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Buying on a budget: can you buy an equestrian property for less than £500,000? *H&H Plus*

Martha Terry Martha Terry

    • Is it possible to find an equestrian property in today’s highly competitive market for £500,000? Martha Terry investigates

    “I HAVE lived all over England, and now I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else,” says Trista Shanks, who moved 400 miles north from Yorkshire to Moray to enjoy having her nine horses “on her doorstep” at an affordable price.

    “We bought a ring-fenced 17-acre field, with planning permission, for around £60,000; we’ve put up field shelters and internal stables in a barn. We’re living in a static caravan for now, but I’ll take the rough with the smooth. I look out my window over snow-capped mountains and my horses grazing – I used to look into my neighbours’ windows!”

    Trista’s story is one that will resonate with many equestrian property buyers, although few are brave enough to make such a leap. Many of us are tied, either by employment or emotion, to a certain area; others prioritise proximity to regular affiliated competition or simply don’t have the energy to start from scratch.

    You can also read this feature in the 27 May issue of Horse & Hound magazine.

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    Martha Terry
    Martha Terry

    H&H features editor
    Martha is an experienced journalist who is mad-keen on horses and dogs. Her reporting CV includes the Paris Olympics, European championships, Aachen World Equestrian Festival and World Cup finals. After growing up with assorted liver and white springer spaniels, she enjoyed 14 years with two rescue dogs. Now, her constant companion is Fidget, an extremely energetic and habitually muddy black and white springer. Martha has written on topics as diverse as a top horse’s clone to the best GPS trackers for dogs, as well as equestrian and rural matters for Country Life, The Field, The Times, The Spectator and The Telegraph alongside Horse & Hound.
    Martha Terry