The pheasant hunting is limited in Utah for sure. Back in the day, it used to be pretty good in quite a few different areas. Development, predators, and clean farming techniques have pretty much put the pheasants on their heels. I hunt in Cache Valley where I fortunately have access to some family land. Every year, I have to run a few people off who try to sneak on or don't pay attention to signs. I feel bad but even with limited hunting, the 200 or so acres are only good for 2-4 limits(4-8 roosters) over the first week or so of hunting. I take my son and a couple of his or my friends... that's about it. It is a limited resource for sure, in reality a training tune-up for my dog so we don't get embarrassed by my "hard core" friends in Kansas!!!
Good luck with IHC in Utah. They are the "1000 lb. Gorilla" in our state wrt to health care. They are not my favorite. Once owned by the LDS Church, they are now a huge non-profit organization which have the majority of hospitals in the state as well as a large insurance "footprint"/product that directs all of its policy holders to IHC hospitals (surprise!!!!). They unfortunately still benefit from their earlier ownership by the Church politically and can be quite heavy handed at times. I believe they actually stand in the way of competition given their corporate structure and could care less about lowering the cost of health care. They in reality would love to snuff out the competition (HCA, Iasis, and others). I actually am not a fan of corporate medicine in general. All corporations are top heavy and greedy, for the most part just add to the cost of the care provided by those on the front lines. Between the government and corporations, health care in this country is screwed for all and I don't see any end in sight short of catastrophe or a modern day Teddy Roosevelt coming along and castrating the whole mess!
With that off my chest, I suspect if you are employed on the corporate side of things, you will do just fine as I think their employees are fairly satisfied and stable with their market share, as long as the "Gorilla" can continue to stay up on it's feet.
As to horse property and open spaces, they are pretty much gone in the Salt Lake Valley for all practical purposes. The land is just too valuable/expensive. As mentioned earlier, you'd probably have to look at the Payson area south of Provo, Brigham City/Willard area north of Ogden, Tooele valley west of SLC, or the mountain valleys east of Ogden and Provo near Morgan or Heber. I'm guessing cost would kind of go Park City>Heber>Morgan>Payson>Brigham City>Tooele but I could be wrong. Land prices are pretty high now, probably a lot like prime waterfront property in Minnesota. Not that it can't be a good investment for the future, but it will take a little "coin" for sure to get in the game. The bigger question will be whether you want to or can commute. IIRC, IHC's corporate offices are in downtown SLC., or at least they used to be. Their flagship hospital (competitors jokingly call it "DeathStar") is located mid-valley in Murray. Their other "large" hospitals along the Wasatch Front are McKay Dee Hospital in Ogden and Utah Valley Hospital in Provo. If you could be based out of one of these other hospitals, it would make one of these other daily commutes a little more tolerable (Park City or Tooele would work for downtown SLC).
The "best" range in my opinion is down near tikkanut but it is 2.5 hours south of SLC and unfortunately there are no IHC hospitals down in that area. I lived down there as well for about 9 years and I can tell you that I REALLY miss that range!!! Well kept secret in Utah but I suspect it has been "discovered" too!
Lots of good gun stores along the Wasatch Front including Cabelas (soon 2), Scheels, Sportsman's Warehouse (3) and Smith and Edwards as mentioned before, as well as well as Gunnies in Orem and Gallensons in downtown SLC. There are also some smaller chain stores as well as some pretty good pawn shops out there too!
Good luck with your decision!!!
