Horse People – Please Help! (Sacramento, Vacaville: for sale, real estate, buying)

[pcampy]

Hi Everyone,

My wife and I are likely relocating to the Sacramento region in the next year and we are researching possible places to settle. We are “horse people” so we would either like to have enough land (~2-5 acres) to have our own horse property, or live in a “horsey” area where we can easily board our horses with nearby riding trails. I will likely be commuting to Davis, and my wife to the UC Davis Med Center in Sacramento, and we’d like to keep our commutes under an hour if possible. Our housing budget is $400-$550K. Also, we are from New England, so the prospect of living on a dead flat floodplain is not very appealing to us.

Is there a location that meets all (or most) of our criteria exist out there?

BTW: We ride English, and I feel like most of the riding out there is Western. Is that correct?

Thanks!

[wburg]

pcampy: Sacramento and Davis are in the middle of a dead flat floodplain, there just plain aren't any hills anywhere near there, so you may have to make some choices on whether you want hills or a short commute. You might look at buying a few acres in southern Sacramento County in the Sacramento Delta region: while it's certainly dead flat, the Delta has its own kind of beauty. To the east, look at Amador County in the foothills. To the west, look at Solano County in the coastal foothills.

Finding acreage in either direction for $400-550K will be a stretch, unless you're talking about unimproved open land.

[zen_klown]

When I went to the Western States Horse Expo, I sort of stumbled into this huge horse community that I had no idea that existed in the Sacramento region. When you go to these horse shows, they have listings of future horse shows, of all of the tack shops in the region, of places selling horse trailers and have lots of folks out from all of the local equestrian facilities. There is also this entire subset of realtors that specialise in selling horse properties in different regions of the Sacramento area.

I found the people you stumble across in line to buy a hot dog at these shows to be incredibly friendly who seem to sincerely want to give you good advice on where to get stuff including recommendations for realtors and equestrian facilities. So if possible, I would try to visit a horse show in the Sacramento region for some first hand advice from someone actually active in the local horse community.

Here is a list of just some of the upcoming events at one of the larger horse facilities in the region.

MURIETA EQUESTRIAN CENTER Schedule

If that isn't realistic because you are back in New England you might try looking for referals from some of the sponsors of the horse expo here.

Home

or try something like this.

Sacramento Area Equestrian Business Directory: Horse Related Information for Sacramento, California and Surrounding Counties: www.sacramentoequestrian.com

or the forums here

Horses for sale, horse health news, trail riding and horse chat.

[pcampy]

Thanks so much for your replies. I’m sorry if I came off harsh about the “floodplain” comment. I didn’t mean to. I was just trying to say that we’d rather live in the foothills, but I realize that our commutes will probably eliminate that as a possibility. In all likelihood we will end up living in downtown Sac and commuting out to a barn in Rancho Murieta or Wilton. Does that sound reasonable?

[charsacutter]

You may check out Winters. It is only 20 minutes from Davis. There are several "horse people" in this area in which I am one. There are beautiful rolling hills with enough flat area for your horses. It is a wonderful small town. Depending on where you locate in Winters there are several trails to ride your horse. There are also several boarding stables in Winters and close to Winters such as on the west side of Davis, Vacaville, and Dixon. There is also an area you can board your horse at the University.

[edwardius]

The commute from Wilton or Rancho Murrieta to Davis and Downtown might be a bit much. First you are getting pretty far away, second you will probably have to deal with a fair amount of traffic.

If it were me, I would be thinking more towards Winters or Woodland or even Rio Linda.

HNR -Historic Nelson Ranch Offical Site - Woodland California

Gibson Ranch Park horse boarding guided trail rides Sacramento

[tande1n5]

I know you have both commute constraints and budget to think of, but you still may wish to look at the areas of the low foothills around Granite Bay and Loomis. They are quite horsey. Even the more developed areas where there isn't large propery see many boarders and riders, so you'd be in company. Again, the constraints you listed I realize, but it seems like a good theoretical match.

[CaAppraiser]

As a fellow horse person and appraiser, best bet within your price range is Sacramento, zip code 95830 and Wilton 95693, but the commute to Davis would be brutal. You could also find some horse property within your price range in Elverta 95626 (15 miles north of Sacramento), and the commute would be a lot easier. I recommend Shandoni Ranch (Hunter/Jumpers) as a boarding stable in Elverta. Doreen Irwin is the owner and she is wonderful.

[CADRMNDANES]

CA is mostly western??? You can find plenty of different riding disciplines here. Lots of English & Dressage shows. I used to raise and show quarter horses & Quarter Appendix.
They were all around horses (English & Western).

With your price range check out these areas.
West Roseville, Pleasant Grove, Vacaville and Dixon.

You can perform a search on REALTOR.com for areas up to 20 miles away from Davis.

Wilton would be closer for your wife.

[ElleBebe]

I second the Winters vote, though I don't know anything about horses or the real estate prices out there. More rural area, more hilly, not far from Davis (15-20 minutes) or too far from Sacramento. It's a nice little town.