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GMHA
Kicking Off By
CASSIE HORNER News
Correspondent The
event will feature a presentation, “Preserving the Past, Securing the
Future,” about the campaign by board member Peter Campot. Denny
Emerson, board member and honorary chair of the campaign, has a long history
with the 80-year old GMHA. “My involvement started in 1956 when I was 15,”
he recalls. “I rode in the GMHA 100-mile that started at the Woodstock Inn
stables. This is my 51st year as a member of GMHA. For years and
years, most of the fundraising was conducted informally by Roger Maher.” This
non-systematic approach worked for many years, “as long as it was a little
organization with no sort of plans or objectives too far into the future.”
Emerson says the need for changes began to be apparent about 10 years ago. The
list of improvements in the facility ranges from the need for larger stalls (and
a new barn) to accommodate larger horses to the need for better footing for the
horses and restoration of the historic Upwey barn. One
of the key elements Emerson identifies in the capital campaign is funding to
preserve and protect the trails. “When we were kids the land around here
seemed limitless and forever,” he says. “In the last 10 years farms that
sold for $350,000 are now $1.6 million. The land is beginning to get closed
in.” He notes that in 1926, the founders of GMHA had a goal of a network of
trails from the Canadian to the Emerson
reflects on the role of GHMA in the community. “It is a positive asset for all
the community,” he says. “I am very optimistic we will get this work done
and it will mean the facility will be around for the next 50 years.” Dana
Waters, president of the GMHA board, has been a member since the 1980s. He moved
to the area in the late 1990s and joined the board. Both his sons and wife ride,
and his younger son drove and competed. “I was pit crew,” he says. “What
appealed to me were the trails and the educational aspects. It is a lot of fun
to see kids compete and the trails are gorgeous.” The
capital campaign was developed after a feasibility study several years ago.
“GMHA had to become more profitable by the things they did,” Waters
comments. “We found from members that they wanted to be what we’d always
been. They wanted to be better but not bigger.” The feedback resulted in a
$2.5 million campaign, reduced from an original plan for $5 million. Waters
explains that some upgrades to the facility are essential. “The barns are
falling apart. They are very old. Horses are tough on them. They kick and
chew,” he says. There are also safety issues such as nails popping out of the
wood. Another problem is lack of all-weather footing. This year, for example,
was very rainy so riding areas became muddy and slippery. The Roger and Ana Ela
Youth and GHMA
was founded in 1926 soon after the Rutland Vermont Fair Horse Show Committee
sent out a call for more entries if the annual horse show was to go on as usual.
The September show was a success and may have stimulated a meeting of about 50
horse devotees that October at the Rutland Armory. This group established GMHA
with a mission to encourage raising and caring for horses, developing facilities
for educational clinics, and developing and maintaining trails. In the last few
years, the membership has almost doubled to about 1900. Waters observes that the
motto of the group is to “preserve the mission and secure the future.” The
success of the campaign is critical, he says, to keep the organization the way
the members want it. Article by the Vermont Standard |
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