Horse
Farms and Equine Properties
This
is the time of year that folks from down south of us head for
the mountains and the fresh COOL air! For those of you who have
discovered the lands I love and where I am active in equine
property transactions, this information may be of interest.
Madison
County, located in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Western North Carolina,
is a rural county with steep terrain and large rolling pasturelands.
Only half an hour or so from Asheville, it is home to approximately
3,500 small family farms. Agriculture is the largest industry
in the county. In fact, agriculture accounts for half of the gross
income in the county. Here in Madison County, where streams and
pastures and hollers and coves abound, you may look out your window
as you drive the scenic (excellently maintained) country roads
and notice, out one window, horses grazing happily on the best
grass you can imagine, and out another window, the neat rows of
tobacco crops. (Madison County is the largest burley tobacco producing
county in North Carolina.) There are approximately 2,350 farms
with burley tobacco quotas. A decade ago, burley tobacco accounted
for $10 to $12 million for agriculture income annually. But recently,
the demand for tobacco has been on the decline, and so our local
crops are changing.
Farmers
are diversifying! If you are a nonsmoker or a smoker, you still
will be able to enjoy the new crops, because with the recent decline
in burley tobacco, farmers have been cultivating the most amazing
ORGANIC crops. Vegetable, organic and nursery crops have increased
dramatically since 1998. Stop by the family-run vegetable, fruit
and flower market just as you come in to Mars Hill, and you will
see what I mean.
The
small family horse farm with riding ring and stables is popular
here. In fact, Western North Carolina horse farms in the greater
Asheville area offer equestrian living at its best. All across
the rolling land here you will discover wonderful horse property,
equestrian communities, and exceptional estate properties such
as THIS one:
Horse Farms and Equine Properties For Sale Around Asheville
Are Magnetic!
Here
in the Asheville area there are many excellent properties for
horses that are on the market, and if you start looking, you will
not be able to stop until you find the one for you. These beauties
have rolling pastures and bubbling streams and barns with electricity
and water. In case you haven't guessed it already, I have such
a property for sale about half an hour north of Asheville myself
right now. The owners of this small horse farm live in Florida.
They really didn’t want to leave Western North Carolina,
but their business carried them south and now they are homesick
for their farm and looking for the “right” folks to
buy it. They love their farm…the remodeled farm house that
they put so much effort into, the water feature that they built,
the 20+ acres with PRISTINE views where they thought they would
build their retirement home on one of the three building sites
near the springs …
Their
caring for the land and their love of their horse farm has inspired
me.
I have been thinking about horses a lot lately. I have been wondering
what happens to old horses.I started doing some research online
and I found this:
“
When you have a horse that you want to have a good life and you
can't guarantee that you can provide it for the horse's entire
life, train it well! Give it an all-purpose base of knowledge,
not just training in a certain field. Teach it to calmly accept
screaming children and barking dogs and fluttering plastic and
all other manner of scary things so that it will not hurt people
by accident and get a bad reputation.
Teach
it to lead with respect, not pulling you around and eating what
and when it wants because somebody else's solution might be to
beat it or use a harsher leading technique that could get the
horse hurt. Teach the horse to accept you throwing the saddle
on and jumping on and going riding, killer buyers that are testing
out whether or not horses are broke do not take the time to longe
the horses first. Teach your horse to tolerate even the most beginner
rider and that horse will be valuable to someone as a first horse
for their 8 year old child, even when the horse is 25 or 30.”
As I read the above, I can envision my
grandkids riding trails along the broad pasture into a wooded glen on a small horse farm(maybe 20 acres or so) or perhaps
the whole family enjoying the equestrian amenities at one of the communities in the rolling mountains just north of
Asheville. On this sunny day, I am mighty inclined to do so myself!
For availability of such properties please CONTACT
HorseLady@janeAnne.com Your Equestrian Properties Connection in the Greater Asheville Area.
|
