Looking for horse property in Idaho (Boise, Idaho Falls: for sale, renting, house)
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We are selling our home in CA and are looking for horse property in Idaho.
We are open to temporarily renting/leasing horse property
What's the best areas near horse towns. We want to move to an area where there are equine vets, horse feed and supplies as well as the horse community atmosphere.
Not North Idaho. I never see anyone riding horses and I've only seen a couple of horses in pastures. The feed store is geared towards dogs and pet chickens.
Madras in Oregon is still horsey, with several large expensive horse ranches.
It’s one valley over from ID in MT, but if you search 598 Hampton Trail in Hamilton, MT there’s a property for a few horses. Been for sale for quite some time, so could barter with them. I’m not familiar, but it looks like most open valleys cater to horses and livestock via all the ranches. With ranches you’ll have everything somewhat near by for them.
We live in Sunnyslope (just outside of Caldwell, near Lake Lowell). There are many horse ranches nearby.
I have a number of friends who keep several horses on their 2-10 A property. Some HOA's CC&Rs allow only 1 horse/acre. Just a mile up the road from our house is a horse ranch with at least a dozen horses (most of them are boarders). The farmer across the river from our house keep about 6 horses and 4 mules. His father told us that they are packing animals for hunting trips. We almost bought a house near the Lake but back out when learning that the property was only 1.9A. We were thinking of having some horses with 2 being the minimum. I have seen few small paddocks with a single horse and it looks quite sad and lonely!
I did a quick search of nearby horse ranches on google map and found 20 in a 10-15 mile radius (see attached map)
I recalled seeing a very nice horse community along the scenic route 78 (on the other side of the Snake River from our property). I don't remember the exact location (near Walters Ferry?).
There are quite a few large animal clinics in the area. Few months ago, one of my friends had a surprise addition to her menagerie. She did not know the heifer that she got was pregnant and it went to labor in the middle of the night. The vet had to come to her barn to help with the delivery.
Not North Idaho. I never see anyone riding horses and I've only seen a couple of horses in pastures. The feed store is geared towards dogs and pet chickens.
Madras in Oregon is still horsey, with several large expensive horse ranches.
Where we are (Clark Fork, Bonner Ct, NID), it seems that almost everybody has a few horses if they have 5 or more acres, and many people do ride their horses along the fields and even out on the roads. Our neighbor does. The feed and outfit stores have plenty of horse-related stuff here. Maybe it's different in Kootenai County.
If you want to be closer to Boise, then Mountain Home, Glens Ferry, or up higher at Fairfield. Especially up in Fairfield you could buy north of town and ride directly into the Sawtooth Mountains without trailering your horses. You could also do that from Hailey and the Sun Valley area too.
Fairfield and especially north of there, expect a lot to a ton of snow respectively. Access issues or doubts to the north. Hailey / Bellevue / Picabo etc., less snow (and price) than further up Sun Valley.
Essentially, everything south of the Treasure Valley is horse country.
And that's not to say there aren't many good horse places in the TV, or in the panhandle. Idaho has always been a cattle growing state, so took at the areas where the cows are the most if you want to find a good place to keep horses. The properties are not hard to find.
It all depends on what a person wants, but if I was the one planning to move my horses here, my first consideration would be their year-round feed.
Hay is not cheap here, as Idaho has been the place the California dairy industry has moved to, and dairy cows require a lot of quality hay to make quality milk. Hay became a good cash crop for the first time when the big dairy farms began showing up in the Magic Valley. Today's hay crop goes the most to dairy cows here now, with beef cattle increasingly going to market grass-fed. Horses and sheep/goats aren't a real big part of a hay grower's financial picture these days.
For horse owners, that means 2 things:
- A prospective farm has to be able to provide some winter feed. It cannot serve only as summer pasture.
- If the horse owner doesn't know how to farm hay, and/or is unprepared to do it, then a steady supply of hay will be needed for at least 9 months of the year. More, if the horses are to be shown or campaigned.
The very worst thing that can happen to your horses is spring starvation. Far too many folks run out of their hay by early March, but there's still a full 60 days ahead or more before the first crop of hay can be cut here.
Turn the horses out on the hay too soon and they'll starve come winter. Hold them out too long in March and they'll starve before the first crop comes up.
That's the way it is if you grow the hay or buy it. A person has to have a full 9-month supply laid by under good storage if the horses are to be always sound, fit, and fully healthy. This is not a one-year deal, either. It's for every year you plan on owning horses.
If you intend to buy all your hay, be prepared to meet the seller's highest price to get it. Every hay drowner knows exactly what the contract prices are, and they will save some of their best cutting back for a horse owner who pays them well and is on good terms with them.
This year's hay crop is bound to be short due to the prolonged heat and lack of water. So even the best quality available this year won't be the best, period. Idaho grows exceptionally good hay in a normal summer, but this year is not normal. So if a quick move is planned, this should be taken into consideration.
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