Zuma's Ranch | Colorado Equestrian Facility

Fifty-five entitled acres thirty minutes from Denver, built over twenty-six years into one of the Front Range's most capable equestrian facilities. Covered and lighted arenas, 26 stalls, 21 paddocks, a hay barn, a veterinary clinic building, and a residence built in 2023. County approval, as amended, reaches well past what agricultural zoning allows: 50 horses, boarding, training, lessons, therapy and education programs, clinics and camps, and a large animal hospital. The facility operates today well below what it is approved to do.

THE LAND

Set in the foothills of northwestern Douglas County at 5,820 feet, the property covers 55.37 acres of rolling native grassland and established pasture. The Front Range runs the western horizon, and the landscape reminds you daily where you are.

The ranch sits at the end of a dead-end road on a rise the mapping does not convey. The suburban edge drops away quickly, leaving distance, buffer, and deer moving through a working ranch that is twenty minutes from anything you need.

Mutual bridle path easements, recorded rather than licensed, connect the ranch to two adjoining parcels. Owners may mow and route paths across those parcels, so riding extends beyond the property line and the network is not fixed to what exists today.

An adjoining 35 acres under the same ownership is not part of this listing but is available to a buyer who wants it with the main property. It would add land, turnout, and residential capacity.

Recorded covenants govern the property today, addressing among other things outdoor storage, motorized vehicles, hunting, and the discharge of firearms. The sellers intend the property to remain agricultural and equestrian, and additional use restrictions will be recorded at closing.

THE FACILITY

Developed from open ground into a working year-round equestrian campus. Nothing here is a design statement, and everything is built to work.

In Colorado a serious operation lives or dies on its indoor. The covered arena building runs 45,000 square feet under roof, with a main arena closer to a covered show arena than a training ring, and a sectioned second arena at one end for young horses, quiet work, or lessons running alongside the main ring. Under the same roof: a gathering area with two restrooms and showers, two private offices with administrative space, a conference room and classroom, and a full kitchen and laundry. A covered causeway runs from the barn to the arena, which is worth more in February than any other feature on the property.

The lighted outdoor arena runs 64,000 square feet. Between the two, horses stay in work twelve months a year.

26 stalls with wash bays, grooming bays, and a professional tack room.

21 paddocks with automatic waterers and covered shelters.

7,000 square foot hay and equipment barn, adaptable to additional stalls.

Round pen, fenced paddocks and turnout, largely in PVC.

Veterinary clinic building under roof, ready for interior completion.

Drive and staging built to handle large rigs and hay delivery, with overflow and trailer parking.

The residence was built in 2023 and runs 3,072 square feet with five bedrooms and four baths, currently configured as two units, so an owner and a manager can each live on the property. Current staff have expressed willingness to remain, so an operation need not stop on closing day. Equipment on site does not convey but is available to negotiate.

WHAT IS APPROVED HERE

The land is zoned agricultural, but the approvals reach well beyond it. Agricultural zoning lets you keep horses. What is approved here lets you run a business, or several, or lease any part of the operation to someone who will.

Douglas County has approved this property by special review, as subsequently amended, for riding instruction, training, and boarding; equine-assisted therapy and mental health programming; clinics, camps, and retreats; educational programming; a large animal hospital; and limited on-site overnight stays. Fifty horses are approved, twenty-five owned and twenty-five boarded. Under the county's zoning resolution, boarded horses at this acreage are otherwise limited to four. That approval is the difference between keeping horses here and running an operation, and it attaches to the land, not to any operator.

An owner can keep a personal string and let a trainer fill the boarding and lesson side. The clinic building can be leased to a veterinarian or completed and run directly. A clinic, camp, and retreat calendar can run alongside, or a therapeutic, educational, or veterans program can operate under its own director. The approvals came through the county's special review process, with the traffic, water, and site review that process entails, and they open ways to earn from this property that pure agricultural land cannot offer.

