Note: This is day 12 of my 30-day blogging challenge. What the heck is a 30-day blogging challenge? Read about it here.
Zillow, the website you use to find out how much your neighbor’s house costs and what it looks like on the inside, recently compiled a list of the most expensive properties in each of the 50 states. Not surprisingly, there are lots of over-the-top amenities included in pretty much all of them. Golf courses, movie theaters, indoor basketball courts and Roman spas (seriously) are among the features that I think we can all agree are necessary to make a house a ridiculously impractical home. But if you’ve ever shopped (or window shopped) for horse properties, you won’t be shocked to learn that there are several equestrian estates on this list, even though Zillow states that “working ranches” were excluded.
Let’s take a look at some of these homes for the uber-wealthy.
South Dakota We start modestly with this 480 acre ranch in South Dakota. Downside: South Dakota winters. Upside: 300’ x 100’ indoor arena. For a mere $3 million, it could all be yours. (Zillow’s listing doesn’t show any photos, but there are several of the home and the barn and riding facility here.) See the listing >>
Oklahoma My general feelings about Oklahoma are not positive due to the fact that I’ve only ever driven through it en route to somewhere else, and the highway tolls are really obnoxious. But if someone else ponied up the $10.8 million to buy this ranch for me, I’d consider living in that state. I’d just never drive anywhere, because seriously, the tolls. But if I lived on this ranch, I wouldn’t have to leave. 744 acres, including two barns with a total of 70 stalls, plus a covered arena. Also four ponds and three lakes. Sign me up. See the listing >>
Alabama Yes, this $13.9 million property includes multiple houses plus a barn with living quarters along with a pool and movie theater and all those other essentials. But the most important thing about it, clearly, is that it is shaped like a guitar. See the listing >>
New Mexico For $14.7 million, you could live on this Santa Fe ranch whose features include “stitched leather ceilings.” I didn’t know that was a thing. Probably not something you’d want outside of a desert climate. See the listing >>
Tennessee When you shop at discount stores, they price things at $19.99 instead of $20 because even though we know they’re functionally the same thing, our brains defy us and prefer the former. I’m guessing that’s why this 750 acre estate in Franklin, Tennessee, is priced at $19,900,000. Total bargain! See the listing >>
Montana The listing for this 35-acre property in Whitefish, Montana doesn’t say anything about equine amenities, but the photos show pastures and a corral or perhaps a riding arena. Let me just say, if you’re spending $22 million to live on acreage in Montana and you DON’T have horses, you are doing it wrong. See the listing >>
Runner-up: Kansas. This is not a horse property and in fact, sits on less than an acre. But I included it because it does have a carriage house with an apartment “for staff or teenager.” Oh, rich people. See the listing >>
I was surprised to see that Kentucky’s most expensive listing is in fact NOT a horse property. It’s right here in Lexington, the Horse Capital of the World, and yet, no horse facilities. It does have a croquet garden, though, if you’re into that. See the listing >>
Check out the full list on Zillow and find out what’s listed for a ridiculous amount of money in your home state.
Back to The Near Side
Leslie Potter is Sr. Associate Web Editor of horseillustrated.com. Follow her on Twitter: @LeslieInLex.
Leslie Potter is a graduate of William Woods University where she earned a Bachelor of Science in Equestrian Science with a concentration in saddle seat riding and a minor in Journalism/Mass Communications. She is currently a writer and photographer in Lexington, Ky.Potter worked as a barn manager and riding instructor and was a freelance reporter and photographer for the Horsemen's Yankee Pedlar and Saddle Horse Report before moving to Lexington to join Horse Illustrated as Web Editor from 2008 to 2019. Her current equestrian pursuits include being a grown-up lesson kid at an eventing barn and trail riding with her senior Morgan gelding, Snoopy.
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