PLENTY Spring 2020 Plenty Spring 2020-WEB | Page 21

PHotos pages 21 & 23: Wib Middleton
E
For the
Love of
Horses
nter Montgomery County’s
A rule of thumb for a horse farm is
Agricultural Reserve and
two horses per acre. Land is needed for
what do you see? Plenty of
pastures, hay fields, barns, riding arenas,
horses! These noble ani-
competitions and trails. So as development
mals are a fixture along its
encroached on older horse farms and rid-
ing areas, the community began to migrate
peaceful roads and byways.
into the Agricultural Reserve. Today, about
Interestingly, horses were not even a
60 percent of the livestock in the Reserve
consideration in the original planning
is horses. Thoroughbreds, Friesians, Old-
of the Agricultural Reserve according to
BY JANE THERY
enburgs, Hanoverians, Trakehners, Quarter
Royce Hanson, the visionary behind the
Horses, Welsh and Shetland Ponies, Connemara Ponies,
1980 establishment of the Reserve. The decision to
Standardbreds, Arabians and more can all be found on
set aside the land to protect it from rampant devel-
the 300-plus horse farms in the Reserve!
opment was made based on the emerging patterns of
My horse, Quattro au Lait, a French sport horse
small-plot home building and the need to maintain
breed, lives at Wyndham Oaks Farm on Bucklodge Road
the value of farmland through a system of 25-acre
in Boyds. Wyndham Oaks is a premier boarding stable
zoning and salable development rights. Back then the
with 65 horses. It has a large indoor arena, outdoor
horse community was still thriving around Potomac
riding rings, large paddocks, a modern barn and access
and areas closer to the Capital Beltway. Luckily, the
to miles and miles of trails in the Reserve. There you’ll
Agricultural Reserve was there to become the future
find dressage horses practicing the art of movements
home to most of Montgomery County’s 10,000 to
developed in the European tradition of refined military
12,000 horses.
plenty I spring sowing 2020 21