Large animal veterinary services on this side of the metro are limited relative to the population, particularly surgical capacity, and the corridor continues to grow. The clinic approval and a building already under roof make this one of the few sites in the region where a practice could open on entitlements that already exist. The overnight approval allows owners to stay on site while a horse is in care.

The location is what makes the approvals worth having. Douglas County has the highest median household income in Colorado and ranks among the wealthiest counties in the country, with strongly rated schools and rapid population growth. Boarding clients, lesson students, junior riders, program participants, and veterinary patients are already within twenty minutes of the gate, as are the veterinarians, farriers, feed suppliers, and staff an operation this size runs on. A comparable facility in a remote county is a private indulgence. This one has a market at the gate.

RIDING AND RECREATION

Riding begins at the barn door and continues past the property line. Mowed bridle paths cross the adjoining parcels under recorded mutual easements, and an owner may route new ones.

The facility suits reining, cutting, hunters and jumpers, dressage, eventing, sport horse breeding, or a polo string kept at home, with room to convert paddock acreage to a practice field. That list is illustrative, not exhaustive.

Chatfield Reservoir and Roxborough Park are a short drive. The Colorado Horse Park in Parker is about thirty-five minutes. Skiing, blue ribbon fishing, and whitewater are roughly an hour west.

WATER, UTILITIES, AND MINERALS

The property is served by a permitted well, four cisterns with two currently in use including one of 6,500 gallons, and septic serving both the residence and the facility. Power is distributed across multiple meters.

A will-serve letter from the Roxborough Water and Sanitation District gives the option to connect to municipal water. The district draws surface water from Rocky Mountain snowmelt under a long-term agreement with Aurora carrying automatic renewals, and it was recognized for bringing reliable supply to a part of northwest Douglas County that had depended entirely on wells. Connection would be an investment, and it would give an operation at full capacity a second and more robust source.

Adjudicated underground water rights and mineral rights are retained by seller unless otherwise negotiated.

AGRICULTURE

Native grasses support pasturing. In a favorable year, with rotational grazing in place, there is potential to put up grass hay for winter. Manure handling is established and permitted.

CLIMATE

The Front Range is semi-arid and sunny, with more than 300 clear days a year and 8 to 15 inches of annual precipitation. The practical effect on a horse operation is dry ground, footing that drains and dries quickly, no extended mud season, and few flies. Winters are mild by Rocky Mountain standards; the hard weather stays west in the mountains, storms move through quickly, and snow rarely lingers. Summer days run warm and dry with cool evenings, not the heat and humidity that shut barns down elsewhere. This works equally as a year-round home or as a summer base for an operation that winters south.

LOCATION

Between Highlands Ranch and Castle Rock, in the horse country of Douglas County, with Parker, Larkspur, and Sedalia within easy reach. Thirty minutes to Denver. Twenty-five minutes to Centennial Airport, which has a 10,000-foot runway, a 24-hour tower, and US Customs on site; Denver International is about fifty. Denver Tech Center, hospitals, dining, and shopping are twenty minutes. Colorado Springs is about an hour.

HISTORY

The property was developed as American Sport Horses, a hunter/jumper facility whose owners competed nationally through 2004. It later became home to Zuma's Rescue Ranch, a 501(c)(3) known throughout Colorado for equine rescue and equine-assisted therapy. The real estate is offered independent of that organization, though sellers are open to discussing its transfer with a buyer interested in continuing the work.

Annual taxes were $14,995 in 2025.

Shown by appointment to qualified buyers.

Please note: Buyers should confirm the terms, conditions, transferability, and current status of the special review approval and its amendment, and the permitted occupancy of the residence, with Douglas County; well permitting and permitted uses with the Colorado Division of Water Resources; the terms of municipal water connection with the Roxborough Water and Sanitation District; and recorded covenants and easements through the title commitment. Additional use restrictions will be recorded at closing and should be reviewed with counsel during the transaction. Arena dimensions have not been independently measured. Equipment on site does not convey unless separately negotiated. Showings require proof of ability to purchase. All information is subject to verification by buyer and is not guaranteed.