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Creature Comforts
That's not so different from golf. Only 25 to 40 percent of residents of golf course communities actually swing a club, DeVito said, with the rest content to enjoy the view and the amenities available at the clubhouse.
Dean Makarita, 46, a real estate agent who bought a house in Beacon Hill in February, said it was the equestrian center that clinched it. Now, he goes to the barn about three times a week to take his dapple-gray thoroughbred, Bella, out for a ride on the horse trails that wind through the neighborhood.
  Tammy Beardsley watches her daughter Jenna, 8, as she takes a horseback-riding lesson at the Clairvaux Equestrian Center, part of the Beacon Hill community in Leesburg. (By Tracy A. Woodward -- The Washington Post) |
"It's great exercise," Makarita said. "After you've gone riding, you can feel that just about every muscle in your body was used."
Creighton Farms, a gated community being developed in Loudoun near Aldie in conjunction with Ritz-Carlton, will have an equestrian center and a Nicklaus-designed golf course.
And the developer of Fieldstone Farm, a community going up just outside Purcellville, is finalizing an agreement with Equestrian Services to offer a center where residents may opt for "red-carpet services" for their horses, including daily exercise, hand baths and "pampering," Donovan said.
The equestrian center "is a little more in keeping with the feel of the area" than golf, said Marty Mitchell, vice president of land and business development for Mitchell & Best. Besides, he added, "there are plenty of golf course opportunities within a half-hour's drive in that area."
The company has sold three new homes at Fieldstone Farm, with as many as 130 eventually going up in the 800-acre community.
Toll Brothers hopes to begin moving people into Marlboro Ridge next summer, when an equestrian center also is scheduled to open.
"I'd heard of golf communities, but I'd never heard of equestrian communities," said Gibson, 53, whose home overlooking the paddocks will cost about $800,000. "Any parent wants to help a child with her dream, so this was a godsend."
The Gibsons had decided months ago that they wanted to buy a house where their daughter could have a horse. They considered settling on a few acres in rural Virginia but worried that it was too isolated.
Then they heard about Marlboro Ridge, which sits just outside the Capital Beltway and will eventually include miles of horse-riding and hiking trails. They decided to get in early to get a house close to the barns, so Sarah could look out the family room window to see the occupants placidly munching on grass.
Rick Gibson said the family is hoping to have some money to buy a horse for Sarah.
Until then, he said, "at the very least she can walk to her lessons and see the horses more often than when we can drive her to the barn."
