Find your perfect pad

From identifying what you actually want to discerning soil type and unravelling agricultural ties, Polly Bryan outlines the steps to buying your dream equestrian home

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EVERY rider has dreamed about owning the perfect equestrian property, with vast arenas, luxury stables and rolling fields, and your horses just outside your window. But for those lucky enough to make the dream a reality, how is best to avoid the stress, heartache and unnecessary expense that so often accompanies any home purchase, but particularly equestrian property transactions?

The key, specialist estate agents and equestrian property solicitors agree, is to do your homework, be prepared – and don’t assume anything.

This starts before you have even found a property to buy. The first step, says Strutt & Parker’s Annabel Blackett, is to acknowledge the type of equestrian you are, be it hobby hacker, polo player, breeder or professional rider, and what that means you will need from a property in terms of land and facilities. Consider the acreage you need both now and in the future, as well as the sort of hacking and outriding you will require.

“Ask about this in advance of viewing,” advises Fox Grant’s managing director William Grant. “The estate agent should be able to send you a map of the area that shows the bridlepaths.”

The next crucial aspect to consider towards the beginning of the process, say both Annabel and William, is soil type. Chalk is best, as it is free-draining compared to clay, which can get heavy when wet.

“A hobby rider probably doesn’t have to be as fussy with soil type as a professional, but it still pays to avoid areas with poor drainage,” says Annabel, who warns buyers never to assume that the ground will be good in an area just because an established equestrian set-up already exists there.