A Story Of Community and Partnership

In light of the recent developments in our world, we wanted to bring you a story of community and partnership in our Marion County equestrian community. This article features Anna Christina Gansauer, a grand prix show jumper who became a client of Ocala Horse Properties in 2013, when she decided to move her riding career from Ecuador to the United States for broader opportunity.

As a young professional, Anna was looking to launch her business in a horse centric region in the USA, and while Ocala ticked all the boxes for her, she needed guidance during the transition. Anna admits, that when she decided to take the leap, she was a kid and didn’t have knowledge of the region nor a big budget. Luckily, Anna found Ocala Horse Properties through a Google search from her desk in Ecuador, and her gut feeling told her to trust her instincts with our real estate team.

Anna toured the countryside with Ocala Horse Properties and settled on a piece of property that needed to be developed into a proper equestrian center. Her biggest challenge was that she was traveling back and forth to Ecuador and needed help on every aspect of the construction project to accomplish this vision. This is where her story of community and partnership began.

The Desino’s quickly jumped into action, recommending she work with Delbene Construction for the barn and Wordley Martin Equestrian for the arena design and layout. Ocala Horse Properties, along with Craig Martin and Sharn Wordley, worked together to make suggestions on facility layout that would suit her professional needs. These strong partnerships that we’ve fostered within our community are a key offering that Ocala Horse Properties can offer to all of our clients.

According to Anna, “Between the Desino Brothers and Wordley Martin, they planned everything while I was home in Ecuador. I was treated like family, and when I returned to Ocala most of the planning was completed!”

The result of this combined effort was the creation of Kandor Farm, a special farm named after Anna’s first grand prix horse who taught her the ropes of show jumping and competed with her until the age of 21!

Anna created her 20 stall barn as a multi disciplines training facility. Currently, eight stalls are occupied by private clients who own dressage horses in training with Linda Smith, and the remaining stalls are for Anna’s show jumping clients and sales horses.

Anna has campaigned her own Delgado Van’t Neerhoof (aka Delgy), a 17 year old Belgium Warmblood, since she arrived in the states in 2013. In addition to Delgy, Anna competes Hotshot in the Grand Prix and Valcaro (a sales horse) in the 1.40m to 1.45m. Her initial connection to Sharn Wordley also lead her to Olympian Scott Keach, whom she continues to train with today. Together they compete throughout Florida at HITS, WEF, Venice Beach and Live Oak International. During the summers they travel the circuit to Kentucky, Tryon and Canada.

Earlier in March we were able to cheer on Anna and Delgy at Live Oak International, and together with her barn family, we were proud of her efforts. The team at Ocala Horse Properties is thankful for clients like Anna, who have become close to us in friendship as well.

Now more than ever, we appreciate our clients and the tranquility of Ocala. If you are a farm owner, now is the time to focus on your farm, family and horses. Know that Ocala Horse Properties remains in operation, although we are practicing common sense protocol to keep our staff and clients safe. We are not congregating at our offices, and when we do show properties, we are asking that clients meet us at the appointment in their own cars.

We should mention that with the Fed dropping the interest rate to zero, the prime rate is adjusting and mortgage rates are at an all time low. Now is the time to look at farms in Marion County, so please don’t hesitate to reach out! We will continue to monitor any state government mandates and wish all of our clients health and safety in these challenging times.

~ The Team at Ocala Horse Properties