We invite you to join in ensuring GMHA’s future.
Whether your first memory of GMHA was as a child or just the other day, we are all touched by the beauty of the place and sense of community.
For one hundred years, GMHA’s magic has enriched the lives of thousands of horse lovers.
As GMHA prepares to enter its second century, we turn our focus to sustainability, resilience, and deepening our commitment to GMHA’s core mission.
The beautiful Kedron Brook is both GMHA’s asset and threat. Adapting to extreme weather is critical to our future. The goal of this campaign is to protect GMHA’s beautiful campus, steward our facilities and trails, ensure resilience in the face of future challenges, and deepen our commitment to access to GMHA’s marvelous educational opportunities: in short, to secure the magic for future generations.
Please join us in celebrating GMHA’s heritage and its enduring impact on us all. Help to preserve the magic for future generations.
Your contribution will ensure GMHA’s mission to continue
Celebrate GMHA’s heritage and the lasting impact GMHA made on you. Preserve your memories and provide a place for future generations to experience the magic of GMHA.
Sustainability
- Acquire 35 acres of land south of GMHA for flood mitigation and trail and cross country course protection;
- Implement flood mitigation plan;
- Develop resources that generate operating costs savings and decrease carbon footprint from energy efficient installations;
- Use reserve fund income and cost savings from energy efficiency to relieve pressure on the operating budget and offer more competitive wages and benefits to our dedicated staff;
- Bolster resilience and strengthen our ability to address and overcome other unexpected and potentially catastrophic circumstances.
Capital Reserve
- Ensure GMHA’s facilities are prepared for the 21st century and beyond.
- Renovate, repair and improve facility buildings, barns and fencing.
Trail Opportunity Reserve
- Provide greater access to trails.
- Trail maintenance.
- Opportunities for easement and land acquisition.
Education, Outreach and Inclusion
- Increase available scholarship funds to aspiring equestrians.
- Maintain affordable stabling and entry fees to provide accessibility for aspiring riders in all disciplines and socio-economic groups.
- Provide enhanced offerings to a diverse equestrian audience.
Sustainability Campaign Goal $3,100,000
I. Land Acquisition $2,100,000
A Once in a Lifetime Opportunity!
As GMHA prepared in the spring of 2023 to launch Bridge to the Future, our centennial campaign, we could not have known what was to come. But the floods of 2023 – four of them between July and December – sidelined our campaign plans to focus squarely on the real and existential threat to GMHA posed by climate change. How could we look forward to a second century of GMHA’s programs, activities, and future health without addressing the existential challenge on our doorstep?
We determined that the best way to protect GMHA would be to control, if we could, the amount of water coming onto the property from the Kedron Brook. We believed this could be done by flooding (temporarily) the hayfield adjacent to GMHA to the south in the event of a major flash flood event, then allowing the water to disperse over the following days. This would protect not only all GMHA‘s property but also our downstream neighbors in South Woodstock and beyond. We have retained engineers who are working on a definitive plan to accomplish this and have been awarded a $100,000 grant from the State of Vermont to advance the work. The only problem is that the hayfield does not belong to us.
The hayfield and open land beyond have been used by GMHA with permission from its owners for many years for cross country courses and trail access. After nearly a year of discussions, the final piece of our plan has fallen into place. The owner has offered to sell us 35 acres, including the hayfield and open land beyond, which we are already using, and also including about 17 acres of woods on the hillside on the opposite side of Kedron Brook.
This opportunity is both transformational and existential. It will increase the footprint of GMHA by over 60% and add potentially buildable land on the hillside out of the flood plain. It will protect forever the open lands we have already been using and which we have come to rely on. It will gain us access to the hayfield which will protect the rest of the property from future flood events. And if we don’t buy it, someone else will, threatening many of our programs.
This opportunity has become the cornerstone of our centennial campaign, without which all other priorities are threatened. Please consider investing in this “once in a lifetime” chance to protect and secure GMHA’s future!!
