When we set out to find our new farm home, I had a lot of very lofty ambitions. I wanted at least 20 acres of land and to build everything exactly how I wanted it: ten stall barn, wood fenced pastures, custom home, the works. Well, dreams met reality and also the compromise of marriage and while I would’ve been fine living in a trailer on an empty lot of land until the money was there to build the dream, W was not, and I can’t say I blame him.
We struggled through a year of house and property hunting that was prompted by an idea to buy a horse boarding facility between a friend and I. When W got wind of this new ambition of mine, he discussed the alternate option of he and I doing such a business from our home. The search was fun, but also long and frustrating. We alternated between empty lots, fixer uppers, and ready-to-go properties, and went through two failed contracts before reaching our “third time is a charm” property.
While not as large of acreage as I had initially envisioned, the property we ended up with was meant to be. The barn and one pasture and paddock were in place, two stalls built inside with room to add more, there were seven useable acres with three still forested, and the home, workshop, garage, and pond made it heaven on earth for W. Since this is our first farm, the smaller acreage turned out to be a blessing in disguise, because it is plenty enough to work with for a small amount of horses while still being small enough that I can not only manage to maintain it but also put all the little special touches everywhere that I love to do.
One thing that came easy to us was naming the farm. I adore naming things and creating business plans, logos, and associated documents, so even before this farm has even thought of being a business, it already has everything it needs (including an LLC) minus an official bank account. Yea, I know, I’m a total geek, but I’m prepared. As for the name, we learned of the family name Xenophon on W’s side of the family when we discovered what the “X” initial of his grandfather’s middle name stood for, and thought it was a pretty interesting and unique name. At first I thought it would make a sweet horse name someday, and when I looked it up, was reminded that Xenophon the Greek philosopher also happened to write the first handbook on horsemanship. It thought this was too cool to use on someone mortal, so the farm was to be Xenophon Farm.
So, I’m about to wow you with my photoshop skillz with this rendering of the property.
In it’s current state, the house, pond, garage, driveway, barn, 1.5 acre pasture, and sacrifice area are already there. We are nearly finished shortening the sacrifice area to accommodate the addition of a 100’x200′ grass riding area which will be outlined with sections and corners of decorative split rail fence. Eventually we will clear the current three acres of wooded area partially and add in an additional 2 acre pasture to the right of the driveway, but for now the current pasture and sacrifice works well for 3 horses and I section the pasture off with electrical tape to rotate grazing and separate Sully from the girls as I need to. Also, I would like to more clearly designate some trails down behind the pond as well as a trail track around the perimeter of the property for conditioning and relaxing cool downs.
Welcome to Xenophon 🙂 I am excited to continue to document as we add features here and there, and am especially pumped for the adorable riding area project to come to life It’s all in the details.
southern horsewife 