Orange County's equine equity

"Horse country" is a term that means little more than a place that has horses, usually a lot of horses. Along with that term, though, comes a place where horses can run and where people come to ride them, presumably in a place worth riding through, with rolling hills of soft, yet firm, ground and hidden secrets that can only be found away from the asphalt. The term also carries access to things a horse needs: a place to sleep, something to eat, someone to care for it. In the case of Orange County, horses have been ridden for centuries, dating back to founding fathers and their descendants and friends. Since then, tradition, industry and geography have built up a culture that pervades every corner of the county and echoes with the understatement of the term "horse country."
David Lamb moved to Orange County in 1979 from the Charlottesville area to buy what is now Oakland Heights farm, just off of Route 15 near Gordonsville. On that farm Lamb operates one of the county's most prominent horse operations and Lamb is one of the county's most prominent figures in the horse industry. He offers trail riding for county visitors, lessons for the curious and uninitiated and programs for the county's youth. His farm also hosts monthly bull riding and barrel racing, which just about covers the full breadth of what can be done with a horse recreationally.
"We try to maintain a very diverse farm," said Lamb, who says that the county's equine offerings haven't changed all that much in the past 200 years. "Ever since Madison and Jefferson's time, people have bred quality horses in this area for things like horse racing and fox hunting."
Orange County is one of the strongest horse counties in Virginia. According to a report conducted by Dr. Terance Rephann of the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service at the University of Virginia and published this past March, the equine industry is directly responsible for the creation of 268 jobs in the county, as well as $511,000 in tax revenue. In 2006 the U.S. Department of Agriculture released a survey for Virginia that counted 5,200 horses in Orange County, a figure which had doubled since the last survey in 2001, which counted 2,300. In comparison, Loudon County, Virginia's largest county for horses, had 15,000 horses in 2006.
"Orange County is a very, very strong area for horses," said Andrea Heid, program manager for the Virginia Horse Industry Board. "What's neat is it has continued to maintain its rural flavor. Some localities focus on larger horse shows, but Orange maintains a commitment to offering riding in the country."
In Rephann's study, Orange's horse industry adds more than $10 million to the county economy through its employment and sales. Lamb said that its influence of the horse industry trickles down throughout all of the county's agriculture businesses.
"The horse industry interrelates with all aspects of agriculture business," said Lamb. "People grow and sell horse-quality hay at top dollar, as well as grain, then you have blacksmiths and farriers, the people cutting the grass and cleaning out the stalls and the dealerships selling trailers."
Steve Hopkins, director of Orange County's Extension office, said that Orange County's landscape makes it well-suited for the raising and riding of horses.
"You have a lot of rolling land and the productivity of the land is good," said Hopkins. "The soil types are better suited for forage crops rather than row crops. You also have a lot of large estates where landholders will often keep a lot of horses."
Hopkins speculated that the 2006 figure had possibly dropped in the past five years, citing the downturn in the economy drying up citizens' disposable income, as well as the nearly doubling of feed prices. Heid acknowledged that the economy had possibly stunted the growth of the number of horses in the state but said that the number had not dropped.
"In 2006, the survey counted around 215,000 horses in the state and we feel that is still a very valid figure," said Heid.
Diana Dodge owns and operates another one of the county's largest horse farms in Nokomis Farm in Montpelier Station and said the strength of the county's horse culture will keep the industry thriving.
"It's a very good place for horses," said Dodge. " So many people are involved in the horse industry and that industry is a very strong thing in the community [as a whole.] Every time you turn around there are horses here."