GMHA : Green Mountain Horse Association

From "The Vermont Standard"

GMHA Kicking Off $2.5M Capital Campaign

By CASSIE HORNER, News Correspondent

SOUTH WOODSTOCK - The Green Mountain Horse Association is kicking off the public phase of its $2.5 million capital campaign at the annual meeting and Season’s End Celebration Barbecue dinner Saturday, Oct. 7 at 5:30 pm. Alicia Connors, campaign manager, says she expects GMHA will be at the $1 million mark by Saturday.

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 Massachusetts borders, a goal they accomplished for awhile. “Trail networks are very fragile,” he says. “They’re important not just for us but for our grandchildren.” The campaign includes a trails endowment fund of $500,000.

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 Education Center , a solid structure, needs some upgrades such as winterized bathrooms and an addition. The Upwey Barn needs restoration, and the plan calls for creation of a museum in part of the facility.

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.