Moving! Need help deciding where!!!

Hey all,
My husband and I have decided to relocate. We have narrowed our search down to five states: Maryland, Connecticut, New York, Vermont, and Maine. We are wanting to be in the country where I can have my horses, but close enough to cities for work and shopping, etc. Do any of you live in any of these states? Can you give me an idea of what town we should look into? I am hoping to find somewhere with lots of trails!!
Thank you! DP

I live in MD. It's hard to find anything good price NEXT to DC (either a bad area or WAY too expensive), but I live about 1 hour from DC and about 30-40 mins from Baltimore and find it OK. There are bunch of commuter buses all around going to both - DC and Baltimore. BTW, DC (as well as Baltimore) is not a good place for shopping. :) It's cheaper and better choices if you go to the malls (say one really big one in Columbia, or Anne Arundel, or ...). One really nice county to live is Carroll County, but it's little futher away. Howard Co and Montgomery Co are closer to DC (more expensive though too). Some people live in Frederick Co. I'd stay away from PG county as it's pretty criminal one. I'm not very familiar with Anne Arundel co, but I know other people from that one on forum, so they may pitch in. Overall in MD there are LOTS of horse people, horse shops, parks with horse trails, etc.

I used to live in MD, the Eastern Shore is really nice but a hike to get to the big cities of DC and Baltimore but you can get some nice farm land and be close to the beach. My brother lives in Vermont, its beautiful there but darn cold in the winter for riding. MD has lots of horsey folks.

I lived in MD most of my life and loved it :) We were about an hr and half from baltimore in a town called Hagerstown. The area is filled with horse people/shows/events etc. Especially in the VA side horse farms galore..kinda feels liek Kentucky even though I've never been to Kentucky LOL...:)

Expensive to live up there. Scrap that idea, and move to Colorado!

One down side MD has high taxes! Florida has no income tax.... love it

Upstate New York (near the Adirondacks) has loads and loads of trails but it gets really cold in the winter and sucks to ride on the trails.

I live in CT and if you are in the Stamford or Greenwich area there are lots of trails, you should go to the state websites and search for the trail maps. Then you can see where the trails go and where there are more, and etc. Good luck!

I live in Vermont and have all my life. I go to UVM which is in Burlington. There really are only two places in the state worth living.

Burlington is a great city with lots of shopping, and there is always something to do. I love it! There are also a lot of little country town that are within a half hour drive of Burlington. Some towns to check out would be Ferrisburgh, Charlotte, Hinsburgh, Shelburne, Jericho are a few that come to mind. It is a pretty expensive area.

Middlebury is a great little town. There is some shopping. Not that much to do, but you won't have to travel far for food, and other basics. There are a few places to go clothes shopping as well. MIddlebury can be pretty pricey tax wise, but there are a lot of little towns around it that are defiantly in the country, and not as expensive. Some towns to look into are Bridport, Cornwall, Shoreham, Salisbury, New Haven just to name a few.

Good luck and let me know if you have any questions about VT. Feel free to PM me.

I went from living in Ohio, to MD. And one down side to MD is that it is very costly there. I am not sure how expensive things are where you live now, but I can say firsthand that compared to Ohio, MD was very expensive (In the Horse Industry).

BUT, on the other hand, there are a lot of events/shows and trainers in Southern MD. It is a bigger horse state than Ohio was. If shows/events/trainers are what you are looking for.

Trails? Move to Tennessee. The Big South Fork State Park has trails that you can ride on for days, all the way up into Kentucky! And there is no state income tax, and the property taxes are very low.