INSIDE HORSE COUNTRY
FALL IN LOVE WITH MIDDLEBURG TRADITIONS
Enjoy some of our favorite fall events—once you’ve had a taste of life in Middleburg we know you’ll want to stay. Contact one of our agents to make it your home.
September 30th-October 3rd
Piedmont Jumper Classic
The Piedmont Jumper Classic is a USEF Rated Jumper Level 2 Competition.
Salem Farm Showgrounds in Upperville
https://www.piedmontclassic.org/
Saturday, October 2nd
PEC 2021 Farm-to-Table Dinner
Please join the PEC at St. Bride’s Farm for their annual Farm-to-Table Dinner, featuring locally sourced food and beautiful views of the Piedmont and St. Bride’s Sculpture Collection. In conjunction, take part in the Virtual Auction online between September 24 and October 3. This year’s auction features approximately 30 outstanding items and experiences, including many that are unique to the Virginia Piedmont.
St. Bride’s Farm in Upperville
Sunday, October 3rd from 2-3pm
Interfaith Blessing of the Animals
Join the NSLM for an Interfaith Blessing of the Animals in honor of St. Francis of Assisi feast day in partnership with the Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Middleburg. Ministers, priests and rabbis of several denominations from local congregations will be on hand to perform blessings on animals of all shapes and sizes—all are welcome!
National Sporting Library and Museum in Middleburg
http://www.nationalsporting.org/index.php/nslm/event_details/1111/
October 6th-10th
Fall International Horse Trials
MORVEN PARK FALL INTERNATIONAL HORSE TRIALS AND CCI4*-L, CCI3*/2*YH-S, CCI4*/3*/2*-S Horse Trials are part of a sport horse discipline called “eventing” which began more than a century ago among mounted cavalry officers as a demonstration of their horses’ strengths and their own riding skills. Eventing features three different equestrian disciplines: dressage, show jumping and cross-country. Although the competition is divided into several skill levels, one of the remarkable things about the sport is that men and women of all ages compete head-to-head.
Morven Park International Equestrian Center in Leesburg
https://www.morvenpark.org/equestrian-center/equestrian/equestrian-center-home-page.html
Saturday, October 9th (post time 1pm)
Middleburg Fall Races
The Virginia Fall Race Day is rich in the tradition of the understated elegance and sportsmanship of steeplechasing. Drawing crowds of more than 10,000 people, this outstanding equestrian event combines the thrills of steeplechase with the genteel, social atmosphere of a day in the countryside.
Glenwood Park in Middleburg
October 14th-17th
Middleburg Film Festival
The Middleburg Film Festival offers four days of fantastic films in a spectacular setting. A carefully curated selection of narrative and documentary films screen in intimate theatre environments, followed by fascinating conversations with world-renowned filmmakers, actors, and other special guests. The films include festival favorites, world and regional premieres, first-class foreign films, and Oscar contenders.
Middleburg
https://www.middleburgfilm.org/
Saturday, October 23rd
International Gold Cup
The International Gold Cup, a beloved longstanding equestrian tradition, takes place annually in late October. After restricting access in 2020, due to the pandemic, the International Gold Cup Races are ready to welcome spectators back to Great Meadow.
Great Meadow in The Plains
https://www.vagoldcup.com/intl/race-day-information
Sunday, October 24 from 4–7pm
Sunset in the Field
Join the Land Trust of Virginia behind the ‘Brick House’ at Oak Spring Farm for delicious BBQ, iconic bluegrass music and a Blue Ridge Mountain sunset.
Brick House at Oak Spring Farm in Upperville
Why People Are Moving to the Country
February 17th, 2020
Over the past year, the world changed. The pandemic forced people around the world to drastically alter how they spent their everyday lives. It’s been about a year since lockdowns, quarantines and travel restrictions started, and we wanted to take a look at one of the most interesting trends that has arisen [...]
Agent of the Week - William Driskill
January 19th, 2021
My Transition into Real Estate
As a third generation Middleburg resident, I have a deep connection to the local community and the surrounding Piedmont area. As a child, I attended the Hill School in Middleburg, followed by high school at Highland in Warrenton, Virginia. During those years, I continued to develop my two biggest passions, tennis and riding. When not training or competing on the tennis courts, I could be found working and riding at any barn that would have me. I was introduced to fox hunting when I was only ten years old and never looked back! [...]
Agent of the Week - Cricket Bedford
December 2nd, 2020
November 5 was Opening Meet for the Piedmont Fox Hounds. This day represented the beginning of formal fox hunting season. Riders came with their horses braided and wearing their formal hunting ‘kit’ to include black or navy coats, a 4-fold stock tie and a waist coat. [...]
Agent of the Week - Anne Marstiller
November 5th, 2020
A unique perspective….
After springing from Vanderbilt, my sights were set on the business and corporate world. Fortune 100, here I come. Procter & Gamble was a highly-disciplined start for me, followed by MCI Telecommunications, which was very much the opposite.
Agent of the Week - Rein du Pont
October 20th, 2020
One fall day in 1984 Mike du Pont, recently divorced, took me to a dance in Upperville. It was Phillip Thomas’s 50th birthday party at Ayrshire, the farm owned by his friend Tommy Stokes. Mike and PST grew up together around here and had been friends since they were young boys. [...]
Agent of the Week Susan Ashcom
September 22nd, 2020
Out here in Hunt Country, we get the deal done!
Some years ago, I had a buyer who dreamed of owning a beautiful horse farm. With her trust fund as her sole source of income, the conventional banks were skeptical. They wanted her to have a job with a salary. I knew I had to find a solution for her.
It was a blistering summer day and I was pulling a six-foot bush hog, attempting to avoid potholes [...]
Agent of the Week - Cary Embury
September 9th, 2020
I grew up on my family farm near Millwood in Clarke County then left to go "over the mountain" to Middleburg in 1970. After 15 years of running a business training and selling horses with my former husband, I returned to raise my family on land that has belonged to my ancestors since the early 1800s [...]
Agent of the Week - Rebecca Poston
August 27th, 2020
Growing up on my family’s farm in Tysons Corner—on land very similar to the rolling fields we have in this area—I witnessed farm after farm being sold and transformed into shopping malls, office buildings, condos, a vast road network and parking lots.
In my mind, I often hear Joni Mitchell’s voice singing the words to “Big Yellow Taxi.” [...]
Agent of the Week - Emily Ristau
August 11th, 2020
When my family visited Middleburg for the annual Stable Tour benefitting Trinity Church in 1995, I returned to California convinced that somehow I would find a way to live in this magical place. Overtaken by the charm of the village and the beauty of the landscape, it did not matter that I had lived my entire life in California. I had to get here!
In 1997, my husband and I bought a dilapidated farm in The Plains and set about a nearly 7-year rebuilding of the house, barns and paddocks. My photo album of the project opens with the listing document. given to me by our agent during our tour, [...]
Agent of the Week - Mary Ann McGowan
July 27th, 2020
After graduating cum laude from Boston College with a Bachelor of Science Degree, I married my college sweetheart and we embarked on our new life together. His corporate career took us across the country, and we eventually purchased, sold, remodeled, and built 10 properties in many different states. It was difficult at times, as we had to consider the happiness, concerns and fears of our four growing children. [...]
Snowden Clarke: The Spirit of Hunt Country
July 15th, 2020
There’s no place quite like Middleburg. This idyllic community beckons visitors from around the world with open fields, wooded forests and bucolic views that offer a chance to reconnect with nature. Middleburg still provides the rare, small-town experience and life, as it happens. Snowden Clarke embodies the Middleburg spirit as a realtor and horseman. To Thomas & Talbot, Snowden brings a record of success and a love for working in the community he calls home. Snowden says, "My favorite part of real estate is finding the right piece of property for the right buyer. [...]
Agent of the Week - Cricket Bedford
June 29th, 2020
Just east of Middleburg, off Sam Fred Road, is Sunny Bank Farm. Away from Foxcroft, as a teenager, this is where I spent all of my free time, surrounded by what I love most—horses. Thanks to the great horsewomen and men I worked with, and under the tutelage of Mrs. Dot Smithwick, I learned how to 'turn out’ a horse. The lessons I learned at Sunny Bank have served me [...]
Agent of the Week - John Coles
June 15th, 2020
I’ve always felt close to the land--the second of five children raised on a farm near Charlottesville, Virginia. Cloverfields has been in my mother’s family for twelve generations. It was primarily the women who kept it going through four wars, the Depression and countless hardships. We didn’t wear shoes all summer when we were little and I think in a funny way, that gave us more of an appreciation for the ground we walked on. Even though I never go barefoot today, I still remember those long summer days as the foundation of my life. [...]
THOMAS & TALBOT CONTINUES TO SHOW AND SELL PROPERTIES WITH SAFETY IN MIND
May 21st, 2020
The global pandemic has impacted every aspect of our lives, even in Hunt Country. We are all fumbling through the process of defining our “new normal”. For many people, their “new normal” includes the open spaces, fresh air and sylvan settings of Hunt Country. As the interest in country living increases, so does our opportunity to show more homes. Given the circumstances, now more than ever, it’s important we move forward in a measured way. [...]
HUNT COUNTRY'S TOP REAL ESTATE BROKERAGE FIRM
January 14th, 2020
Good, old fashioned statistics prove once again that Thomas & Talbot Real Estate is far and away the most successful real estate brokerage in Virginia's Hunt Country area with a continuing sales record of historic proportion. Once again, Thomas & Talbot Real Estate’s agents are the leaders of the pack when [...]
5 THINGS YOU MAY NOT KNOW ABOUT YOUR FAVORITE HUNT COUNTRY WINERIES
November 7th, 2019
It’s officially wine season in Hunt Country! You already know that our home holds some of the world’s best wine, but we bet there’s some things you may not know about the places and people who make it! Keep reading to see if your favorite made the list. Boxwood Estate Winery You may know Jack Kent Cooke as the former, long-time owner of the Washington [...]
MEET PHILLIP THOMAS
October 31st, 2019
Meet Middleburg's Master Realtor…Our Own Phillip Thomas When asked what he thinks about the real estate market in the Virginia Piedmont, Phil Thomas smiles and says, "Real estate in the Hunt Country is unlike any in the D.C. area. You aren't just buying a home, you are buying into a unique landscape and a special way of life. This real estate tends to retain its value because it offers so much more than just [...]
COUNTRY CURB APPEAL
October 31st, 2019
Thinking of Selling Your Country Home? Remember…Dressing Up a Home's Curb Appeal Isn't Just for Houses in the City. Perhaps, for a home in a country setting, it should be called roadside appeal. Or, front lane appeal. Whatever you call it, dressing up your home's exterior prior to putting it on the market is essential for attracting the most buyers ' and for getting the selling price you want. Here are a few ways, some large, some small, that can make your country home a for-sale [...]
THE 2019 VIRGINIA FALL RACES ' A HUNT COUNTRY TRADITION
September 5th, 20199
Since 1955, the annual Virginia Fall Races have been a mainstay of the hunt country social calendar, attracting crowds in excess of 10,000 to witness the spectacular pageantry of rigorous steeplechase competition. This year, race day is Saturday, October 12th, with the event held as it has been for 65 years at historic Glenwood Park in Middleburg, Virginia ' the oldest continually [...]
