MIDDLEBURG, Va. -- The license plate on the Lexus said it all: "POLO MOM."
The scents of money and manure have long mingled in Hunt Country, the historic name of this piedmont in the shadow of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Stables are as common as garages, and blacksmiths are as vital as baby-sitters for young families. Polo is actually a johnny-come-lately pastime in a rolling green region where, for several centuries, the major sporting seasons have been fox hunting in the fall and steeplechases in the spring.
"A horse is absolutely a necessity" for Hunt Country living, said Kim Mendes, whose family has two and is shopping for a third.
With a new house and a newer barn on 5 acres of former farmland along a gravel road, the Mendes family is part of a population boom that is changing the region's culture and demographics while clinging to its horsy heritage. With two children, they added the barn shortly after moving from New York and discovering that they had the room and the hankering for horses.
Mark Mendes, a telecommunications company executive, is typical of Hunt Country newcomers. He commutes 35 minutes to work in the high-tech corridor near Dulles International Airport, where America Online, Orbital Sciences, Comsat, Star Technologies and dozens of other digital industries are based in a suburb of Washington.
Loudoun County, home to both the stables of Middleburg and the servers of AOL, is one of the fastest growing areas in America. In what was mostly a rural economy two decades ago, 75 percent of the county's new employers are in high-tech fields. Unemployment is practically nonexistent.
Land values soaring
Land values are soaring in the rural areas an hour's drive from the nation's capital. Sandy Lerner, co-founder of Cisco Systems Software, paid about $7 million for the 800-acre Ayrshire estate in Loudoun County. Robert Johnson, chairman of Black Entertainment Television, bought a sprawling Hunt Country farm for about $4.3 million. "Farmettes" with a house and a stable on 5- to 10-acre lots start around $500,000.
The high-tech influx is fueling a boom in low-tech trades that have survived in Hunt Country since Colonial times.
"This tech money is keeping us all very busy," said Malcolm Matheson, a stonemason who said he can't keep up with the demand for pillars, chimneys, archways and patios. "In two months, I've had to turn down probably a quarter of a million dollars worth of work."
