Ideal country to live in to have a horsey rural life?

NZ - been here for 14 years now. Land is relatively cheap, horses can, and mostly do, live out 24/7. Like most places depends where you are for rainfall etc. Far north can be wet & humid but rarely cold. Far south cold in winter stinking hot in summer. It's a long time since I experienced a British winter but we don't get anything like the mud and persistent rain that I seem to read about on here.

No language barrier to worry about, small population (pros & cons to this), property is cheap compared to UK. Groceries etc more expensive and less choice but if you have a bit of land it's very easy to do your own homekill meat so savings can be made there.

Horses for courses but I have no plans to return to the UK :)
 
PaintPonies, are there income requirements for people trying to immigrate? I would love to move to NZ. Also, how are the quarantine requirements?
 
Thank you all for sharing your ideas, thoughts and knowledge.

It really is hard to decide! Figuring out pro’s and cons of places have them all weighing up fairly equally.

The usa is so huge and gorgeous countryside, but healthcare is so expensive. Private healthcare is generally expensive but there its ridiculous. I have the advantage of obtaining dual-citizenship as my mother was born there. One day id love to go to montana!
I couldnt move before brexit finalises! I have a place to sell and that’s an unknown how long that could take!

I keep returning to northern spain. Have advice from residents online that far west north galicia is harsh wind and rain, so will jiggle eastwards, as ive done windy and rainy mountain, covered in mud for too long already ha!

Its quite troubling to see rural properties with metal bars on the outside of all windows....or 8’ chainlink fencing around the yards....mainly spain and hungary. Has me wondering if i should research rural crime rates more closely too.

Am in 2 minds about it as oftentimes its ‘better the devil you know’....adjusting to completely new laws, regulations, language is stressful. Even here in ireland getting the vehicle legal was a hoop dance and a half! Took 6 months!
There are always unknowns about a place until you actually live there, so we would consider renting before buying to see first.

I agree winters, somewhere fairly close to home isnt such a huge move and would be easier. Thanks for the liveries idea and tips.
 
GSD Woman said:
PaintPonies, are there income requirements for people trying to immigrate? I would love to move to NZ. Also, how are the quarantine requirements?
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No income requirements when I did it but I'm not at all up to date on current policies. I think it would depend on your age and whether you fill any of the 'skills shortage' requirements.

Quarantine for horses or dogs? I Wouldn't know about horses. I brought two dogs out and they had to undergo various health checks, blood tests worming etc. The only quarantine requirement was that was needed was to quarantine them on your own property for 30 days but nobody policed this. Again requirements may have changed.

My neighbours thought it was pretty funny that I'd brought the dogs out 'we do have dogs here you know' :eek:o_O:p
 
GSD Woman said:
PaintPonies, are there income requirements for people trying to immigrate? I would love to move to NZ. Also, how are the quarantine requirements?
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My husband was offered a job there so went on what they call a ‘talent’ visa. I applied for a partner visa linked to that. Our visas took 6 days to clear.

We had around 3 years until we could get residency. Again, all really straightforward.

If we go back (and it is something we talk about) we will probably move to the South Island, or further south than Auckland.

There were two major down sides for us, both of which may not apply to you at all.

The first was that it is very far away, and my father was very ill. There was no way I could hop on a plane and be there in a few hours. There is no “popping” back, or weekend trips home.

The second issue was that we had limited annual leave, and we knew we would need to spend every holiday either going back to visit his family in South Africa or mine in the UK. We knew we wouldn’t be able to have a proper holiday or travel, as we’d always be using the short time off to see our family. After a few years, we really missed being able to see our families on weekends, and then being able to take a holiday anywhere we wanted to go.
 
Hi, see this thread is a several months old, just wondering what you decided to do PurBee? I totally understand how enormous it is to move countries with horses (cats, dogs, children, machinery etc) after living in France for over a decade, then moving back to England... Just a thought but would you move within Ireland to somewhere a bit less wet (I hear West coast is very wet)? We are considering moving to ROI or Scotland in a few years, as I really don't want to learn another language again or move too far away from parents (Would love NZ else!) But like you have 1 move left in me (in my 40th decade too)! Just somewhere semi rural, less populated & with affordable property so can have horses at home & have a smallholding again & not be too hot! Speaking in your naitive tongue makes life so much easier... You mentioned Cornwall / Devon, which is where I am but it's expensive to buy a house with acreage, very busy where we are (especially in holidays) & getting planning on agricultural land is very hard. I miss the quiet of rural France but not much else tbh (nice for holidays)..
 
Hi Kastell ? thanks for sharing your experiences. Im of a similar mind to you re foreign countries due to language barrier, and also learning different laws regarding everyday activities....roads, car taxing legalities etc....it was bad enough in the ROI when landing here, but at least can understand the lingo...only just! ?

Where we end up depends on the housing markets. We have a ‘farm in progress’ and so building work/land improvement has been ongoing for over a decade and has increased the value of our place....but then if covid collapses the markets again, after ROI was finally climbing out of the 2008 recession hole ....our time for selling could be put back by a few years.

The south east ROI is preferable for less wet weather. Im mid west in the first ‘section’ of mountain valleys, so the atlantic weather drops the weight of its weather here, due to topographical/barometric pressure change. Rainfall and sunshine hours match the highlands of scotland here. Majority grey skies, majority wet weather, makes farming and crop/animal rearing less enjoyable than it should be, i hate to, but have to admit.

