In Virginia the horse population has dropped from 242,000 in 2007 to 183,000 in 2021 (year ?). I’m sure rising costs have a lot to do with it but when you look at places like Loudoun County that have been practically paved over, that is a loss of a lot of land.
I fox hunt and am in a rural part of VA but it seems we lose a little bit of land each year.
When I moved to my farm, one side of the N/S road that runs ~3mi from the State Rd to my intersection had a flagged subdivision going up.
No homes, just the lots marked.
Corn & bean fields took up the opposite side & small acreages - 10ac or less - were my closest neighbors .
FF about 15yrs & there are 4 separate subdivisions along that same road.
Houses pretty much on top of each other, not the McMansion ones with as much as 1/4ac per.
This year the other side of the road is being developed.
A company called Canvas is putting in 176 rental Single Family & townhomes.
Houses will rent for $3K/mo 
About 5 houses have been framed & they are very close to each other.
The 3 or 4 existing homes along the road are now bordered by a 6’ PVC fenceline very close to their former back acreage.
I hope they sold out for huge sums, as they’re about to be very Up Close & Personal to the Citiots who’ll be paying roughly 2X what they’d pay for a house or rental in town.
There’s at least 1 place that has Halter horses (never see them out), a barn & arena & I can almost guarantee will now have Attractive Nuisance issues.
Frosting the 
is yet another subdivision, not even a mile South of that, private homes, no number listed, but I’ll guesstimate as many as 100 more.
The road is 2 lanes without ability to widen.
They did add maybe 10’ at one side where the access road comes out. But really no room to do more unless Public Domain kicks in.
*AAAANNNDDDD… *
The new 300+ bed hospital that just opened at the State Road that intersects it has posted the blue “H” sign on the road.
Ambulance traffic has noticeably increased & there’s no shoulder to pull over, just a 4’ ditch either side.
I feel bad for anyone being transported down that road during what’s certain to become Rush Hour for the sub-ds.
I’ll stop, but I’m not putting my car in a ditch for an ambulance to pass. 
Lordhelpus if there’s 2-way traffic!
The only Bright Side is the Cha-Ching to my property values.
Assuming the decades-old restriction on subdividing less than 10ac is lifted.
And, considering the goose in RE Taxes that would come with that, it most likely will.
I live on a 3.5 mile county rd. Used to be 15 properties w a horse{s). We are the last.
I drive rural all the time. There used to be backyard horses everywhere because of the terrific trail riding opportunities locally. I can load up and reach hundreds of miles of deeded Wilderness and ample trails in 1/2 hr from my driveway. Hay is easy available and cheaper than most of the country. It’s up to $4/bale … We have plenty of pasture land. I rarely see horses anywhere now.
if you are older than 65, can you get your taxes frozen? We are working on that here.
Not only does this state not freeze, but my property is assessed - by the County - over the amount allowed for Senior exemption, so I don’t get that.
That amount is about half what the RE sites like Zillow & Redfin say it’s worth
Yeah, because us old peeps living on a fixed income don’t need that 
I do get exemptions for living on the property & having a mortgage.
We had a major cluster this year on property taxes. They did an assessment last year and raised everybody’s taxes over 30%. Some houses that were $200,000 houses, were assessed at half a million! NoOne came by and asked about improvements or anything. I had a real appraisal last year and the tax assessment is 20k under that. So good right? Well, they raised my taxes 40%. And because they undervalued my house, theres nothing that can be done. We have only one county commishoner fighting for us. He has contacted the state attorney general and they are suing the county. They have completely botched the whole thing. Oh, and the county exec’s taxes went up about 7%… This is the man who somehow avoided scrutiny for tax evasion when he was being inaugurated, they were ready to sell his house on the county steps, but one of his benefactors paid them.
The one good guy is trying to pass a bill to freeze seniors taxes at last years rate.
This is similar to what is going on here. When we bought we had a subdivision on 1 side of our 20 acres, and nothing the other 3 sides. We are down to .5 of a side with no housing, and they are putting in a gas station 2 blocks over.
Luckily for me the ground doesn’t perk so the new 2.5 sides are large lots at least.
I wonder if the decline is more heavily in English riding discipline horses, with Western holding on or declining less?
