What Happens After You Close: Your First 90 Days on Horse Property
What Happens After You Close: Your First 90 Days on Horse Property
Closing day feels like the finish line, but on horse property, it's really the starting line. Here's what I tell every client to prioritize in the first three months.
Week One: Verify What You Were Told
Before you get comfortable, physically confirm the things you verified on paper during the purchase — walk the irrigation ditches and check the gates and ports if the property has flood irrigation, confirm the well's actual output if it has one, and locate the septic system and any recent inspection records. Things that were "confirmed" during due diligence are worth a hands-on double-check once you actually own the property.
Weeks Two Through Four: Build Your Local Network
This is the window to establish a relationship with a large-animal vet and a farrier before you actually need one in an emergency — ask neighbors and any nearby boarding facilities who they use, and confirm whether your vet does true farm calls. Given the real shortage of large-animal veterinary care across rural Arizona, this isn't optional, and it's much harder to sort out during an actual emergency than ahead of time.
Month Two: Lock In Your Feed Supply
Identify a reliable local hay supplier before you're down to your last bale, and budget realistically — hay pricing spikes in winter, so don't plan your ongoing budget off whatever the summer rate happened to be when you moved in. If pelletized feed makes sense for your setup, this is the window to test it out before you're relying on it exclusively.
Month Three: Handle the Paperwork You Might Have Deferred
If you relocated with horses, confirm your Coggins test and health certificate timelines are still current, especially if more travel is planned. If your property has an irrigation allotment that hadn't been used recently before you bought, check on reinstatement status — allotments that sit unused for over a year can take a full year to get back on schedule, so this isn't something to let slide.
The Bottom Line
The purchase is the easy part. The first 90 days are where you actually turn a property into a working horse property — verify what you were told, build your emergency network before you need it, and get ahead of the recurring costs before they catch you off guard.
Just closed, or about to? I'm happy to walk through this checklist with you directly. Call or text Kim Williamson at 480-206-1500 or visit www.ArizonaHorsePropertyForSale.com.
Kim Williamson, REALTOR® | 8x WPRA World Champion | 24 years East Valley experience | Real Brokerage | 480-206-1500 | arizonahorsepropertyforsale.com
