Horses Love to Roll in the Mud
Horse Property for Sale, Mud, Mud, & More Mud, is probably not the best headline for your horse property listing. Horses have a love-hate relationship with mud. They relish in a good mud roll, caking their coats with the thick goop. On the other hand, standing in or walking in mud is something that horses generally try to avoid and for good reasons. Muddy conditions expose horses’ hooves and legs to bacterial infection, which in turn causes them to expend additional energy and utilize more feed and water.
Horse People Hate Mud
Though horses have a love-hate relationship with mud, their people have a clear disdain. Because of shorter days and inclement weather, riding time is reduced around my place in the winter. Winter is not the most enjoyable time of year around the farm. Reduced riding time though is not nearly as frustrating as the mounds of mud that accompanies the winter months.
Make Mud a Selling Point
As unpleasant as mud is, it actually gives the smart seller of horse property the opportunity to create an advantage. To take the mud issue and create an advantage, a seller can develop “hardened surfaces” in high traffic areas around the barn and in the paddocks to increase the property’s appeal for prospective buyers. Mud is inevitable and every prospective buyer knows this, so reducing mud’s obtrusiveness is a big selling point that any buyer of a horse property will appreciate.
Develop Hard Surfaces
Sellers can develop these “hardened surface” areas by installing geotextile fabric and covering the fabric with gravel. Geotextiles are polypropylene permeable fabrics that strengthen the soil and reduce erosion. Covering the geotextile with gravel, also called dense grade aggregate, creates a surface that can stand up to the heavy traffic without becoming a knee-deep sewer of bacterial laden muck.
Advertise Hardened Surfaces
In listing the property, the listing agent should be sure to point out the presence of “hardened surfaces” and where they are located. Horse farm buyers will be impressed and will love the idea of having mud free areas for the care and well being of their equine friends. These “hardened surfaces,” tell the buyers a lot about the owner. It says to the buyer that this is a farm that has been managed well.
Contact Your Local Conservation District
For further information pertaining to “hardened surfaces” one can contact their local conservation district personnel. The local conservation district personnel can also provide advice on the best practices in the area as well as provide sources for obtaining the materials.
To sell your equine property in the Appalachian region of Western North Carolina contact Steed Talker Realty. We are the regions most preeminent real estate equine specialists. We are horse people and we know what horses and their people need and want when it comes to making the purchase of a horse farm.
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