Horse property-Larkspur, Colorado (Parker, Castle Rock, Mead: HOA, homes, neighborhoods)

[hidwalker]

Moving back to the front range in a couple years. I have horses and wondering what areas we should consider. Love the look and feel of Larkspur and the 35 acre lots. Are there other areas like this? Also what should we know about Larkspur? School district or anything else only locals would know. Urban sprawl is a concern. Don't want to buy somewhere and in 5 years have track homes popping up next door. Appreciate any suggestions you might have. Thanks!

[kj1065]

Fire. You need to be aware of fire risk and be prepared to spend a lot of money and time on mitigation.

[hidwalker]

Thanks for the comment! I live in fire prone area now so I'm aware of the risk. Seems there is something everywhere unfortunately.

[ponyupgrl]

We are in Sedalia and the feel is similar to Larkspur in terms of open space and small town. Franktown also has a lot of acreage properties. The best ways to hedge yourself against sprawl is to buy next to other 35 acre lots, or back to open space / conservation land. A lot of the properties that are being subdivided are hundreds / thousands of acres... it's almost impossible to split 35 acre or smaller lots with the county. This map provides you an overview of current planning projects in the county incl. new subdivision proposals - https://apps.douglas.co.us/dcmaps/ma...anningProjects

How old are your kids? If you will be doing a lot of driving to activities / extracurriculars / school, there are definitively some acreage pockets that are more drivable than others.

Other things we looked at when we were buying:
- Snow plowing on street (I want to be able to get out same day after a snowstorm - the county is actually better at plowing properly compared to HOAs - Douglas County plows based on route priority of your street)
- Internet (we work from home)
- Water Rights (wanted more than the 1 acre ft annual most acreage comes with)
- Distance to daily amenities (grocery store, schools, etc.)
- Places to ride (we also have horses and I wanted to be able to trail ride without trailering)
- HOA (some acreage is still under HOA jurisdiction, especially those with private roads - we were OK with HOAs but just needed to double check how restrictive the rules are)

I'm assuming you are aware of / ok with the price of good acreage lots in this area.

[hidwalker]

Thank you for the map. It's very informative. We did not get to check out Sedalia, but it was on our list. We did go to Franktown, but we need to go back again and look further. I did hear it was really hard to subdivide the 35 acre lots. That's a plus for me.

The kids are my grandkids so it will be my daughter driving them around. Doesn't seem to be an issue for her. They will be in 4th and 6th grade. Hoping to get some feedback on the schools in Larkspur.

We are also hoping to not have to trailer out to ride.

This will be our first time living on acreage so we have a lot to learn! And yes we are aware of the prices in the area. Thanks for all the good info you provided!

[ponyupgrl]

There are a few threads on here RE Douglas County schools, which is what you'd feed into in Larkspur. Almost all of my friends with kiddos in Larkspur and nearby area send their kids to World Compass Academy and love it (charter school that you would be able to enroll in - it goes through 8th grade) - it's on the south end of Castle Rock so very drivable from there. Through the charter program, you can either enroll in your local school or pick a charter school that is specialized.

I will personally look into private school for high school when my kids get to that age, because the local high schools are quite large in size / class size, although I know that many parents are totally fine with them.

[hidwalker]

Ok great I will check that out.

Curious where your favorite places to ride are in the area? Also what type of hay/grass is available? How about manure management? We have pick up by local waste company so never have had to deal with that. Anything else horse related we should know?

[ponyupgrl]

I LOVE this area for living with horses. We have been lucky to live in neighborhoods where we have trail riding accessible to us directly from our home (via neighborhood owned land / trails) but there are many fabulous places to ride such as:

- Sandstone Ranch is in Larkspur and recently opened: https://www.douglas.co.us/dcoutdoors...h-master-plan/ (video shows the topography pretty well)
- Dawson Butte: https://www.douglas.co.us/dcoutdoors...n-space-trail/
- Spruce Mountain / Spruce Meadows: https://www.douglas.co.us/dcoutdoors...meadows-trail/

There is a group called Parker Trail Riders (based out of Parker but people from all over the county join) that coordinates riding groups on a regular basis. They have a FB account where they post updates / rides.

For manure management, what we have found works best is setting up a place on our property to put into piles, and then use a manure spreader to spread across fields once it has aged. There are services that will come and haul away though.

For grass - realistically your horses would be able to graze for a few months out of the year, otherwise we purchase hay (quality hay readily available).

Because of how dry it is, things really dry out pretty quickly (even after snowmelt) so we've enjoyed year round riding even with just outdoor arena. There are a lot of horse specific organizations and good sense of community among equestrians :-)

[hidwalker]

Thanks for some great info! Having trails accessible from our home would be our preference of course. One of our horses is not a fan of the trailer. Makes it difficult! I hope you don't mind if I reach out in the future as questions arise

[ponyupgrl]

Please feel free to PM me - happy to help! One of my horses is the same, fortunately it's my husband's horse :-)