Hoping to retire to Paso Robles area... (Torrance, Santa Maria: bank owned, real estate)

[seabreeze01]

Hello:
New to the forum and new to the SLO and surrounding areas. We are hoping to move there to retire and enjoy our horses. We have a real estate agent working with us. Looking in maybe paso robles, Atuscadero areas. My husband drove down a few weeks ago to check it out and looked at a few properties. He loved the area and next time I'll go with him. Had to stay home and take care of all the animals here.
I'm wondering about trails to ride horses on? What are they like and are there many to choose from? Do you have alot of motorbikes on them as well and target shooters?
Where we live now we have a terrible problem with people shooting everywhere with NO back drops. My friend and I were almost shot last year by bullets coming up over the hill!!! Cops just said "everyone needs to get along - they can shoot where ever they want."
Where we live now, it gets COLD and lots of snow. We want OUT of that!! I grew up in Torrance Calif and want to be near the ocean once again but still be able to keep our horses without having to win the lottery.
Paso Robles area seems to be it. How far of a drive is it (time wise) from Paso Robles to SLO?
I would like to keep our gym membership and SLO is the only place that has a Gold's.
Thanks for any information and help. I'm looking forward to a people friendly and horse friendly area to live.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by seabreeze01

Hello:
New to the forum and new to the SLO and surrounding areas. We are hoping to move there to retire and enjoy our horses. We have a real estate agent working with us. Looking in maybe paso robles, Atuscadero areas. My husband drove down a few weeks ago to check it out and looked at a few properties. He loved the area and next time I'll go with him. Had to stay home and take care of all the animals here.
I'm wondering about trails to ride horses on? What are they like and are there many to choose from? Do you have alot of motorbikes on them as well and target shooters?
Where we live now we have a terrible problem with people shooting everywhere with NO back drops. My friend and I were almost shot last year by bullets coming up over the hill!!! Cops just said "everyone needs to get along - they can shoot where ever they want."
Where we live now, it gets COLD and lots of snow. We want OUT of that!! I grew up in Torrance Calif and want to be near the ocean once again but still be able to keep our horses without having to win the lottery.
Paso Robles area seems to be it. How far of a drive is it (time wise) from Paso Robles to SLO?
I would like to keep our gym membership and SLO is the only place that has a Gold's.
Thanks for any information and help. I'm looking forward to a people friendly and horse friendly area to live.

It's amazing that someone that can afford horse property in one of the most desirable regions in the state doesn't know how to use the internet to get an estimate of driving duration and would use a couple hundred dollar gym membership as a criterion for buying a (presumably) multi million dollar property.

Why couldn't I have been born rich instead of good looking?

[seabreeze01]

WOW!!!! are you kidding me? How rude are you!!!! Afford horse property..... I shouldn't even bother with you but I'm talking NO MORE than 225,000 - 250,000. I'm NOT talking million dollar houses here. There are alot of places that I would love to live in there that are in the 500,000 range and I can't do that.
And for your information I HAVE CHECKED GOOGLE for driving directions and came up with THREE different times!!!!! One was 35 min., one was 45 mins and one was an HOUR. I thought it would be nice to talk with someone who actually lived there for an ACCURATE drive time. Maybe it's just nice to talk with people.
Couple hundred dollars in gym fees --- WHAT?? I'm paying 20.00 a month and it's transferrable from state to state. You don't even know what you're talking about.
Why don't you check out your facts before you start shooting off your idiot mouth.
Who do you think you are anyway. I'm by NO MEANS rich as you can tell my post.
Sounds like you're extremely jealous of people who have money.
Wish I had a money tree too and wish I could afford anything I wanted or live high on the hog - ain't gonna happen.
Sorry to be you - little person.

[Snort]

SLO is just down the hill on 101 from Paso. It's a half hour drive, but times will vary if you hit rush hour. Tons and tons of wineries in the area and Paso has the best restaurants in the county. Not a big town, but very nice small downtown where everything happens around the plaza. Good coffee and scones at Amsterdam Coffee House!
Good choice of place to live, but still quite expensive and very hot in summer. The rest of the year the weather's great.

[seabreeze01]

you say expensive.... what exactly is expensive there? We checked into taxes and it's a bit more than here but not by much. We don't eat out much at all. We like to hang around the house -- plant a vegetable garden. Ride our two horses. Just simple living. Would like to drive to the beach and walk along the beach. And most important, just be around friendly people in an also friendly horse community. Where we are now, it's becoming less and less horse friendly. Too hard to find trails to ride on safely anymore.
Hot summers are ok. At least we won't be snow bound and will be able to ride some in the winter months there. I see your average temps in the summer are high 90's. Where we are now it's very hot in the summer. Alot of 100 degree days with a hot wind blowing and very cold snowy winters. We had so many below 0 nights this past winter - DONE with that. I'd much rather have hot than cold snow and ice.

[.highnlite]

Where are you now?

250,000 will be tight for acreage, it will likely be a manufactured home.

