I was going to suggest Aiken, SC until I read your meat access desire. 
I hear expats here bemoaning the lack of delis and butcher shops. But we do have Waffle Houses, Krystals, and Krispy Kreme.
$1.5M would get you 5 acres, the 4,000 square feet of house you want, and a 4 stall barn. When I moved here 10 years ago that package was maybe $600K, so prices are definitely up.
I’ll say Columbus, Ohio area fits the bill pretty well. Lots and lots of barns (largely thanks to Quarter Horse Congress at the Ohio State Fairgrounds) and equine services.
Climate is not as moderate as Portland, though. The summer will probably be a little bit hotter and the winter will be a bit colder.
Lots of shows, rated and schooling, mainly h/j but there’s definitely a fair amount of dressage. I’m unsure if the regular hunter pace circuit is still around. If not, I believe there is one up in Cleveland area and down in Cincy area, an easy two-hour drive each. Several lower level eventing shows as well, several parks with riding trails.
I have no idea about “quality meats,” I’m a vegetarian, but there were many local butcher shops I’d drive by, especially out in the country.
Great quality healthcare, excellent hospitals.
Great vets too, several large animal hospitals - Ohio State (not my fave), Woodland Run, Bella Vista (#1 in my book).
I’d recommend the Northeast and Eastern suburbs. Delaware down through Pataskala, Johnstown, Granville will have you closer to people involved in the English disciplines, and are generally considered the better school systems and “nicer” neighborhoods and such. West and South runs a bit more western (Marysville, West Jefferson, Orient) as far as events go, but still lots of horses and only a 45-minute drive to the other side of town.
The square footage house size might be a constraint in a LOT of locations, that’s a really big house! A quick Zillow search shows five listings with those specs. Another six or so if I drop it to a minimum of 2500 sq ft. Would you be willing to put on an addition, if all the horse facilities and stuff were already there?
What do you mean “no good?” I rode in Ohio in -10°F the occasional days it was that cold, thanks to having an indoor arena. It does a lot of good, even unheated. It blocks the wind and holds in some warmth. It was usually at least 15 degrees warmer than outside if the doors weren’t left open for long periods.
I loved Saratoga Springs, but it gets cold and it snows quite a bit. It’s also NY, so not sure how much different than what you want to leave in OR.
Thanks! I’m actually an Ohio native. We’re looking at some Midwestern areas.
Oh cool, me too, born and raised! Left in 2016 because I detest winter. But you had New York on your list so, it’s certainly not worse than there lol
I’ve lived in NY before, but it’s been a long time. Seems like it’s NYC that is experiencing all the issues with tolerance of drugs and criminality, but is it your perception that those issues are affecting the whole state?
Yes, there are special high altitude cookbooks, and they’re needed. The higher you go the worst the cooking issues are.
One thing I recomment is to take the Pikes Peak Cog Railway, pricey but worth it. They have guides that narrate the entire trip, point out historic sites, and it’s really fun to go to the summit house on a clear day. You can see Kansas from the top, and the summit house has cake donuts that were developed to compensate for the altitude. And take a nice heavy jacket, the summit house sells very overpriced jackets to tourists that didn’t pay attention to the temperature guage at the railway station at the bottom of the hill. I never recommend driving up, driver doesn’t get to see the sights, and everything going to the top has to be trucked up and down, so lots of truck traffic.
The biggest issue to the Springs is the water situation. It is high desert. Also, when I lived there the county had no zoning, so you could have a lovely place, and next door is a literal junk yard.
SInce the Springs is about 6,000 ft, some can’t cope with the altitude. However, for helath issues thate are a lot of hospitals, and clinics in the Springs, plus Denver is a fantastic health center. They have a huge VA hospital, children’s hospital, Anschutz hospital complex is huge. Maybe east of Denver would be a place to look for properties? But traffic in Denver sucks. I don’t know about the availability of farriers, etc.
I live in VA, but from what I’ve seen, there are some issues that have a statewide impact. Some of it comes from Albany, not NYC.
Virginia isn’t bad, unless you ride saddleseat, then it’s kind of a nightmare. But hey, Woodbridge made the national news with our newly incarcerated gang bangers. But that’s Dale City, which is the 'hood, not Woodbridge proper. LOL.
I don’t like winter, either! Would need to have an indoor arena in Ohio, for sure. There are tradeoffs with every place and the cost of living difference, which is 20% plus, might make up for dealing with winter weather. Plus the winter days in OH are longer than they are here. In the dead of winter, it starts getting dark at like 2:30 in the afternoon here, which is really depressing and makes getting outside chores done harder. Ohio also has more sunshine in the winter than here.
Thank you! Will check out the railway next time we’re there!
Friends from MA bought a place in NC reasonably close to Tryon in 2021 for about 850K. For that they got a newer 3000 SF house (which they say is too big since it’s just the 2 of them), a 4 stall barn with tack and grain room, and about 7 acres. The stalls all have runs, so the horses are never stuck in a stall. They have a sand outdoor arena and one pasture with a big shed. The rest of the property is cross-fenced and gated so it’s easy to move horses around the different pastures. They are happy there. Both work remote, the dressage barn where my friend’s trainer works is a 5-10 minute hack, there are great trails, etc. Her husband really enjoys running, mountain biking, etc and there are a lot of good choices for those activities in the area.
The area was affected by Helene, and my friends helped a lot with distributing aid out of TIEC. It’s a purple area politically, and the older folks are mostly poorer and redder, so there’s a lot of tension around gentrification.
There’s a nice barn for sale just outside of Ft Wayne, IN. It has an indoor and a track. Gets a little cold (sub zero) but you do get good beef there.
Why would you expect the whole state to be experiencing the all the issues that NYC is? A lot of of NYS is very rural, a lot different than NYC. I’ve spent a fair bit of time in NYS in the Syracuse area, my daughter a lot more in a small town and if it weren’t for the whole tariff crap show going on right now, she would be heading south soon.
This might be a bad suggestion, but since Columbus came up…
I have always been pleasantly surprised by the Cincinnati area. It seems like a good mix of horse activity + big city amenities. Plus it’s located between WEC and the KY Horse Park, so you basically have access to everything you could want.
Full disclosure: I have never lived there. But every time I’ve had to go to the area for horse business, I think, “I could see myself here.”
Have you looked at Norco, CA? I have never personally been there but it’s my dream horse retirement destination.
Oh god NOT magic mushrooms. NOTHING puts a community on the fast track to ruin like magic mushrooms!!
If you want access to good health care and veterinary care, do NOT go to New Mexico. I’m originally from there, parents still there and both are fairly dismal. That doesn’t begin to get into the host of other issues with the state. It’s a beautiful place and will always hold a special place in my heart, but I can’t recommend anyone with horses actually live there.
Thank you for the feedback, duly noted! We do have some concerns about NM and this confirmed some of them.
Yes, as an Ohio native, Cincinnati is my favorite Ohio city. Since we’re in the very early stages, we’re adding as many possibilities to the list and Cincinnati will go onto it!
Don’t believe the hype. I lived in Norco and raised horses there with my mom and sister from 1980 until 2016. Early on, yes, it was quite lovely. Very much a small town feel, wide open spaces to ride and our horses took us around town like bicycles. Now it’s crowded, surrounded by congested major freeways and housing tracts, and the number of horses are dwindling. Please, before considering Norco, go spend a week there first.
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