The community, like a herd of horses, has come together to show their support, and the herd keeps growing!

More and more people are raising their hands and making a difference in Marion County to help protect horse farms for future generations. Our Founders demonstrate the pinnacle of commitment to the preservation of horse farms by investing in the mission of Horse Farms Forever®, year after year.


Founders who renew each year are demonstrating their iron clad commitment to continuing the work of preservation. New threats are appearing all the time, and the Founders are behind us all the way. We are beyond grateful.

We would like to thank the Founders who have renewed their 2024 membership with a gift (as of March 2024).

As a show of gratitude for those who wish to support Horse Farms Forever at the Founder level, an anonymous donor has agreed to match all gifts at the $5,000 during the second quarter of 2024. Please contact us to learn more about this exciting match opportunity in celebration of Horse Farms Forever’s sixth birthday!

 

 

horse-farms-forever-farmland-preservation-area-ocala-marion-county

The Green Group is an accounting, tax, consulting and advisory firm with a unique approach – out of the box, entrepreneurial thinking. With a team of seasoned, highly successful entrepreneurs, family business owners, real estate owners, investors and specialists in IRS audits and thoroughbred racing, we see the business world through a special lens and find solutions in ways our competition simply can not.

We go beyond the typical accounting firm-client relationship and invest ourselves into understanding the intricacies of your particular business and financial situation. Our cloud technologies allow us to be accessible to you wherever you may be. We are your trusted business advocates and advisors, and can help your business catch wave after wave of success.

New to the Herd


We welcome you!

Green Group

Renewing


Thanks for your continued support!

Elisabeth Brinton & Bob Utley

VanKampen Boyer Molinari Foundation

Phyllis & Patrick Harlow

Nicole Hornblower

JP Morgan Private Bank

Tash Osbourne, Sotheby’s International

Lugano Diamonds

St. Bernard Foundation

UF Health

The community, like a herd of horses, has come together to show their support, and the herd keeps growing!

More and more people are raising their hands and making a difference in Marion County to help protect horse farms for future generations. Our Founders demonstrate the pinnacle of commitment to the preservation of horse farms by investing in the mission of Horse Farms Forever®, year after year.

Founders who renew each year are demonstrating their iron clad commitment to continuing the work of preservation. New threats are appearing all the time, and the Founders are behind us all the way. We are beyond grateful.

We would like to thank the Founders who have renewed their 2024 membership with a gift (as of March 2024).

As a show of gratitude for those who wish to support Horse Farms Forever at the Founder level, an anonymous donor has agreed to match all gifts at the $5,000 during the second quarter of 2024. Please contact us to learn more about this exciting match opportunity in celebration of Horse Farms Forever’s sixth birthday!

horse-farms-forever-farmland-preservation-area-ocala-marion-county

The Green Group is an accounting, tax, consulting and advisory firm with a unique approach – out of the box, entrepreneurial thinking. With a team of seasoned, highly successful entrepreneurs, family business owners, real estate owners, investors and specialists in IRS audits and thoroughbred racing, we see the business world through a special lens and find solutions in ways our competition simply can not.

We go beyond the typical accounting firm-client relationship and invest ourselves into understanding the intricacies of your particular business and financial situation. Our cloud technologies allow us to be accessible to you wherever you may be. We are your trusted business advocates and advisors, and can help your business catch wave after wave of success.

horse-farms-forever-farmland-preservation-area-ocala-marion-county

Elisabeth Brinton and Bob Utley have lived abroad and traveled the world for most of their professional careers. They purchased a horse farm in the Farmland Preservation Area (FPA) and joined Horse Farms Forever as Founder Members.

Elisabeth is a competitive show jumper. She is also a global sustainability expert and successful builder of global businesses for strategic corporate investors and private capital. A few years before her retirement as a senior executive with Microsoft, she and Bob began searching for a U.S. based horse farm. They reached out to Matt Varney, a realtor and broker with Ocala Horse Properties, to find the perfect farm.

They could have chosen one of many equestrian areas around the world, but they chose to buy a farm in Marion County because of WEC. But most importantly, they wanted their farm to be located in the Farmland Preservation Area (FPA).

 

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Individual Renewing Founder

In 2019, Kimberly Van Kampen moved her Hampton Green Farms from Wellington to Ocala. The move to Marion County was inspired by the opening of WEC; so much so, that in 2021 Hampton Green Farms and Discover Dressage became Founding Partners of WEC.

Van Kampen’s move to Marion County is big news for the dressage world, as she is one of the founders of the Global Dressage Festival in Wellington and a member of Wellington Equestrian Partners. But after 20 years, she decided to move her investments to Ocala because of WEC.

