Don’t forget that horseback riding-- especially the dressage and H/J versions–is often seen by the non-horsey population as an elitist, fussy luxury. To this crowd, you might as well be polishing your yacht on the property line. This is going to color their perception of what’s necessary and reasonable.
For everyone saying that the property line is the ONLY PLACE on the property that works for the arena, that may be true, but you can’t make an irritated neighbor see it that way, and their perception is their reality.If someone puts their kids’ giant trampoline on the property line, so the screaming kids are closer to your house than it is to theirs, you’d prob have the same reaction. There would be no amount of convincing you that this was the best place for it.
(And let’s be honest, I doubt many private stables would consider putting the arena right alongside their house even if it were suitable from a topography standpoint. Because, well, who wants a dusty arena as a backyard.)
Bottom line, none of us controls land that we don’t own. Neighbors and neighborhoods change over time. When you use your property in a way that has a direct impact on your neighbors, you have to be prepared for some neighbors not to like it, or you.
We can sputter all we want to, but it’s like getting mad at a traffic jam. It only affects you and your stress level and does nothing to improve the circumstances.
By the way, a substitute for buying land is to come to another kind of financial agreement. You and your neighbor can agree upon terms whereby you get to use your property in xyz ways between xyz hours, and neighbor agrees not to do xyz during these hours within xyz feet of the arena. And yes, there’s a financial payment involved to compensate the neighbor for this annoyance or constraint on his property. In my line of work, this is informally called a good-neighbor agreement and it’s not uncommon. A couple grand a year can buy a lot of mutual forbearance.
