Equestrian Comm./Small town life within commute to Richmond? (Charlottesville: fit in, apartment)

[ScaredofChange]

HI! My husband just received an amazing job offer in Richmond and we are planning to relocate within a month or so from Orange County California. Originally we're both small town midwesterners and we'd love to get back to that kind of lifestyle. We're horse people and our dream is to find a home with land so we don't have to board our horses. At first though we may start out in an apartment or rental house until we find the ideal piece of land/home.

Anyway, my question for all of you is what areas would you recommend we explore next week when we visit the Richmond Area? Are there some equestrian communities in Richmond? Or better yet what small towns/villages should we look into? We need to stay within a 30 minute communting distance of his new job in Richmond (Semmes Ave and 9th or 10th street, not far from the 60) but we really like country life. A safe, low crime area is also important. We've read that Chester or Hanover or Mechanicsville or Ashland might fit our needs but we could use more information about the atmosphere, community feeling, etc. My husband tends towards the conservative, old fashioned type so very liberal, diverse, modern areas with lots of bars/entertainment aren't really his taste.

Another question: Are there commuter trains that go into Richmond from outlaying towns? We'd consider a further commute distance if he could do it by train.

Thanks so much for any help you all can offer!!!!

[horseylova1001]

Don't be scared! Richmond is a pretty healthy area for horseback lovers, and offers great options from trail riding in parks to hanging out at Dorey Park. There are a lot of areas outside of the city too. My favorite and where I board my horse at- New Kent Country. Goochland is also one of my favorites. I'd think New Kend is your best bet though. Its about ten minutes from the International airport, probably right at thirty minutes for the city. However there are a ton of boarding options, and I don't know quite as much about the northern parts of the city. There is a lot of land around here though.

I love the horse community, especially the trails at the parks around these areas. I think you'll be pleased with Richmond, I love it here.

About the areas you mentioned...

Mechanicsville is really up and coming, parts of the area are very suburban, others are not. Hanover has some good schools and land, but also some suburban life. Chester is further from the city I believe, but I'm bad with directions. I'm not sure how much land is in Midlothian area, but that is close to the city.

My favorite area though, is New Kent. I'd look into it, I love the area.

[mrstewart]

Hey! There are no commuter trains but Manakin Sabot is big horse country. The commute to Richmond would probably be about 20-25 minutes.

[whynot?]

I agree. I live in Manakin-Sabot (in Goochland County), and not only are there lots of horse farms, but several houses in/around our neighborhood have barns and rings. There's not really a "town" except for the tiny hamlet of Goochland Courthouse, way out Rt. 6, and definitely beyond a 30-minute commute to South Richmond. (SunTrust Mortgage?)

Hanover County (adjacent to Goochland) has beautiful rural land, too. Ashland has a small downtown area, but I don't know if it's rural enough nearby to keep horses.

IMHO, you would be hard-pressed to find "very liberal, diverse, modern areas with lots of bars/entertainment" in/around Richmond. It's a very traditional southern city with pockets of those kinds of things. There is a great deal of suburban sprawl between the city and rural areas, but there's no major traffic and it's a very pleasant place to live.

Visit soon.

[richmondpics]

Goochland and New Kent sound like good options, perhaps Caroline? There are horse farms in Powhatan as well, though 30 min might be a stretch to get to Suntrust Mortgage or UPS Freight. If you like the country but also would like to be near plenty of amenities, Goochland may be the best option.

Good luck!

[ScaredofChange]

Thanks so much for the wonderful replies! You've all given me some wonderful information and new areas to look into. I hadn't heard of New Country or Goochland. I'll definitely check those out as well as Manakin Sabot, Caroline, and Powhatan. We're going to be in Richmond in about two weeks just for a long weekend. We plan to spend the whole time exploring towns looking for the place where we'll fit in best. Rural life is definitely what we really really want but with his job being technology oriented we know we have to stay near a city and it sounds like we may be able to find a good compromise in Richmond. I love that everyone has made it sound like a nice, family oriented place and not too fast paced.

If you don't mind, I have a few new questions :

How well are the roads maintained in winter and is the commute time much longer due to bad weather? My husband has been in Orange County since he was about 10 and he's never driven in snow or bad weather so he is a little concerned about your roads in winter, particularly if we're living 30 minutes or more outside the downtown area where he works.

Do English and Western horsepeople get along well together? Out here in SoCal there tends to be a very distinct divide between English and Western riders and each tends to look down on the other group(which we find incredibly silly, but there's alot of snobbery out here. Everyone thinks there better than their neighbor). I'm assuming that more people in Virginia tend to ride English and since we're Western riders we are worried a little bit about how we'll fit in.

Could someone give me an estimate on what boarding costs in the Richmond area? It tends to run about $500-600 a month here per horse just for the stall, two feedings a day, and no other care or maintenance. Hopefully we'll be able to find our own horse property but if we have to board it's best to be well informed.

Thanks everyone!!!

[richmondpics]

Winters in Richmond are relatively mild... we'll get a little bit of snow/ice here and there, but in general the roads are clear most of the time... it seems the mountains usually steer winter storms north of us. VDOT often pretreats primary and busy secondary roads if bad weather is on the way. They usually do a decent job of treating/plowing the roads... but local roads usually are last to be cleared.

[whynot?]

We live in an older development off Rt. 621 in Goochland, and there are maybe 3 or 4 times a year that we need 4WD. Not so much for the roads, but to get to the road from our garage. Presumably if you're keeping horses, though, you will have some kind of large vehicle. Ice is a bigger problem than snow, and there's just not much to do about ice on the roads -- 4WD doesn't help. It's worse in the country, of course, because the roads tend to be shady and it takes longer to melt.

I will leave your equestrian questions to HorseyLova1001 and others, but you may find Virginia Equestrian.com helpful for perusing the kinds of farms, services, etc. that are around. From your first post, it sounded like you would love to be in/near some of our Northern Virginia horse country towns like Middleburg, Upperville, Leesburg, and others out toward Warrenton. Even Charlottesville. I can't think of anything like them near Richmond, but you must visit them after you get settled here.

I agree with RichmondPics, it's not going to take long to get outside a 30-minute commute, as most of the close-in farmland has been developed in the past 10-20 years. You will have choices, though, and it won't take you long driving around the outlaying counties to get a feel for the land and know where you'd be most comfortable.