Kentucky Horse Farms & Equestrian Real Estate Blog
Posted on September 25, 2007
Is your Real Estate Agent an equestrian specialist?
Your real estate agent may know houses - but what do they know about horses and farms?
A real estate agent that does primarily residential homes will most likely NOT know all the ins-and-outs when it comes to dealing with horse farms.
There are literally HUNDREDS of questions that an equestrian specialist should know to provide guidance for their clients. [And it goes well beyond knowing which end of the horse you give the hay to.]
Here are just a few questions to ask your prospective real estate agent:
How many acres do you need per horse?
Answer: Do you intend to provide full care with stalls, feed, & supplements? Or are you going to provide solely field care, with only a run-in shed for shelter?
For Kentucky, its fairly accepted that to sustain a horse, its 2.4 acres per horse with constant turn out and no grain supplementation. If you provide feed and rotate pastures, it can go as low as 1 acre in some areas - but this minimum is becoming restricted out by many government zoning regulations.
Ask your real estate agent for guidance.
Have the fields been seeded/planted with any type of pasture mix grasses suitable for horses?
Answer: Hay/grass suitable for cows is usually NOT high enough quality for horses. And if you have pregnant mares - you better check if the property has any Tall Fescue. Mares can abort their foals if they feed on this grass. Fescue is a common grass for grazing because its easily established, tolerates close grazing, survives drought conditions that can wither other grasses, and it stands up to heavy traffic. It is also resistant to disease, insects, and weed competition. But, this “wonder grass”, can also carry a toxin that is associated with an endophyte fungus. The fungus lives within the plant and cannot be detected visually; however, you can test the fescue for the level of endophyte infection. So you need to know, particularly if you have mares: is there any Tall Fescue on the property? Please note that there are some endophyte free varieties of fescue available - most of these are called short fescue.
What type of fencing is appropriate for horses?
Answer: Fencing for other livestock is probably not what you should use for horses. Remember the old term “horse play”. Theres a reason why that term exists. Horses are active, large animals that when they get going, they can get themselves into trouble in a hurry if you don’t provide them a safe environment within which to roam.
There are LOTS of choices available: diamond mesh, no climb, PVC, HTP, etc, etc. I’m going to discuss 2 varieties in particular - one is traditional, and the other is a new product just entering the market.
First, the traditional: One of the most common types of fencing for horses is 3 or 4 board fence (it is commonly referred to as “Kentucky Style Fence”).
Common 3 board Kentucky Style fence:
However, one important thing to note: installing fence for maximum safety is different than installation for aesthetics.
Installation for aesthetics has the boards placed on the outside of where the horses will be. It is visually more appealing - but if a horse builds up a good head of steam and runs into the fence, instead of having to break the boards, all they have to do is push the nails out - and the boards with the nails still in them, will be laying on the ground while your horse is roaming free.
Installation for safety has the boards placed on the inside where the horses will be. That way, if a horse runs into the fence, they actually have to break the boards to get through. Common way of finding out if the fence is installed this way, is asking a non-horse person: “does the fence look like it was put in backwards?” If they say yes, then you know its probably installed with safety taking a priority over athletics.
(click on pictures to enlarge)
Fence installed for Aesthetics:
Fence installed for Safety:
And there are 2 main types of wood used for this type of fence: Oak and Poplar. Oak is harder and as a result, horses don’t chew on it as much - but it can be prone to splitting, cracking, and warping. Poplar is a softer wood that generally stays straighter, and is less prone to split, crack, or warp - BUT horses like to chew on it. A lot of persons go with an oak board for the top rail, and poplar for the others. This allows the horses to chew on the hard oak (which they don’t like usually), while having the benefit of straighter boards on the bottom rails - where horses are less likely to chew regularly.
The 2nd type of fence is a new product that is gaining acceptance within the horse community called Electrobraid. It looks essentially like a yachting rope, that has wire woven into it. Since its rope, its flexible - with no hard edges or sharp points. And unlike board fence that you may end up replacing every 5-7 years - it comes with a 25 year warranty.
Again, ask your real estate agent for guidance on what may be best suited for your needs.
These are just a few of the MANY, MANY questions (and answers) that your real estate agent should be able to provide if they are a proficient horse farm real estate professional.
Other questions include:
Riding Arena construction: Most arenas are constructed incorrectly. Did they remove the top soil and get down to clay to begin construction? If they had to place fill, what compaction % should the sub-base be rated at? what grade should the arena be? what base should you use: gravel? dense grade? stone dust? what about top coat choices - did they use regular sand, or angulated sand? or did they go with one of the composite materials? or perhaps a blend? did they use a french drain?
Barn design: how large of an aisle do you need? what about ceiling height? how large do the stalls need to be? how much hay storage do you need per horse?
ETC.
ETC.
The list goes on and on and on.
Hundreds of items that your real estate agent should know. Do they?
Make sure your real estate agent is knowledgeable - and that they are able to provide for you in your search for your horse farm. A real estate agent that is an equestrian real estate specialist can provide very valuable tips, advice, and guidance to ensure your needs are addressed in your horse farms purchase.
