Horses and homeschooling (Denver, Colorado Springs, Pueblo: real estate, homeschool, live in)

[128waseca]

We are interested in moving to the Colorado Springs area from southern Minnesota. I like four seasons but I have had my fill of siberia-like weather. We have horses and raise colored angora goats. My husband travels a lot for his job so being within an hour of an airport is a must.

In particular, we are looking for a more moderate climate. I understand that areas around Colordado Springs have micro-climates. Can someone direct me to an area that would have the following:

40+ acres grazing pastureland with ability to produce hay for horses and goats
ability to ride horses from property onto interesting topography
more moderate winters (some snow OK and temps that like to stay above 25 degrees or so, and no long sustained winds - we live on the "prairie" and I am tired of wind)

In addition, we homeschool our three girls ages 7, 9, and 11. What is the homeschooling climate like in the Colorado Springs area? Anyone involved in AWANA outside of the Colordado Springs city limits?

So with horses and homeschooling in mind, would current residents recommend looking north, south, east, or west? Any particular small towns that we should investigate further?

Thanks with a little bit of Minnesota nice

[otowi]

If you want 40 acres, you're gonna have to go prairie, most likely, and so you're gonna have to put up with wind. 40 acres of mountain land is likely to be VERY expensive, and not very good pasture.
Generally speaking, for what you want I might think along the Highway 50 corridor, a few hours' southeast of the Springs. Like La Junta, etc. Maybe Pueblo West, that'd put you within range of the airport. If you want to be quite close to the Springs, look east or south of Fountain, maybe. Overall, southeast of the Springs sounds like what you want.

[Mike from back east]

Some of your items are a bit mutually exclusive.

Generally, east of COLO SPGS is prairie-like, short grass, brownish, not a lot of water, cold winters, and plenty of wind BUT it is where people usually go find 40 acres because such acreage is cheap. For examples, go to realtor.com and search on Peyton, Calhan, and Yoder.

You could live in the Canon City or Pueblo West areas, be sheltered from most winds, have slightly milder temps and possibly enough water for raising hay.

The state ag website offers a formula for how many acres you need per head of livestock for grazing, since we only get about 13" of rain per year, the land has limits on it's carrying capacity for critters.

Make no mistake, this is bigtime horse country, but there are some very notable changes due to water and growing season.

The really big airport in the region is DIA, which is an hour north of the north end of COLO SPGS.

There is a smaller airport in COLO SPGS, suggest you check flights out of there for places he goes to frequently to see if it suits you. Southwest A/L does not service COLO SPGS, you have to go to DIA for that. There are some flights from COLO SPGS to DIA. Canon City, Pueblo West, Peyton, Calhan and Yoder are less than an hour to COLO SPGS, up to 2 hours to DIA.

There is horse country in the Denver area too, either out on the prairie well east of Denver or in the far outer suburbs of Denver. Real Estate prices in Denver are higher than here. Your search will take a while, but what you seek can be found, or you may have to take some trade offs on your list of preferences.

Water is a big issue here, you usually must have the legal "rights" to water to use it for irrigating hay or row crops, etc, even if it flows across your land. It can get very arcane, you'll should find someone who knows these issues.

[lalahartma]

Not sure if you will be able to produce excess hay on your pasture reliably. (Depending on the number of livestock, of course.) I boarded at a place, @ 80 acres, 6 horses and 6 cattle, and the pasture was pretty poor and hay was supplemented all year. This was Black Forest/eastern Larkspur/Monument area.

[treedonkey]

I think you could find what you want out on the plains for a decent price. The further east, the more affordable. Larkspur/Monument and all that will be really spendy. Even on the plains, the winter will probably seem a lot milder than in Minnesota, but you might miss all the water and greenery. Our plains are brown for most of the year and there aren't many trees out there at all.

(the title of this thread makes it sound like you're looking to home-school your horses, which I found amusing. But I get the point now.)