It’s Home Sweet Home for Miss “Issy”

It’s Home Sweet Home for Miss “Issy”

Isabella Wolf

Photo by Doug Gehlsen Middleburg Photo

Middleburg is home these days for Isabella Wolf, a multi-talented

woman who has traveled the world as a talented professional polo player.

Now, 30, “Issy” was born here and noted that “what’s kept me here is the wonderful community and the equestrian culture in the area.” She’s a graduate of the University of Virginia with a degree in Spanish literature and a minor in Latin American studies.

She played polo in college and was on the school’s two-time national collegiate championship winning team. And then, it was off to see the world.

“I lived in many different places expecting to find somewhere that rivaled the Middleburg area,” she said. “That never happened for me. I certainly loved many of the places I lived in, but I couldn’t quite see them as home. Middleburg is my home.”

Her father, retired orthopedic surgeon Bill Wolf, and mother, Francesca Spano, first put her on a horse as a toddler. Her stepmother, artist Elizabeth Guarisco Wolf, has done exquisite sculpture of horses and her sister, Alexandra Wolf, 29, is a health care consultant.

Issy started riding lessons “at about three years old” and took her first polo lesson at age nine. That’s when she also met fellow 30-something ZEST cover subject Sebastian Langenberg. “We ended up playing together through high school.”

She occasionally does some riding in the countryside and has ten horses for polo, most of them off-the-racetrack thoroughbreds she’s trained herself.

Issy describes her career as “multi-faceted.” In addition to playing polo professionally and training polo ponies, she’s a real estate agent at Thomas & Talbot Estate Properties and also does social media for Tri-County Feeds, Fashions, and Finds in Marshall as well as several other local businesses.

“I love that my careers overlap,” she added. “My equestrian friends might be looking for a new property, or perhaps a real estate client wants to live in horse country and become a part of the equestrian community. I’m able to find them a home, and connect them with the right people in the horse world.”

Issy has some real estate closings in the next 30-60 days as well as some pocket listings. She currently shares the Miller property listing with John Coles and Will Driskill. This 100-acre Classic Revival Mansion of Mountain View, circa 1910, is nestled in the Francis Thornton Valley of Rappahannock County.

“The thing I love most about Middleburg is that it’s managed to maintain its small-town charm in a world that’s becoming increasingly homogenized,” she noted. “We’ve been able to conserve the actual character of this town, full of local small businesses.

“There have been some changes over the years, but I can still easily recognize the town where I grew up. Another thing I love about Middleburg is that every time I go to a coffee shop in town, I see someone I know and we get to catch up.”

Issy also is particularly enthusiastic about The Middleburg Humane Foundation, the Windy Hill Foundation, and the Piedmont Environmental Council.

“You can support any of these causes easily by donating on their websites or by volunteering your time,” she said. “I love supporting these charities specifically because they thread together to safeguard the people, animals, and land that make up the tapestry of our community.”