The tale of New York-native Carol Young and what she calls “my little horse farm in Little Compton” is about a lifelong equestrian deciding to pair her retirement with her passion.

In the late 1990s, she discovered the seaside community, and, despite pleas by friends to move to Cape Cod or Martha’s Vineyard, she chose to build Little Paddocks, at 92 Burchard Ave., overlooking Patchet Brook Reservoir. Her horse farm sits on 4.8 acres, and boasts two large barns with enough stalls for seven horses.

“A lot of time went into planning the horse farm so that it could be easily cared for by one person,” she says. “That’s why we put in a run-out for each stall. You throw some hay in, do what you need to around the farm or run errands, and the horses are self-sufficient to run in and out of their stalls for a long while.”

The part-time caretaker, Fred Ford, of Fall River, confirmed the ease of taking care of the property. “Everything was planned to be simple and easy down to the finest details,” he says. “Even the placement of the stones around the property was deliberate to ensure no issues with drainage or time-consuming care.”

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After a few days of typically heavy spring rain, I ventured to Little Paddocks in my hip-wader boots only to find a lack of mud or puddles.

“You will not find any at all,” Young says. “A great deal of effort went into the land so that the water runs off. We used stones and grading and worked closely with the DEM [Department of Environmental Management] to be respectful of the streams and brooks around the property.”

After about five years into her retirement and living her idea of “the life” at her Little Compton horse farm, Young was thrown from a horse (while, she says, “riding near cranberry bogs on the Cape”). She injured her back and knees. She moved to North Carolina to recuperate, and has decided to stay.

She is selling Little Paddocks for $1.1 million. In addition to the two buildings, there are about four paddocks, a sand ring, dog run and a half-mile riding track.

The exterior architecture style for both buildings resembles Dutch colonial houses that were popular in New York’s Hudson River area in the 1750s. They feature a gambrel roof with a slight overhang as well as the style’s signature Dutch doors, which are divided in two so that either the top or the bottom section of the door can be open or closed.

The building named the Old Barn offers 1,200 square feet of interior space including living quarters modeled after a New York City loft. It’s on the top floor and boasts a vaulted ceiling, skylights, ceiling fans and exposed beams. It has hardwood Southern pine floors put down with a slanted layout design.

The living area is open; pocket doors separate the bedroom (it has pull-down stairs for additional storage) from the main room. A solarium opens to a deck with decorative railing and a view of the reservoir. The kitchen, with a wood floor, has counters covered with Silestone and plenty of cabinets.

The full bathroom features an old-fashioned claw-and-ball foot cast-iron tub. Most notable in the bath is the lighting, a giant chandelier with layers of dangling crystals.

The chandelier matches the more than half-dozen others that encircle the living area. The formal crystal lighting has an Old-West feel similar to the interior look one might have seen in the main house of the old TV series The Big Valley starring Barbara Stanwyck.

“I put in the chandeliers to match the 18th-centiry furniture that has been handed down in my family,” Young says. “The lighting was the best solution given the furniture. It turned out to light up the room in a practical and interesting way.”

Below the living area are five horse stalls, which each measure 12-by-12 feet. Included is a cleaning bay with hoses, heat lamps and drain. There’s central heat, and the stable walls and floor are covered with yellow pine.

Also there are several rooms, including the laundry area, with a large sink and toilet. In addition, the level has an office, greenhouse/den, a tack room for bridles and saddles, and a door leading to an attached garage big enough for one car, and enough space for a small tractor or riding lawn mower.

Across from the Old Barn is the New Barn, a structure with similar Dutch colonial exterior features. It has two additional stalls, a cleaning bay with heat lamps, garage with room for tractors, and a carport big enough for a horse trailer.

The horse farm on 4.8 acres at 92 Burchard Ave., Little Compton, is for sale for $1.1 million. It has two barns: one with a 1,200-square-foot one-bedroom loft apartment; the other has a hayloft. Taxes are $2,380. The heat is oil and there’s a wood-burning stove, as well as an attic fan for cooling. Judy Chace, of Residential Properties, (401) 207-9166; judychace@msn.com, has the listing.How to submit a House of the Week

A different House of the Week appears each Saturday in the projoHomes section of The Providence Journal. The feature tells the story of the house and the people who have lived in it. If you would like us to consider a house for sale as a subject of this news feature, send a photo, information about the house and why it is of interest, to Faye Zuckerman, real estate writer, 75 Fountain St., Providence, RI 02902; fax (401) 277-8250; or e-mail pjhomes@projo.com. For more information, call (401) 277-7333.

fzuckerm@projo.com