Van Kampen is one of the most respected breeders of P.R.E. (Spanish) horses in the world and is the past president of the US P.R.E. Association. She is also one of the largest supporters of youth dressage, supporting Lendon Gray’s Dressage4Kids program and the Emerging Dressage Athlete Program through the United States Equestrian Federation (USEF). Van Kampen’s sponsored rider Sophia Schults, had two big wins at the 2022 FEI North American Youth Championships (NAYC). Schults and Conocido HGF, owned by Hampton Green Farms, won an Individual Bronze Medal (Freestyle) and were also part of the NAYC Team Gold Medal.

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Phyllis & Patrick Harlow

Individual Renewing Founder

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Individual Renewing Founder

Horse Farms Forever is happy to have Nicole Hornblower and her husband James Denman as Founder Members. Their primary residence is in Massachusetts, but they fell in love with Marion County’s picturesque countryside after visiting Ocala for several years for horse shows. In 2017, Hornblower and her husband decided to buy their own horse farm.

“This is such a beautiful area and my husband, James and I, are very excited to be part of the Horse Farms Forever community to help make sure that there is land for horses,” she said.

In 2018, shortly after they purchased their property, now named Little Creek Farm, they learned about the proposed Coastal Connector toll road from their realtor, Matt Varney of Ocala Horse Properties. They are grateful that the road was stopped, but they became concerned again when the Northern Turnpike Extension was recently proposed.

 

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Corporate Renewing Founder

A uniquely elevated private banking experience shaped around you, JP Morgan Private Bank offers:

  • Planning: bringing finances together into one comprehensive strategy
  • Investing: tailored guidance and access to unique investing opportunities from world-class specialists
  • Lending: working to strategically craft the right financing solutions for your goals
  • Banking: extensive personal and business banking resources
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Corporate Renewing Founder

Everyone deserves the extraordinary, because luxury is not about price—rather it’s about an experience. And when it comes to real estate, experience matters. Sotheby’s is one of the world’s most recognized and respected luxury brands, having served discerning auction buyers and sellers since 1744.

Dedicated to building relationships & accomplishing the impossible for others right here in Ocala Florida, Horse Capital of the World, the Co-Founder for the Ocala’s Premier Sotheby’s International Realty location.

Put your home in the hands of an expert. Mastering the art of listing a home successfully & getting it sold.  Helping buyers with their dream homes, fully in my element being a part of the life they have worked so hard to achieve.

 

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Corporate Renewing Founder

Located in The Equestrian Hotel at The World Equestrian Center in Ocala, Florida. This world-class facility is the largest equestrian complex in the United States and we are very proud to be a founding partner. Our newest salon can be found in the lobby of the hotel overlooking the VIP Terrace and Grand Prix arena.

 

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St. Bernard Foundation

Corporate Renewing Founder

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 Corportate Renewing Founder

University of Florida Health is a medical network associated with the University of Florida. It includes two academic hospitals – UF Health Shands Hospital in Gainesville and UF Health Jacksonville – and several other hospitals and facilities in North Florida. It used to be known as Shands Healthcare and UFShands.

UF Health encompasses the colleges of DentistryMedicineNursingPharmacyPublic Health and Health Professions and Veterinary Medicine; the UF Health Shands family of hospitals; hospitals in Leesburg and The Villages®; UF Health Jacksonville medical center; UF Health North; and an academic campus in Jacksonville that is home to the UF College of Medicine – Jacksonville and includes degree programs offered by the colleges of Nursing and Pharmacy. It also includes primary care and specialty practices throughout Central, North Central and Northeast Florida, as well as Southeast Georgia.

Our mission is to promote health through outstanding and high-quality patient care; innovative and rigorous education in the health professions and biomedical sciences; and high-impact research across the spectrum of basic, translational and clinical investigation.

 

It is the vision and mission of Horse Farms Forever to inspire conservation of horse farms through education, awareness and idea exchange so as to preserve natural pasture land focusing on horses and their habitats, to protect soil and water on which they depend, and minimize land use conflicts
in Marion County, Florida.

We are watchful of government and others to preserve and protect horse farms and farmland for future generations - especially in the Farmland Preservation Area. We are neither anti-growth nor anti-development; we encourage urban growth to remain inside the Urban Growth Boundary.

Horse Farms Forever® is a Florida not-for-profit corporation registered with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services as a charitable organization and approved as a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) corporation by the Internal Revenue Service. Horse Farms Forever® does not have a political mission. Our status as a 501(c)(3) charitable organization does not allow us to participate or intervene in political activities. The organization will neither advocate on behalf of political candidates nor advocate for the passage of legislation.

 

Questions About Membership and Sponsorship?

Sara Fennessy, Executive Director

859-553-5510