Where is Oregon Horse Country? (Bend, Grants Pass: buy, to live in, zoning)

[Chispas]

Are there certain locations that are better to live in if you own horses?

[freedom]

They are everywhere, except the big cities.
Southern Oregon probably has the best weather for riding and showing.
Roseburg and South to Phoenix and everywhere inbetween..

There are quite a few ranches in Redmond and Bend as well, it gets real cold there, but no so much rain.
freedom

[orygun]

I think the previous poster was correct. I have two horses and it seemed decent in Cottage Grove for them. And we spent a bit of time in Roseburg. Avoid the coast, too wet and not much land for horses. Central Oregon is decent since it is drier. I would think the entire valley of the Western half of the state would be decent horse country. There is a publication called Cascade Horseman out of Klamath Falls.

[ReturningWest]

Freedom is right butttt....

Horse keeping will vary on where you are in the state.

The Willamette valley has lots of rain so you will deal with keeping hay and feed dry and mold free, rain rot, thrush and all the other stuff that comes with lush green pretty much year round.

On the east side of the MTs it is dryer but colder, pasture is usually harder to maintain and there are lots of volcanic land areas. I've seen folks come in buy land thinking it was suitable to keep a horse and then find it's covered with volcanic rock. Also, recently a study came out about juniper trees sucking up the water table...they may represent lots of green but farmers and ranchers who did away with them are now finding rejuvination of once fallow fields.

Good hay is grown in the NE corner of Oregon.

Be sure to check with the local zoning ordinances that will vary from county to county such as how many horses per acre you can have, if you can have horses on the property ect. The further away from large metro areas the more generous they are about horse keeping.

I haven't live in OR for quite some time so I'm sure many things have changed but the climate will dictate the type of horse keeping you will need to practice.

[Chispas]

Thanks to all of you for your feed back. I trully appreciate it. I'm starting to
look at the Grants Pass, Roseburg, Sutherlin, areas. I think We can handle the
cold better, since it doesn't seem to get much colder than Tucson in those areas
and they dang sure don't get as hot.