I do love devon/cornwall...maybe money will flow enough to enable a purchase there in the future? Around 3 years ago i saw a residential farm there with at least 15 acres, loads of stables, outbuildings, hay shelters, yards etc AND a huge indoor school with modest house for only 380k!! I thought that was strangely cheap and wondered what was wrong there....a motorway planned? Wind farm next door? Psycho killer neighbour?! Lol...that listing was on landandfarms.co.uk.

You would love the peace and quiet of ROI. The land is generally better in the south east due to better weather. I even have limestone acres here, alongside bog, but the rainfall level certainly makes managing them more tricky. There is a lot of places with land for sale here, and cheaper than the uk! ROI has an population of about 3 million so youre going to think youre in damp france here! Its rurally nicely peaceful and the wildlife is lovely to immerse in. There’s many aspects of life here i just adore...and find very challenging to leave those aspects behind.

Whereabouts in france were you? Was it way too hot? Looking at the climate with a magnifier via online web stats, the north area seems to mirror the best weather of the uk, with it being more warmer and drier the further south one goes....but the east tends to have very cold winters. I was looking middle-south region, around 1000ml of annual rain, but the wind stats for down there seemed worrying....over 100 windy days of over 25km/h! I do wonder if these online weather ‘average stats’ are worth paying attention to..
 
So you're Bantry way? We were in Central Brittany, very much like Cornwall but hotter & drier in the Summer, with much less people (except the coast during holiday times)! The burocracy in France drove us crazy, very little is simple & work cotisations are a killer. It was hard to integrate, even though I spoke French, worked with others, joined various clubs & had kids in school there (they struggled having friends too ? - which was the nail in the coffin for me). It wasn't unusual to have to feed hay in Summer, I don't miss the heat! We did think of trying another area, liked the Dordogne / Limousin / Pyrenees but just too hot in Summer for me, also very cold in the Winter & awful biting flies! Lovely for holidays though. Although people seemed friendlier down there.

I'd be very surprised if you found a smallholding with 15 acres for £380k in the Westcountry! Realistically I'd say £450k upwards (4+ acres), even places with Agricultural ties aren't that cheap ?

The ROI sounds lovely, my concerns were location regarding rainfall / not being too rural & out riding, as hear there are no bridleways? East Cork to co Wexford maybe ok if we can afford somewhere, or higher up Co Roscommon near the lakes seems reasonably priced? We really need to visit several areas...
 
Kastell said:
I'd be very surprised if you found a smallholding with 15 acres for £380k in the Westcountry! Realistically I'd say £450k upwards (4+ acres), even places with Agricultural ties aren't that cheap ?
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I agree. I live in the Westcountry and looking for a place with a few acres and we’re struggling with a £500k budget.
There are barns with a Q class planning permission coming up which are cheaper if that appeals.
 
I used to work with horses in Tuscany many moons ago. It was a beautiful place with mild winters and hot summers (we rode early or late), but not ridiculously hot. It wouldn’t be cheap to buy there though.
 
Planning laws for a legitimate agricultural businesses have eased. I think you get three years temporary to see if the business is viable and then you can apply for full planning, or there is the Live/Work route. You would need to speak to a local land agent who deals with this sort of thing, there are plenty around.

For buying land you would need to be away from large cities to be affordable, so west of the River Severn out into Herefordshire getting towards the Welsh Borders. It is getting hilly but Herefordshire in particular there is potato and fruit growing so the land is good for crops. There are still small holdings for sale. Gloucestershire/Cotswolds can be very expensive, but on the flatter Severn valley it is less fashionable and cheaper - beware flood risk though.
 
The Cotswolds are ridiculously expensive, we've found we can't afford to buy here so are moving to Wales hopefully, well once the lock down is lifted all being well.
 
I sold 7.7 acres of windswept pony paddock on Dartmoor with a couple of dilapidated wooden stables and no services and bought an attractive farm in the west of Ireland with a three bed two bath house, a one bed traditional cottage and a range of useful agricultural buildings together with nine acres of admittedly wet pasture and a large bog. All in very good order and only a few kilometres from a town in either direction and 15 minutes from an airport. The sale of my two up two down mid terrace with screaming brats on one side and nasty people on the other has allowed me to give up work and live the life I want with no money problems. I love it here and couldn’t care less if I ever set foot in Devon again. I moved to a hamlet inhabited by four families for generations and they are awesome in their friendliness, generosity and kindness. Nobody in Devon ever fetched up one day to replace a rotten beam in my hay shed because they just happened to notice it was rotten or to harrow and roll my fields just while they were doing their own or to knock shyly on my back door because they were worried about me when I forgot to draw my bedroom curtains one day. One neighbour in Devon blanked me for 25 years because I parked too close to her car. I pay 220 euro per year council tax, have no water rates, can build an arena without PP and hack to the Ox Mountains on the bog tracks without crossing any roads at all. Yes, I would have bought in a county with better soil given the choice but I am so thankful I couldn’t and didn‘t. I have lived all over the world and nowhere is perfect but I have found my own little corner of paradise here on the Sligo/Mayo border. This rant started out as you will need a great deal of money to buy a useful parcel of agricultural land in Devon, getting services attached will be dependant on neighbouring land owners giving permission to channel cables under their land and PP for a dwelling, if even possible, will be a complete nightmare and the weather isn’t all that either!
 
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