the showing options already mentioned there are several different small schooling show options around as well as some eventing and dressage options. Plenty of training choices, clinics and places to haul out to as well.
Our place isn’t irrigated so the rain dictates how much and how long the grass lasts but we generally have green grass from December to April. There are places with acreage to be found under 1mil but it takes some looking and they likely will need at least a bit of work. We looked for years and got lucky to find a really good deal but it was basically the worst place in a great area and needed work. If you look out towards Lompoc or a bit further north toward Santa Maria on up to Paso, you’ll find your money goes a bit further but still have nice weather and accessibility to shows and such.