Looking for Kentucky Horse Farms For Sale, or Kentucky Land For Sale? Be sure to visit: Kentucky Horse Farms For Sale
Wanting to discuss with others about Training, upcoming Events and Clinics, Kentucky Horse Farms, or Equestrian Real Estate? Check out: Kentucky Horse Farms Forum
Welcome to Kentucky Horse Farms Blog!
This site has information about Kentucky horse farms, equestrian real estate - and OUR home in Shelbyville KY:
Equistan Farm
(equi = horse, stan = land of -> Equistan = land of horses)
This blog is so you can read about Kentucky Horse Farms, and Equestrian Real Estate. Other Farms in Louisville Kentucky and the surrounding metropolitan areas. As well as our home in Shelbyville Kentucky, and other Horse Properties in Kentucky.Who are we? Jon and Jennifer Karlen are Realtors with RE/MAX Properties East in Louisville Kentucky with services available in the Lexington Kentucky and Louisville Kentucky metropolitan areas. Our horse farm is in Shelbyville Kentucky. We’ve both been been full time real estate professionals since 1992.Here’s some information about our farm: We own 30 acres in Shelbyville KY.
Here’s what our farm looks like today:
My wife and I purchased our 30 acre horse farm in 2005 and built a custom barn/house. The entire upstairs and front offset is the living quarters for people, and the rest is the living quarters for the horses (stalls, wash rack, feed room, etc).
Here’s some photos of the inside:
We’re very happy with how the finished product turned out. (Its just a shame it took so much effort to get it in top shape.) A lot of persons that come out to our place in Shelbyville Kentucky have nicknamed it Horse Heaven because its just got a certain energy out here thats hard to describe. (Its great for people too - not only horses!)We have 3 horses of our own, and currently board other person’s horses that no longer have a job (i.e. retireds or layups). As you can imagine being in Kentucky - a lot of horses need a home when they lose their job (unable to race, jump, etc). Otherwise, they can end up going to the killers. 
So, we’re glad to provide them a home.
Its time for a shameless plug:
While you are here, be sure and check out some other sites with excellent information:
Looking for Kentucky Farms For Sale, Land, Equine Communities, or other Horse Properties in KY? Be sure to visit: Kentucky Farms For Sale
Wanting to discuss with others about Training, upcoming Events / Clinics, Horse Properties in Kentucky, Kentucky Horse Farms, or Equestrian Real Estate, etc? Check out: Kentucky Horse Farms Forum
Now that you’ve seen what it is today - let me show you the mess that it was before:
Lovely, isn’t it?
We had the mobile home, trailer, et.al. hauled away.
30 dumpster loads, 1 year, and a lot of back breaking work later - and we ended up with the result that you see in the first photo.
We ended up having a D6 Bulldozer work for quite a while just to get the fence rows down to a semi-manageable level. The fencerows were up to 30 FEET across because they were so overgrown with brush, thorns, and scrubby trees.
It took a lot of effort (and dollars) to finally get it shaped up so we could even see what we had to work with.
But, make one visit out here, and you can easily see that it was well worth it.
We get more visitors out here now in a month, than we got in the entire 9 years of living on a golf course in town in Louisville Kentucky.
Our Horse Farm Barn Cats
Today, I thought I’d write about 2 of our employees: our 2 horse farm barn cats. We adopted them from the local animal shelter in Shelbyville KY. Here’s a photo of them:
Elvira is the striped one on the left. She got her name because she always was checking out the dark nooks and crannys in the barn - hence, she’s the “mistress of the dark”. And Spike, is the mostly white one on the right. She got her name because whenever she sees you, her tail goes straight up in the air like a railroad spike.We got both of them at the local Shelbyville Kentucky Animal Shelter.They were several months old and in the in-between stage between too big for kittens, and too small for cats. They were quite personable, and they were small - which was something I was looking for.Small cats can more easily get into the tight nooks that you find in various places in your horse barn. Under the pallets that the hay sitting on is an ideal place for mice and other vermin to set up home.With smaller cats, they can get under, beside, and between the slats of the pallets where the hay is and make sure that nothing is making themselves at home.
Other Equestrian, and real estate information:
American Saddlebred Horse Association
4083 Iron Works Parkway
Lexington, KY 40511
Phone: (859) 259-2742
Fax: (859) 259-1628
E-mail: saddlebred@asha.net
Office Hours: Monday through Friday
8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. (Eastern Time)
Henry County Equine Association
Contact: Connie Snowden
Phone: 502-532-0318
Email: Connie@hcequine.com
Oldham County Kentucky Equine Council
Contact: Connie Snowden
Crestwood Kentucky 40014
Email: equinecouncil@oldhamequinecouncil.org
United States Equestrian Federation
4047 Iron Works Parkway
Lexington, KY 40511
Phone: 859-258-2472
Fax: 859-231-6662
United States Eventing Association
525 Old Waterford Road, NW
Leesburg, VA 20176
Office Number: (703) 779-0440
Fax Number: (703) 779-0550
email Address: info@useventing.com
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