Zuma’s Ranch

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, hay barn, and residence. County approval reaches past what agricultural zoning allows: 50 horses, boarding, training, lessons, therapy and education programs, and a large animal hospital. Entitled to earn, in Colorado's wealthiest county. Land Set in the foothills of northwestern Douglas County at 5,820 feet, the property encompasses 55.37 acres of rolling native grassland and established pastures. 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 that the mapping does not convey. The suburban edge drops away quickly, and what is left is distance, buffer, and a working ranch that happens to be twenty minutes from anything you need. Deer and other wildlife move through regularly.

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. A recorded vehicular easement covers the shared driveways.

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

Recorded covenants govern the property today, addressing among other things outdoor storage, motorized recreation, and hunting. Sellers intend to place additional deed restrictions keeping the property in agricultural and equestrian use, with a building envelope reserved for one additional residence, and intend to place comparable restrictions on the adjoining 35. Those restrictions will be recorded at closing rather than in advance, so a buyer will have them in hand during the transaction rather than inheriting a document already of record.

Improvements Developed over twenty-six years from open ground into a working year-round equestrian campus. The infrastructure is excellent and unpretentious. Nothing here is a design statement, and everything is built to work.

The covered arena building runs 45,000 square feet under roof. The main arena is substantially larger than a standard Colorado indoor, and the same structure houses a sectioned second private arena, 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.

64,000 square foot lighted outdoor arena

26 stalls with wash bays, grooming bays, and a professional tack room, with the hay barn adaptable to additional stalls

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

The residence was built in 2023 and runs 3,072 square feet, currently configured as two units, three bedrooms and two baths in one and two bedrooms and two baths in the other, with forced air heat and air conditioning. Mountain, city, and open-range views. It can house an owner, a manager, or staff, or produces rental income. 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.

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 rather than ride only what exists.

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 rather than exhaustive. The infrastructure does not favor a particular discipline and can easily be adapted to a variety of uses.

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.

Agriculture Native grasses currently 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.

Water/Mineral Rights & Natural Resources 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. That is a meaningful thing to hold on a property where an operation at full capacity puts real demand on a single source. RoxWater draws surface water from Rocky Mountain snowmelt under a long-term agreement with Aurora carrying automatic renewals, and the district was recognized for bringing reliable supply to a part of northwest Douglas County that had depended entirely on wells. Connection would be an investment. How it would interact with the existing well permit is a question for the district and the Division of Water Resources.

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

General Operations The land is zoned agricultural, but the approvals reach well beyond this designation. While 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 Section 2409 of the Douglas County Zoning Resolution, boarded horses at this acreage are otherwise limited to four; owned horses are not limited. That approval is the difference between keeping horses here and running an operation, and it attaches to the land rather than 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 a therapeutic, educational, or veterans program under an operator. None of that is required, and an owner who wants the place purely private can have it. What the approvals provide is the option, and several of them at once, so the property can carry part of its own cost or none of it depending on what an owner wants.

Large animal 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 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.

The facility is currently operating well below what it is entitled and equipped to do. Financial information is available to qualified buyers under a confidentiality agreement.

Annual taxes ran $14,995 in 2025, an effective rate that will surprise buyers accustomed to carrying comparable acreage and infrastructure elsewhere.

Region & 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 rather than the heat and humidity that shut barns down elsewhere.

Between the climate and the covered arena, horses stay in work twelve months a year, which is why this works equally as a year-round home or as a summer base for an operation that winters south.

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, and that history accounts for much of what stands here today.

The real estate is offered independent of the nonprofit. Sellers are open to discussing transfer of the organization separately with a buyer who wants it, which is one possibility among many rather than a condition of sale.

Consider what it would take to build this instead. Find fifty-five suitable acres in this corridor, which are largely gone, and buy them at what land now trades for. Take the entitlements through Douglas County by special review, which means public hearings, an engineered site plan, traffic and water supply analysis, and an approved management plan, measured in years rather than months, with no guarantee of the outcome. Then build the arena complex, a 26-stall barn, 21 paddocks with automatic waterers and shelters, a lighted outdoor arena, a hay barn, a residence, and the water and septic infrastructure to serve it, at today’s construction costs. You would spend well past this asking price, wait years on the approvals, and still be starting from raw ground.

Facilities of this quality exist. They are usually two hours from an airport, or half this size, or zoned to keep horses and nothing more. The combination here is the difficult part.

Location 7745 Moore Road, Littleton, Colorado 80125, between Highlands Ranch and Castle Rock, among 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 minutes. Denver Tech Center, hospitals, dining, and shopping are twenty minutes. Colorado Springs is about an hour. Served by the Douglas County School District.

Shown by appointment to qualified buyers, who will be asked to demonstrate ability to purchase before showings are scheduled.

Please note. The Use by Special Review approval and its amendment are described here in general terms. How those approvals transfer, what conditions attach, and whether a particular intended use is permitted are questions for the buyer to resolve directly with Douglas County during due diligence. Recorded covenants and easements affecting the property should be reviewed through the title commitment. Additional deed restrictions are being prepared and will be recorded at closing; buyers should review them with their own counsel. Well permitting for the property is the subject of differing accounts and should be confirmed with the Colorado Division of Water Resources. The will-serve letter and any municipal water connection terms should be confirmed with the Roxborough Water and Sanitation District. The 45,000 square foot figure describes the arena building rather than the arena itself, and arena dimensions have not been independently measured. The residence is currently configured and occupied as two units; buyers should verify permitted occupancy with Douglas County. Fencing, improvements, and equipment convey in their present condition; equipment on site does not convey unless separately negotiated. The adjoining 35 acres is not part of this listing and any acquisition would be a separate transaction. Information herein is from sources deemed reliable but is not guaranteed.