II. Sustainability Reserve $1,000,000
After Tropical Storm Irene in 2011, GMHA established the Sustainability Reserve. The purpose of this reserve fund was to provide the board and management with the resources and options to address threats to GMHA in whatever form they might appear. This fund has been added to through bequests and principal growth and now stands at $800,000. It has already been a critical resource in addressing the financial challenges of both a Covid-19 shutdown and rapid flood response. In both cases, the funds drawn were restored within a year or less. Increasing this reserve fund by $1,000,000 will assure that we are prepared for an uncertain future and can proceed with implementation of our resiliency plan. In the meantime, income from the Sustainability Reserve helps offset rising operating costs, ensuring that our staff are paid competitively, and our activity fees remain reasonable. The principal can only be tapped by a two-thirds vote of the board of directors.
Capital Reserve $820,000
Based on feedback from members and staff, GMHA has developed, for the first time, a comprehensive capital budget to address capital needs over the next five to ten years. The projects listed below will increase energy efficiency, enhance the workplace environment for staff, improve the appeal and flexibility of public spaces, and address key infrastructure needs. We launched our energy efficiency improvements with two early gifts for a solar array on Upwey Barn, covering most of our electricity usage, and a modern heat pump in the administration building to replace the oil furnace.
Projects will include:
Renovation of Administrative Offices $100,000
In addition to the new heat pump, we will replace all single pane windows with thermopane, add insulation to the walls to increase energy efficiency, and replace all carpeting. When the building was constructed in the 1950’s, GMHA employees were seasonal, and all buildings were closed in the winter. Our dedicated employees deserve a workspace that is comfortable year-round.
Improvements at the Youth Center $320,000
The Youth Center has not received attention in many years.
Public Spaces
We will replace the floor and upgrade lights and fixtures in all of the public areas. ($50,000)
Temporary Stall Area
We will create a full concrete manure pit for shed area stabling. ($20,000)
Full Cheek Café
We will rebuild the Full Cheek Café connected to the Youth Center, a more environmentally friendly distance from the stream, and with a full catering kitchen. ($250,000)
Repairs & Painting of Upwey, and the A, B, C, D, & E Barns $100,000
Upwey needs siding repairs as well as painting outside. Painting the interior of the indoor arena will make it more pleasant for those who are stabled inside. It also needs a new door. The other barns will require painting of roofs and walls to preserve their integrity.
New Water Truck $150,000
Our current water truck was new in 1976. It is vital to the safety and comfort of all competitors, both equine and human, throughout the summer. A new one will take us well into our second century.
New Bridges, Fencing, & Bank Repairs Due to Erosion $150,000
Two new bridges will offer cross-country course designers new alternatives to water crossings from the jump field to the middle field, and from the middle field to the far field. Fencing along Rte. 106, around the Walker arena, and at the Rush Meadow ring need replacing. Recent significant water events in the stream have brought the stream closer to B barn, requiring bank stabilization.
Trail Opportunity Reserve $750,000
In 1926, the founders of what eventually became GMHA placed trails at the center of their vision for GMHA, calling for the organization to “develop and maintain bridle trails in the State of Vermont.” In its early years, the organization marked and mapped roughly 1,000 miles of bridle trails throughout Vermont! It hosted 60- and 100-mile competitive trail rides even before it had property of its own. A recent survey members and competitors across all of GMHA’s disciplines identified the trail network as among the most important attributes of GMHA.
As we plan for GMHA’s second century, we recognize challenging changes in our environment. Property turnover and fragmentation of large parcels have challenged the integrity of our traditional trail networks, most of which are available through the generosity of neighboring landowners. A goal of this campaign is to keep the trail network at the heart of our next 100 years. We are developing a comprehensive master plan for trail preservation and expansion, factoring in changing land use and the impact of climate change on the natural environment. The plan is being developed with the input of trail users, neighboring landowners and staff to ensure that it will be an enduring blueprint for GMHA’s future footprint in the region. The plan will call for vigilant attention to opportunities to secure easements, additional land permissions, and even land acquisition, in furtherance of this goal.
