If one were to purchase a summer event facility in one of these three states, what are the best for access to USEA and local events and reasonably affordable?
asking for a friend. 
I would suggest checking out the Area 1 website: http://www.area1usea.org/ Clinics, competitions and instructors have listings. Might help you narrow down which locale best meets your interests. Then you can check out property prices. Be sure you have someone around who is CPR qualified! Good luck and come join us here in New England. We have lots of fun and there are many great people.
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Most centrally accessibile to events will violate the āaffordableā need. Best central access is in the greater Boston area. Slightly further but still reasonable and more affordable, Iād look in the Rochester, NH area.
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The Area 1 meeting is held in western MA / Holyoke area as it is considered the mid-point of the area but thats not in any of the states mentioned. If you are looking central to ME, NH and VT, I would guess the Concord, NH area. There currently isnāt a USEA event in that area and Im guessing could definitely support one!.
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Actually a location that is convenient to USEA events is preferred and would consider other states, such as upstate NY and MA. Cool weather is the draw.
For cool weather you want Vermont or Northeast Maine. Anything near Boston will still be quite warm in July & August. Look at GMHA and Hitching Post as starting points.
Southern Vermont (Rt 89- exits 1-3) have access to three USEA events (GMHA (3 events), Hitchingpost (2 events) and Huntington (2 events) plus numerous schooling shows.
Eastern NH has a good horse scene and one USEA event at UNH and many schooling events. Southern NH has a good horse scene but it 1-3 hours away from most events but near to many schooling events.
Youād probably want to stick to southern Maine if you want to go to sanctioned events. There are no longer any in Maine.
Mid/North Western Mass has access to grindstone, coursebrook, and stoneleight burnham events. If youāre towards the berkshires, youāll be fairly close to the NY/CT events of townhill, kent, riga, fitches and Millbrook.
Eastern mass youāll be near Coursebrook, Groton House and Valinor.
Not much in New England is reasonably affordable!
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Yes, I can attest that Concord is pretty central - I can get to the VT events listed above in 90 minutes, the UNH horse trials in 45, and the eastern MA ones in 90 minutes. The Millbrook area of NY is 5 hours, and western NY is 7 hours but all highway/easy driving.
Also, Boston, the White mountains and the beach are all an hour away.
When you say event facility do you mean a place to host competitions? Or train for them?
Oh, gosh, the seacoast NH for sure. Close (hour-ish) to South Hamilton MA; 2 hrs to Woodstock VT; 4 hrs to Millbrook NY and property values are reasonable. At least for now.
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Is the Vershire School property still for sale? Seems to check a lot of the OPās boxes.
Wow, it sounds like NH is way up there in the ratings! I am considering buy a smallish (20 acres), with home, barn, arena, for the warmer months and then having a place in Aiken for the remainder. I am getting less and less pleased with cold weather as my bones become brittle!
I grew up in VT (very near Huntington Farm) and LOVE the area. Back then there were 5 rec eventsāalso including GMHA, Hitching Post, Vershire, and Tamarack (the latter 2 havenāt run in years). The MA events were 2.5 - 3 hours. As others point out, New England is small and most of the events are easily reachable from NH/MA as well.
For a personal place, though, there are major cultural/affordability differences among the states/areas mentioned, and those are probably as important. Rural vs suburban, proximity to towns/cities, taxes may all play a part.
No place Iād rather summer than VT though!
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And when I say affordable, I am thinking affordable as in Virginia/Maryland prices, which are āup thereā relative to national averages. I am going to do some googling on prices.
Also I am very tentative and not at all at a commitment stage at this point in time. Plans are for 3-5 years down the road.
Iād go near GMHA. ITās pretty easy to hop on the highway to other events, itās gorgeous there AND GMHA is a lovely grounds which offers so much.
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In the spirit of full disclosure, two of the hottest, most humid and unpleasant weekends I ever spent was in the area of Huntington (VT) on different years We had traveled to the event and didnāt bring fans (fools!).
In the further spirit OFD, there werenāt any mosquitoes or greenheads, and there were streams we could walk our horses and ourselves into to cool off.
If I were to describe the ideal life, it would being rich enough to spend December through March in Aiken, April-May in Virginia, June-August in Vermont, and September - November in Virginia.
Another scenario is to X out Virginia and spend November-April in Aiken and May-October in Vermont.
And then one can just have the best (or the worst) of both and remain in Virginia until the very end. :lol::lol::lol:
So much moving around. I want to be rich enough that the nice weather is brought to me! Lol
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Sigh, I will probably just stay in Virginia and save up for a covered arena for extreme weather.
Further full disclosure: both spring and fall are spectacular in New England. Summer is actually very tolerable. We rarely have to turn on AC more than 10 days a year.
It depends on how cold-resistant you areā¦ I would not want to live in those places in the winter. Thereās definitely a reason that most eventers in that area go down south. Summers and falls are gorgeous and I donāt think there is a better clime but the winters are brutal and not for everyone.
but in terms of real estate and accessibility, VT closer to the NH/MA border would be your best betā¦ still close enough to the bigger farms and practices which means you arenāt in a professional black-hole, but far enough away that you arenāt piggy-backing off of some of MA and NHās outrageous land costs.
Having lived out in western MA and out in the fringe of VT I will tell you that it can be hard to find quality horse-care professionals like dentists, vets, and farriers. Itās not something you think about until youāre there and then you realize you are in a very poor area that does not splurge on these things such as āfancy hoss teeth flossinā and the like.
what is MD affordable may be western-MA affordable ā¦ once you get away from Boston and Worcester the price of land plummets drastically and western MA has slightly milder winters than VT and is just as accessible in most places.
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