By Norm Powers
Photos By Brent Fleury
There’s an old saying that horse lovers use to explain their peculiar passion. "Nothing’s better for the inside of human," they will say, "than the outside of a horse." The effect rubs off even on those who may not actively participate in horse sports but who are nonetheless drawn to the tranquility of a warm, blue-skied day with horses grazing calmly in green pastures.
"The mountain views, rolling hills and deciduous trees set Tryon horse country apart," says Bonnie Lingerfelt, a joint master of the Tryon Hounds, one of the area’s two foxhunts. "These scenic vistas are so appealing, whether riding on trails, in a ring, or sitting on the back porch."
For generations, the Pacolet and Green River Valleys have been prime real estate for people and their horses. Large, elegant horse farms have flourished in and around towns like Tryon and Columbus in Polk County, Western North Carolina’s epicenter of horse sports, ever since an enterprising hotelier from Michigan named Carter P. Brown arrived in Tryon in 1917 to convert a former tuberculosis sanitarium into the now-famous Pine Crest Inn.
Brown was sure to include three barns and stabling for 30 horses for his guests, who could set out for a day’s foxhunting with Brown’s Tryon Hounds or try their skill at a horse show run by Brown’s Tryon Riding and Hunt Club. Both institutions are still going strong and have since been joined by a number of other opportunities for the equestrian.
"Carter was the man who put Tryon on the map as a horse center," says Colonel Charles Ross, an official and former chairman of the Riding & Hunt Club’s Block House Steeplechase, which has run every April since 1947. "He practically invented the place." Since Carter Brown’s day, a second foxhunt, the Green Creek Hounds, has taken up the chase.
A nine-month show season offers competition in everything from dressage to two-day eventing (available from volunteer-based organizations like the Blue Ridge Hunter Jumper Association and the Foothills Riding Club, among many others).
Venues for horse shows include Tryon’s venerable Harmon Field and the Foothills Equestrian Nature Center (FENCE). Both provide full-sized show rings, permanent stabling for exhibitors and, in the FENCE’s case, a cross-country course for eventing: a combination of stadium jumping, dressage and cross-country riding.
"Our area has the reputation nationwide for our equestrian lifestyle and all that our community has to offer over other areas of the United States," notes Lillie Brown of Tryon’s Re/Max Advantage Realty, which features a number of luxury equestrian properties on its list.
But where to find your own piece of equestrian heaven? Increasingly, the answer for many drawn to a horse-centered country lifestyle is a gated community that caters to the needs of horse lovers. "I think this is in response to baby boomers who don’t intend to retire in the same fashion as former generations," says Sheelah Clarkson, whose real estate agency represents properties from north of Asheville to upper Spartanburg and Greenville Counties in South Carolina.
One of the first area equestrian communities to establish itself was Motlow Creek, built in the early 1990s on 23 acres of former peach orchards in upper Spartanburg County, South Carolina. It set the trend by offering a 24-stall barn, riding rings and lessons along with home sites for sale. It was quickly followed by The Traces equestrian community along the North Carolina/South Carolina border. The central portion of the property retains the renovated original barn for boarders, with property owners’ horses given priority. The barn, paddocks, riding ring, two large pastures and the renovated main house are surrounded by a number of generously sized lots along the edges of the property.
Since these two pioneering communities opened their gates, the concept has attracted nationally based development firms and huge amounts of investment at much larger venues in even more rural surroundings, and some of these communities now combine horse sport with that other favorite pastime, golf.
"The fact that equestrian properties have grown in number means larger tracts and more open space, just because horses require space," says Madelon Wallace of Walker,Wallace & Emerson, another prominent area real estate firm representing a number of equestrian properties. "Thus the entire area has a ‘greener’ look than it might if it was just housing developments and golf courses."
The hamlet of Mill Spring, for example, is home to Bright’s Creek, a 5,000-acre private development that includes both a full-service equestrian center and a 19-hole, Tom Fazio-designed golf course (with a second one under construction) nestled into a deep valley between Cliffield and McCraw mountains, bordering Polk and Rutherford counties. The Bright’s Creek equestrian center offers full board for members’ horses, along with professional training and lessons in a number of disciplines. Miles of trails thread their way through the surrounding woods and hills. Membership comes with the purchase of one or more home site parcels ranging in size from one-half to five acres.
Along similar lines, White Oak Plantation, surrounding an Arnold Palmer-designed golf course, is planned on more than 900 acres just outside of Green Creek, offering 600 home sites and up to 800 condominium residences slated for construction in the next decade. Here, too, a world-class equestrian facility is planned under the guidance of Captain Mark Phillips, a retired British Army veteran and a former member of the British eventing team which won the gold medal at the Munich Olympics in 1972. Phillips now serves as the chef d’èquipe of the United States eventing team, and designed the cross-country course at FENCE. White Oak, which remained in the same family from 1742 to 2003, promises to "use an Old South plantation feeling with the architecture," and plans to retain the original family farmhouse as a meeting and retreat center.
In nearby Columbus, Hughes Creek Preserve encompasses 650 wooded acres with spectacular mountain views. Unlike its bigger brethren, Hughes Creek Preserve owners and developers chose to forego a golf course and the community is dedicated exclusively to home sites that can be developed as horse farms. Riding trails through the property connect to a wider network managed by a membership-based organization that includes trails throughout Polk County totaling hundreds of miles. Hughes Creek, along with Bright’s Creek and White Oak Plantation, have permanently protected their land with conservation easements to ensure control of future development efforts and the preservation of open space.
The rest of the country, too, is discovering the attractions of living with, or at least near, horses. An estimated 250 equestrian communities are now either in operation or are being planned, according to Equestrian Services, a consulting firm for developers of such properties. Notably, Equestrian Services adds that about 70 percent of buyers don’t own horses, much less ride them, but are attracted by the cachet of an equestrian environment. The attraction is understandable. Few environments are more serene and ordered than a well-kept horse farm, or as soothing to the spirit as the sheltering mountains that have witnessed for hundreds of years the deep bond between horses and those who love them.
