How Could Development Impact YOU?

Farms are bought up by developers in the Frederick area, thus:

Hall’s Choice Farm in New Market, Maryland

 A development only pays for roads within itself, not within the town around it…

• A new one may add as many as 330,000 car trips a day via established roads (Friends Of Frederick County)
• It costs 2.540 BILLION just for Frederick County to get the primary highways moving again, which doesn’t include secondary roads
• The current plan for the Casey Development  – near Hall’s Choice Farm – does not plan for additional road use

• Residential “growth creates more expenses than it pays for” (FOF) and thus does not have any benefit to surrounding farms
  • It increases the demand for services (emergency, schools, roads, public buildings, etc.), which require further development and funds
  • Reduced trails and available space to found a farm
  • Global climate changes further impact agriculture (http://www.greenfacts.org)
  • Farmers need to consider adequate stream buffers to keep livestock out of creeks and rivers
  • Road, noise, and light pollution reduce value in any given area, yet developers drive that up
  • Development brings prices of boarding, etc. up because agricultural space is then limited
  • Over-development raises risk of drinking water contamination
• Lake Linganore and Lower Linganore Creek make up 42.4% of the total surface water sourced for Frederick Co.’s drinking water
• Current erosion levels are 5x higher than state standard due to development in areas that should be protected
  • According to http://www.epa.gov, “Development almost inevitably leads to increased runoff, which collects pollutants before reaching surface streams.”

Hall’s Choice on a hot summer day

 Average cost per acre of farm land in MD:  $4,120

About 1 million acres of land per year are lost to development, according to the American Farmland Trust, and much of this land is prime agricultural land that can never be replaced(http://www.sprawlwatch.org/farmlandpreservation.html).

 Ray Garibay, head of the Maryland Agricultural Statistics Service, said farmland values vary greatly within the state, with the most expensive being land near the urban areas of Baltimore, Washington and Annapolis (http://www.extension.iastate.edu).

Delightfully cool bank barn at Hall’s Choice

 Impact: horse farms are pushed to areas that developers either don’t want, or haven’t reached yet. They are at greater and greater risk of having to sell out to developers.

Want to learn more? Hall’s Choice has an album on Facebook full of information on the impacts of development on our community.

Erin Sweeney Riding Clinic

The riding clinic held at Hall’s Choice Farm was a success – lots of riders came out and enjoyed great lessons with USDF-certified trainer Erin Sweeney. Here are some photos for you to enjoy (please excuse the blurriness of a few, as the dust was affecting the camera!):

 

Erin Sweeney riding Hanoverian mare “Wixen.”

Jamison and D’Olympic

Intern Melissa’s lunge lesson on Eap.

Lunge lesson on the adorable Eap.

Want to see more? You can check out the full event album on Flickr.

Day On the Farm

Sunday the 29th was Erin Sweeney’s riding clinic, which meant a day of cleanup and barn chores to follow. I spent Tuesday with fellow intern Melissa feeding horses, cleaning stalls and sacrifice lots, and generally cleaning up. We even both had a lunge lesson on Hanoverian gelding D’Olypmic (aka “Flirt”) once the hard work had been done. It was an unbelievably hot day – the temperature outside hit 97F! Not the worst it’s been, nor the worst it will ever be, but it was stifling enough that the horses and humans were both pretty much melting. Thankfully, the indoor arena stays nicely cool, as do the barns!

Highlight of the day? Not running over anyone while learning to drive and operate a tractor.

Tacking D’Olympic up for our ride.

Catching a horse.

 

 

Riding Clinic at Hall’s Choice Farm – June 29th!

 

 

Riding clinic schedule

Erin Sweeney’s riding clinic is TOMORROW!

We are looking forward to another great opportunity to work with Ms. Erin Sweeney. She is newly USDF-certified and has started over 300 young horses, developing them into young horse champions. She excels in her unique approach towards the challenges that keep your horse from achieving its best! Come watch her do her magic both with her riding and yours. Erin is a diagnostic expert, bringing teaching techniques from German, Danish and American instructor giants (who she works with regularly herself).

Join us this Sunday!
Audit fee is $25

Sadly, no riding slots are available as we have been full for several weeks; however, we invite you to come audit, enjoy gourmet lunch with us, and plan to ride with her in the future!

See you there!

Hall’s Choice Open House

June 22nd, we held a lovely open house to raise awareness of our farmland on behalf of Clean Water Linganore. With much of the surrounding watershed area in New Market slotted for development, Hall’s Choice feels it is incredibly important to promote an understanding of why we should stand against this. Enjoy the photos!

Bella, Arabian mare

Hall’s Choice Farm

Founded in 1990, Hall’s Choice Farm in New Market, Maryland, is a beautiful and exclusive 30-acre farm that specializes in Hanoverian Warmblood breeding, training, and sales. Our horses are bred for health, performance, and temperament – all are animals with good minds! They are horses for competitive riders.

We also host events at the farm. It is a beautiful venue for rent near Frederick, Maryland. With its convenient, scenic location, we readily accommodate horse clinics, birthday parties, family reunions, company picnics, weddings, memorial services, and more. If you need a large but still lovely venue for your event, please, contact us via our “about us” page.

On this blog, you’ll hear lots about the horses and events here. With fifteen stunning mares and stallions, an assortment of barn cats, and some adorable dogs, there are plenty of adventures!

Want to learn more about Hall’s Choice? Check out hallschoice.com.