Seems straightforward right? Obviously, you should only use a broker that specializes in the area and type of home you are looking for. Well, as an agent who works with buyers and sellers in this market, it’s astounding the number of times an EQ property isn’t listed or shown by someone who knows horses at all. If you’re a buyer or seller here’s a clear idea of why you should ONLY work with a specialized agent, and if you’re an agent reading this hopefully it helps with why you should not work in this area unless you get knowledgeable or at the very least call an agent who is, for some support.
Here’s a bit of background on myself: I grew up in the barn, parents had Arabians. At 6 I enrolled in professional lessons and showed up locally and regionally. I transitioned to showing at the top world level for 5 years in the ApHC industry. In those 5 years accumulated 20X world titles on one horse. For college, I was given a scholarship to Fresno State, showed up traveling all year on the team, and was awarded All-American honors. Here I became friends with girls all over North America who specialize in different forms of riding. On top of this, I’ve been watching my mom for years specializing in equine and acreage properties. Why is this important—because there isn’t a lot I know, but horses I know well. So, with that here’s why you should choose an agent who also knows horses well when dealing with horse properties.
Upon listing EQ Facility the first thing we tend to ask a buyer’s agent is what kind of riding does your client do?-- a majority of agents don’t even compute or understand that this makes a tremendous difference if the property will work or not for their client. If you are an agent who didn’t realize there are a ton of different types of riding and this can affect the property needed, please refer the client immediately. On the flip side if your agent can’t tell you the needs and marketability of an equine property don’t use them. Here are a few reasons to show why if you don’t know horses don’t sell an equine property.
For the sake of space and writing, I’ll keep it simple and use two common styles that you’ll see in the PNW—Jumping and Reining. The typical “Jumping” client (using this term loosely as there are so many nuances) has a bigger horse. Bigger horse means bigger stalls, a little 10X10ft isn’t going to work for most of these horses—not only that if the support beams in the barn are low in the barn, but this could also cause serious injury. So, for them, a barn with big stalls with plenty of overhead room is needed. Reining, these horses on average are smaller, excluding breeding, most clients can manage a smaller stall for their horses (not everyone, however, most are ok).
Moving onto the arena. What’s the footing like? Reining is going to require footing with a completely different base, as well as, top sand. With Reining the horses are required to slide across the ground—if there’s not the right balance of footing this could cause extreme damage to the horse, especially in the hind end. For Jumping it’s almost the opposite of what you look for. Here horses are high impact in the front so you look for footing that can absorb that pressure. Each person will have their preference for the exact type of footing. Changing/converting this is a high-cost item to do. Both these events typically like larger arenas. Jumping, if indoors, will require a higher ceiling as the horse and rider will be going up vertically.
Those are just two of so many things that are so unique to EQ listings, there are so many more facility nuances that are important, as well as, zoning, permitting, drainage, pastures, manure, environmental issues, the list goes on… I really could write a book about this subject. However, this is already long so I’ll cut it off there.
In short, using an agent that knows and understands horses and horse property can really make the difference not only in reaching a great buyer but also can help facilitate and foresee potential challenges that might come up. As a buyer having an agent who understands horse property and can accurately articulate what you need in a facility as well as having experienced the permitting side of horse property can make a world of difference.
Hopefully, this sheds some light on this sub-culture! Thanks for reading!
Kindly,
Taeya Harle