You will need to trailer to rides.
Montana De Oro State Park is 8,000 acres and horse friendly, and you can ride on the beach.
Pismo Beach is horse friendly, you can ride on the beach.
There are 340,000 acres of wilderness lands in SLO County, a million more from Santa Maria to Sespe.

The Sierra Nevada, which is horse packing heaven is four hours from the area.

You will want to join the Atascadero HorsemenAtascadero Horsemen's Club

We generally ride the National Forest trails in the fall, winter and spring, and ride the coast in the summer.

Our trails are steep and poorly maintained, you need a sound mountain horse that you trust with your life, because you will.

Mtn bikes and motorcycles are not permitted on wilderness trails.

Shooting is illegal throughout our area of the Los Padres Forest except for hunting.

A spring ride
http://www.atascaderohorsemensclub.com/American%20Canyon%204-2009c.jpg (broken link)

[seabreeze01]

we are actually getting quite a few from our realtor in the 250,000-280,000 range. Not manufactured either. One we are seriously thinking about. House is in great shape - bank owned now. Yard/acreage is a mess. But that is easily remedied. Just junk all over and an OLD above ground pool that needs to be hauled out. It sits on 2.5 acres. I mean, we're not getting handful of houses a week - maybe a couple new ones every couple of weeks. There was one for 275,000 on 3 acres - nice 3 bedroom, 2 bath but it sold FAST. Before we could get there. So they are out there - just timing is a bugger since we are out of state. We are 35 miles west of SLC Utah.
Most of the properties are not in pristine condition IE: fencing or lack of and just clean up. But I'm thinking positive.
I'm used to trailering everywhere to ride. My horses are like dogs and just jump in the trailer because when ever I ride here, I have to trailer.
Our horses are mountain trail savvy. That's all we do here. Mostly single track trail with a drop off on one side and a hill on the other. We do have open areas to ride but that gets boring unless you trot it. I used to be an endurance rider for many years. Ever hear of the Tevis? Did that twice. Talk about a knuckle biter! ha ha.... Toughest ride I have ever done. But glad I had the experience of it all.
Are there many open trails like in your picture? Besides at the coast on the beach.

[ferretkona]

Not many if any trails available. When I visit my folks we ride on a few gravel roads. You will find very little public land to ride on. My folks bought 15 acres for $50k 12 years ago. They are a few miles south of Paso Robles.

[seabreeze01]

yeah, prices were cheap(er) back then that's for sure. We bought the place we're in now 14 years ago and prices have pretty much only doubled in this area. Unless you go for the custom made homes on acreage then you're into it for 600+k on 5 acres.
Well, that is disappointing to hear about the lack of trails! This might not be the area for us. We started out looking in the Auburn area where my step daughter and her family live. Further from the coast but awesome horse riding. Tevis country.
Something to think about for sure. We want to be closer to the ocean but we're not ready to be rid of horses yet. And right now, horse trails is a BIG consideration for us.

Editing here.... Los padres area -- I'll google it and see how far it is to trailer there if there are no trails just outside Paso or Atuscadero. But I'm sure you horse people can tell me how far it is....

[.highnlite]

Ever hear of the Tevis? Did that twice. Talk about a knuckle biter! ha ha.... Toughest ride I have ever done. But glad I had the experience of it all.
Are there many open trails like in your picture? Besides at the coast on the beach.

If you recollect the area with the camps and corrals, I logged that many years ago.. I know it well. I have had friends ride Tevis and run the same course as the Western States.

As far as trails, there are lots. Within 10 miles of the little town of Santa Margarita alone there are nearly 60 miles of wilderness trails, some needing work, so a good 20-30 miles. There is a new trail on the north shore of Santa Margarita Lake, about 12 miles on the loop and we are working to get more open.

Within an hours drive of Atascadero there is probably 100 miles of trail. Within 2 hours drive about 200 miles of trail. We are fortunate to have two Forest Service Wilderness Areas and one BLM wilderness in SLO County.

The photo was taken on a private ranch, one reason to join Atascadero Horsemen is to gain access to private ranch lands for riding.

I am part of a group that is working on opening trails so that you can ride from Cuesta Summit more than 200 miles to Lake Piru, that will be cool.

This spring, our group (not Atascadero Horsemen) will do two three day rides on private ranches, one has been in the same family for 168 years, very cool.

The Los Padres Forest is huge, lots of trails. The most popular trailhead closest to Atascadero is Rinconada Trailhead. From there it is a couple of hours riding on serious trails to a couple of beautiful water falls.

The problem with the Auburn area is the lack of public land, once you get up into the Tahoe National Forest there is plenty of riding, in the summer..

In Truckee our horses, boats, motorcycles, bicycles sat from October to April.

You will love the Central Coast, you really can ride all year round. Even with the heavy rains we had that turned the mountain trails to dangerous muck, the sand dunes on the coast are very rideable.

On our place we have a mix of horses and pack mules, we tend to be serious about the back country.