Celebrities come and go in Middleburg, Virginia, a Piedmont hamlet of fewer than 1,000 people, where horses outnumber the residents ten to one and beagles and foxhounds abound.
John and Jackie Kennedy, Sen. John Warner and his wife Elizabeth Taylor, Linda Tripp of Clinton-Lewinsky fame, and, as of last month, Vice President JD Vance and his family, all have resided without fanfare in this pastoral area an hour from Washington, D.C.
But the region’s newest neighbors — the U.S. Army and 73 horses of the Old Guard’s Caisson Detachment — have divided a community that values the proper care of the horses and the detachment’s mission at Arlington National Cemetery, but fears the move could cost local jobs and restrict access to the region’s premier thoroughbred training facility.
The Army finalized an $8.6 million deal on Aug. 6 to buy the Middleburg Training Center, a 149-acre horse farm with 11 barns and ample paddocks and pastures, to house and train the horses that support burials at Arlington National Cemetery.
Army officials said they considered more than 100 properties before choosing the Middleburg Training Center, which has newer barns and facilities and room for more than 200 horses.
During a town hall with residents in Middleburg on Aug. 6 — the same day the Army closed on the property — a panel of officials said the center provided the requisite environment for equine care and met needs for easements, as well as environmental, historical, and cultural concerns.
“We needed a horse farm. The Middleburg Training Center is that farm. The caisson herd moving to the Middleburg Training Center and the Military Mounted Battalion being operational here is a final piece of our grand modernization efforts,” said Col. Jeff Kain, commander of the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment, referring to changes at the unit, which is known as The Old Guard, since 2022.
That year, an internal review found that the horses’ facilities at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall in Arlington, Virginia, and Fort Belvoir, in Fairfax, were inadequate, with environmental conditions that contributed to the deaths of two horses.
According to the report, obtained by CNN, the deaths were attributable to poor conditions and care, with one horse dying as the result of a blocked gastrointestinal tract likely caused by ingesting sand and gravel, while the other died from colic as a result of eating poor-quality hay.
Two more horses died later that year, including a geriatric horse who suffered surgical complications following a fracture and another from “acute abdominal distress,” which may also have been caused by ingesting poor-quality hay or gravel.
As a result of the issues and subsequent public outcry, the service revamped its entire program, establishing a Military Working Equid Task Force, suspending support for caisson burials at Arlington, and dismantling most of its horse units elsewhere.
Most of the Arlington horses were moved to an equestrian facility in Aldie, Virginia, as the service instituted a basic horsemanship course, replaced the heavy caisson with lighter-weight versions for burials and created a new 08H Army Equestrian military occupational specialty to focus on caring for the service’s animals.
Residents mourning loss of facility
While most of the residents who packed the Middleburg Community Center on Aug. 6 were horse-lovers, riders, owners and trainers who favor the service’s efforts to protect the herd, they expressed dismay over the selection of the Middleburg Training Center as the Army’s new home.
The facility contains the state’s longest racetrack and hosts more than 1,000 horses each year. Without it, Virginia’s growing thoroughbred racing industry and the region’s economy will suffer, they said.
“Has the Army conducted an economic analysis on the loss of revenue that is now going to come forward … because of the loss of services for veterinarians, blacksmiths, equine dentists, therapy service providers, shipping companies, your tack stores, your feed stores, all the local community that generates revenue, horsemen included, because of you guys taking over the training center?” asked Megan Connolly, a former training center employee.
According to Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, D-Va., the facility contributes “thousands of jobs and tens of millions of dollars to the local economy that may be lost.”
During the town hall, Subramanyam asked whether the Army and the community could reach an agreement to lease back portions of the facility to those who work in Virginia’s burgeoning racing industry.
“I think it would go a long way if we were able to at least lease back part of the property to the training sector,” Subramanyam said.
The Middleburg Training Center was built in 1956 by philanthropist and horse enthusiast Paul Mellon. In its heyday, it produced the Kentucky Derby winner Spectacular Bid. Over the years, it fell into disrepair, though it never went unused because of its 7/8-mile sand track, the only one in the region.
Charles Kuhn, founder of JK Moving Services, purchased the facility in 2017 for $1.6 million. He made significant improvements to the barns and paddocks and preserved it from development.
Kuhn also purchased Wolver Hill Farm, another Middleburg property, in 2021, and placed it in a conservation easement to preserve its racing legacy and protect it from development. He leases a portion of the 500-acre expanse to the Vances.
According to the Virginia Equine Alliance, the facility supplied 825 full-time jobs and had an economic impact of $86.2 million from 2017 to 2023.
The alliance has expressed a desire for the property to be shared with the public in some capacity, given that the Army will not use the track and will occupy only a few of the barns.
Residents requested that a sharing agreement be considered and asked about jobs, the Army’s vision for the property, future fencing, housing and the track.
“You really have two extremes you can go toward: one would be this is a kind of a secret closed base. Nobody gets on it without a password of some kind, and it’s mysterious, it’s like Area 51 comes to Middleburg,” said Mike Pillsbury, owner of a nearby horse farm and former chairman of the Defense Policy Board. “The other extreme is you’re like Disneyland, and you sell tickets and you give tours … or you could do something in-between.”
Examining sharing options
Maj. Gen. Antoinette Gant, commander of Joint Task Force – National Capital Region/U.S. Army District of Washington, told attendees that a legal team is exploring the idea of community utilization, although she could not provide any definitive answers.
“The primary mission … is to make sure that we can be able to support the requirements … to ensure that the forces in the Military Mounted Battalion are able to do their jobs,” Gant said.
But, Gant added, the Army also is “looking at it from a legal standpoint to see what does that truly mean – a joint-use type of facility.”
According to Gant, the service plans to create an advisory committee in the community and encourage people with requisite experience to apply for jobs the Army may need at the facility.
Those jobs, however, are likely to be a fraction of the current number, given that the Army has its own veterinarians, techs and other staff.
The pending change has already prompted horse trainers and owners to relocate to other states that support thoroughbred racing, attendees said, and they expressed sadness over losing a facility at the heart of the state’s racing aspirations.
“This is a knife coming right into the middle of this tradition and this lifestyle that has been going on here for centuries … Gen. Patton was a fox hunter here,” said Wayne Chatfield-Taylor, a breeder and former center employee.
“This community has so much depth for this kind of horsemanship that has been available to us at this training center that it’s very difficult for me to see that we turn this over to the government,” Chatfield-Taylor said.
Under the purchase, current tenants and horses must leave the center by Oct. 31. The Army will take possession on Nov. 1 and expects the battalion to be operational at the center by June. The horses, many of which are now housed in modular stables at Fort Myer, are expected to move in between 2027 and 2028.
Kain said the Army wants to be part of the Middleburg community and hopes residents will, in turn, welcome the soldiers.
“Teach, coach, and mentor our young equestrians as this is a budding military occupational specialty,” Kain said.
Patricia Kime is a senior writer covering military and veterans health care, medicine and personnel issues.
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