The current trail endowment fund ($250,000) is an important cornerstone of this effort, and the income it generates helps to preserve and maintain the existing trail system. For example, income from the current trail endowment was added as part of a match requirement for a major grant from the US Fish and Wildlife Service obtained by the Ottauquechee Natural Resources Conservation District to support work on the Cady Brook Trail. GMHA has been named the steward of this important resource prospectively. The income from our new reserve fund would amplify such collaborative efforts. The new reserve fund will also help GMHA prepare to attract and host championship level FEI competitions in competitive and endurance riding. The fund could also, with a two-thirds vote of the board of directors, be tapped for an opportunistic acquisition. This would allow GMHA to be proactive and then subsequently rebuild the fund for the future.
Education Endowment $750,000
GMHA’s early mission statements called for an organization that would “encourage equestrian sports, and train people in the care, handling, and training of horses.” Equestrian sport is expensive, yet in the broader GMHA community, families support horses on a budget. Young people grow from the connection with and responsibility for their horses. GMHA embraces its role in increasing access to equestrian sport and making participation in clinics, training, and competitions more affordable.
Currently we have a small number of scholarships available for the Junior Horsemanship Camp, as well as two new named endowed funds for youth scholarship. Together these generate $12,500 annually for youth participants at GMHA. Greater endowed funds for scholarships will advance GMHA’s longtime mission to expand access to equestrian sport.
Our goal is to raise sufficient funds to generate as much as $35,000 annually for scholarships and to underwrite entire GMHA educational programs for competitors, as well as trainers and instructors, making such programs more affordable and a GMHA signature.
Cash or check, payable to:
Green Mountain Horse Association
PO. Box 8
South Woodstock, VT 05071
Credit Card
Donations by credit card may be made on this page.
Gift of Securities
Appreciated stock offers tax advantages over a cash gift, since you can avoid capital gains tax on the increase in value over the stock’s purchase price. There are exceptions*, consult your financial advisor. Contact for wire instructions:
Vanessa Bryant
Harpswell Capital Advisors, LLC
41 Campus Drive, Suite 203
New Gloucester, ME 04260
(207) 926-1347
vmb@harpswelladvisors.com
Individual Retirement Account
A gift from your IRA can have tax benefits to donors over 70½. There are several options. You can make a gift of up to $100,000 from your IRA, and you can make a gift of up to $50,000 to create an annuity that pays you income and benefits GMHA in the long term. Consult your financial advisor.
Real Estate
You can gift a property or parcel of land just as you can stock. GMHA will review the potential gift to ensure it has a clear title and no liabilities. Contact:
Bruce Perry, Executive Director
802-457-1509
bruce@gmhainc.org
Crypto Currency
If you would like to make a gift of cryptocurrency, GMHA will put you in touch with an agency which handles cryptocurrency gifts for GMHA. Contact:
Bruce Perry, Executive Director
802-457-1509
bruce@gmhainc.org
Planned Giving
Including GMHA in your will or estate plan is a way to make a legacy gift to GMHA. Some planned gifts can assure you an income stream during your lifetime and benefit GMHA after your death. A gift of life insurance may also be an advantageous way of making a legacy gift to GMHA. Consult your estate planning advisor.
If the magic of GMHA left its mark on you,
leave your mark on GMHA.
| $750,000 | Endow Executive Director position |
| $500,000 | The Main Administration Building |
| $250,000 | Barns C or D; (A, B and E barns are reserved) |
| $150,000 | The New Water Truck |
| $100,000 | The Solar Array, Upwey Barn (reserved) |
| $50,000 | Riding Arena(s) |
| $50,000 | A New Endowment Fund |
| $25,000 | A Stall |
| $10,000 | Bridges and Cross-country Fences |
For Campaign questions, contact Jessica Brodie, Campaign Manager at campaign@gmhainc.org
“We must begin thinking like a river if we are to leave a legacy of beauty and life for future generations.” — David Brower