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Well, I don’t know where you live now or how you choose your residence or how you go about finding vets and farriers, but your experience is … Umm… Pretty unique I think.
Having lived in a lot of places I can tell you that the summers are not much different than summers in NY or CT or PA or TN or KS. Summer is hot and humid for a large portion of the U.S. The spring, fall and winter riding is what makes the Columbia/Camden/Aiken area so wonderful. There is a LOT going on, why else would so many pros come down here for the winter? So many services, good vets, good farriers, good supply stores. I’ve lived in a backwater of the horse world, and this ain’t it, believe me.
As to crime? Of course there’s crime. Point me to a major metro area with a big University that doesn’t have crime…? Just because some place is low income doesn’t mean you’re going to be murdered in your bed, and the rural south is a gun culture, they are part of many people’s daily dress, like a hat or a purse. I’m not a gun fan, but it came with the territory.
I live in Gaston, about 20 mi South of Columbia and maybe an hour from Aiken & 45 from Camden. I LOVE it here. I live in the middle of farms and there’s lots of “cheap” housing around. Yes, meth is a problem in the area, but it was in the much more affluent area of Chattanooga that we moved from. I don’t care.
I love my 13 flat and sandy acres. I love having good things available if I want them, plus the peace of rural living. I love that I’ve got vets and farriers and feed stores and tack stores and a plethora of horsey things to do and horsey people to do them with. I love the good restaurants, the non-horsey fun stuff that’s around, and the fact that I can be in the mountains or at the beach in under 2 hours if I want a change of scene. I love that I can show all winter if I want to, or just give back to my sport with some volunteering. And it tickles me no end when a multiple-times Olympian is chatting with me at the in gate, cracking jokes and waiting for their turn in the ring.
I absolutely do not regret this move at all.
Oh, and the cold wnters? You either struck a bad winter, or you’re from someplace really warm. We get a couple of weeks of really cold nights and some really cold days, but that’s interspersed with days warm enough for me to open windows and pad around barefoot outside. not exactly harsh conditions!Really cold is maybe in the teens, too, not sub zero. Nights in the 20s and days in the 30s are usually it for bitter midwinter.[/QUOTE]
I’ll listen to my cop buddies who actually knows what goes on in all the areas, instead of a dream world. I was told that there wasn’t anywhere good to live in actual Columbia. I have no idea about the suburbs, as I was a little too far away. But it is a fair warning for the OP to actually look at crime rates before moving to an area, as everyone should. I was upstate South Carolina, but looked into the good hour commute into Columbia for a job that actually paid decent.
And the pony and I are used to a no humidity climate but it does get cold and we regularly get snow. It must be the no humidity thing, but the winters are worse the way the cold soaks into you. The way that people react to snow on the other hand is rediculous.
I heard Aiken and tryon were good horse scenes but that’s just about it, and both were too far too commute that way.
Camden was way too far for a vet or farrier to come to me, but the vet I did use (for anything serious or lameness issues) was Tryon, and they were fantastic.
I guess it just wasn’t our cup of tea, but we got our of there as soon as possible for the reasons mentioned.
I have been set to the task of finding the following:
