Despite Selling for Mammoth $24,000,000, Equestrian Farm Suffers a Massive Blow Decade After Getting Listed

An integral part of equestrian sports is the estate or farm. An equestrian estate serves a variety of purposes including acting as a home for the owners and their horses, coupled with training grounds. However, it takes millions of dollars to build and maintain an estate, where the owners, athletes, and animals can co-exist in harmony. Hence, millionaires often buy and sell existing equestrian farms. Recently the Double H Farm in Connecticut, owned by late Railway tycoon Hunter Harrison and his wife, Jeannie Harrison, sold for a whopping $24 million.

The Harrisons had bought the farm two decades ago and spent millions building it into one of the finest estates in the area. The property originally went up for sale in 2014. However, it took nearly a decade to find a buyer, and while $24 million is a lot, it’s a massive drop from the original valuation.

A far cry from the original asking price

The 87-acre estate previously owned by the Harrisons is an hour’s distance outside New York City. Hunter and Jeannie Harrison bought the farm in 2005 when Hunter Harrison was preparing for retirement. The former chief executive of Canadian National Railway bought the massive property and then spent millions to turn it into a state-of-the-art equestrian facility.

However, in 2012, Mr. Harrison came out of retirement. In June of that year, Hunter Harrison became the CEO and President of Canadian Pacific Railway and moved to Calgary, Canada. After two years, the Harrisons decided to sell the estate in Ridgefield, Connecticut. Initially, the massive property got listed on the market for $55 million.

Despite being arguably the best equestrian facility in Connecticut, the Harrisons never found a buyer at $55 million. In July 2018, the property reappeared on the market for $33 million. However, even then, there was no buyer for the estate. Now, nearly a decade later, the Double H Farm has been sold for $24 million according to The Wall Street Journal. A massive blow, considering it’s less than half the original asking price. So what did the unknown buyer get for $24 million?

Everything the equestrian estate has to offer

The Double H farm has enough room for 40 horses. The spacious barns where the horses stay have creature comforts like radiant-heated floors. For the athletes, the estate has a 3.5-acre Grand Prix Show Jumping ground. The facility also houses an 80-by-140-foot indoor ring and grass paddocks.

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While the estate ensures the horses and athletes have everything they require, it was also a home for the Harrisons. The estate has three homes, and one of them dates back to the 18th century. The main house on the property is roughly 12,000 sq ft. in size and even has a golf room.

While the property sold for less than half its $55 million asking price, it shattered the record for Ridgefield’s most expensive home sale. The previous record for the most expensive publicly sold property was $8.2 million.

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