I believe there’s been a substantial decrease. I was looking for a gaited stallion locally and what I realized looking through different gaited breeds is that very few people are keeping stallions intact. Yes we can ship semen but what are we doing to the genetic pool? If course it varies by state as it seems there would be lots of choices if I was in Kentucky or Tennessee or Missouri…
Again that goes with the cost of land. Places with plentiful land, have an easier time raising horses.
Ugh, one mile down the road from me there was a long time, think built in the 60’s boarding stable on 10 acres. It was sold to a developer 2 years ago. This winter the trees were taken down and the land graded. Going up are side-by-side architecturally non-contributing houses. Almost no green space. It makes me sad every time I drive by.
I texted both the BO where I board my horses and the BO who came over every year to do a few rides on my girls (she’s also a trainer) and neither received the survey. And both of these facilities are large, with at least 30 horses on site.
I certainly believe horse ownership has decreased, but a 40 percent reduction doesn’t seem accurate.
I’m close to Loudoun County in Jefferson Co, WV and my one county has lost approx. 150-175 stalls in the past year due to the property being sold, one property the barn burnt down (no animals injured), and a large barn sold to a group that does clinics only.
We are a relatively horsey area with the track and tons of cheap TB’s. I will say breeding is up at the local farms, a big farm in the area had 4 babies last year and is now on their 34th baby.
Locally, horses seem to be fine. I only know of three commercial barns that have closed in the past two decades and about twenty new ones. The small dead end road I live on has seen two horse properties built since 2020 and none removed.
That’s not to say that I totally disagree with this census, just that my local area seems to be different.
But you also have the southern migration working in your favor.
There are places like New England where horses were once a way of life but are now becoming increasingly rare.
That’s true I suppose about southern migration. Particularly since my area already had a strong horse culture. My area is growing pretty fast in general. I wouldn’t even begin to guess at if the percentage of residents that own horses has gone up or down.
It might help that folks can keep and ride horses year round here without costly investments in dry lots and arenas or battling mud.
The part of SoCal where I used to live was originally a thriving horsekeeping community with the nickname “Horsetown USA.” Then slowly the developers bought up the hillsides and put in tracts of huge homes with hardly a thought about horses. Where I used to trail ride and pony young warmbloods is now a shopping center and a bunch of soccer fields.
Now the same thing is happening here in Arizona. What had been ranchland for generations has become so valuable that it’s sold to developers and turned into gated HOA communities. Real life cowboys are becoming a rare sight.
Every time I compete I notice how the youth classes are getting smaller. It’s the older ammies who are keeping the dream alive. I think that when we’re gone, riding will be relegated to the rural sections of the country, where land and feed remains affordable, and enclaves of the ultra wealthy.
This is what I am thinking too. On this thread alone it seems to be pointing to that conclusion: people in rural areas are not seeing the same rate of decline as those closer to major metro areas.
Unless the way the data was collected was significantly altered from 2007 to 2022, the data should be skewed the same way in the 2022 that it was in 2007. I may not be putting it the most articulate way, but if hobby farms didn’t get the questionnaire in 2022, they also likely did not get it in 2007, so the data collection methodology should not be a significant explanation for the decline. In other words: the decline is likely very real.
I have wondered if in addition to shrinking, the horse population has become more concentrated in certain areas and all but disappeared in others, which is why some of us still see the industry thriving and others don’t?
Also, they use statistical sampling methodology similar to the actual (human) Census. Nothing is perfect obviously but they aren’t relying on getting a direct response from every single horse owner about every single horse. You can read about the methodology here: https://www.nass.usda.gov/AgCensus/FAQ/2022/index.php#4
Here’s a graphic from the Jockey Club website that shows how much the TB foal crop has shrunk in recent decades:
I think it may be more accurate to say it’s not happening as quickly in rural areas, but it’s still happening. I live in a rural area and horse ownership is definitely declining here.
One issue is the decline in equine services. Good farriers and equine or large animal vets are stretched thin and more are retiring every year. New ones gravitate toward ares of more concentrated horse populations. Another issue is the aging population, which is affecting rural areas much more than urban.
Most of us older folks aren’t replacing our horses when they die or have to be euthanized. Two of my fellow boarders have called it quits in the last year after losing their horses and another one is down to one ancient horse and will be done with horses when that one is gone.
I would expect that within 12-15 years we will go from four horses to none. We have our own farm in a rural area.
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