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A ‘Bright Restart’ for Muddy Brook Farm
Community and IHSA members convened to assist and gather donations after a fire destroyed Muddy Brook Farm.
The generosity of IHSA teams, coaches and sponsors spur donations after a fire decimates a Massachusetts stable.
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By Darlene Ricker Photos by C.J. Law and Arny Mogenson
Early Sunday morning, November 3, most of Muddy Brook Farm in Amherst, Massachusetts, was destroyed by a fire and three horses were lost. But almost instantly something magical happened: The horse community banded together to help.
Assistance—hands-on and in donations—poured in from dozens of IHSA members and sponsors, among them teams at University of Massachusetts Amherst, Mount Holyoke College, Hampshire College, Johnson & Wales University, Amherst College, Dartmouth College and Roger Williams University.
The Hampshire College IHSA team, the University of Massachusetts Amherst IDA team and an Interscholastic Equestrian Association team are all based at Muddy Brook Farm. The farm is also a busy boarding facility with a popular lesson program, and it’s home to several teams of Belgian draft horses and a team of Shires.
“It was amazing. One student after another kept showing up, and parents were coming with food and coffee,” said C.J.
Law, coach of the Mount Holyoke IHSA team. She and her daughter, Carol Law, a Mount Holyoke junior who competes on the team, live just 10 minutes away and were on the property almost immediately after the fire broke out.
The fire destroyed the barn that housed stalls, laundry, bathrooms, tack room, feed room, garage and an office. The state fire marshal's office determined that the fire was accidental and estimated damages at $500,000.
That morning, volunteers repaired damaged fencing to keep the horses from getting out. When they went to get the horses, said Law, “We realized, ‘Gosh, we don’t even have a lead rope.’ ”
They weren’t lacking for long.
“The outpouring of support was amazing,” said Muddy Brook owner Kathy Roberts. “You can’t even imagine how many people showed up that day. They brought everything you need to run a barn—not just tack, but wheelbarrows, brooms, shovels, everything.”
The tack room and main barn were gone, so Muddy Brook needed saddles, bridles, bits, girths, blankets, buckets, grooming tools and more. The feed room burned down as well, so local grain companies donated feed and delivered it within hours.
The IHSA sponsors LM Custom Boots, SmartPak, Weatherbeeta and Wahl Clippers contributed tack, boots and clippers. Vendors who were in the area for Equine Affaire, which opened later that week, brought free products to Muddy Brook, as well. When the event opened, Muddy Brook volunteers went booth to booth and obtained donations from dozens of other vendors. “They were so generous. My daughter was hoping to get one cooler from an Equine Affaire vendor, and they gave her five,” said Law.
People from all sectors of the community, even non-horse-related companies, “bent over backward,” she added. Law asked a computer company to donate a computer to a family who lived on the farm and had lost their belongings. She
went to pick it up, and by the time she returned to the farm, another donated computer was already there.
A week after the fire, Mount Holyoke College held an IHSA show. Instead of awarding trophies and ribbons, the prizes were grooming supplies which had been donated. The winners, in turn, donated their awards to Muddy Brook.
LM Custom Boots donated a pair of riding boots to anyone who had lost theirs in the fire and another pair to be auctioned, the proceeds of which were donated to Muddy Brook. SmartPak, Cheshire Horse and Dover Saddlery contributed tack and other items.
Fewer than 36 hours after the fire, a GoFundMe for Muddy Brook Farm had raised
more than $15,000. It’s since reached almost $30,000 and is still accepting donations.
Morgan Lynch, assistant coach at Mount Holyoke College, which has 43 IHSA team members, also manages Muddy Brook. She said the farm converted the indoor arena, which survived the fire, into a barn to house the horses in temporary stalls. Because of a mild winter, they resumed lessons outside about a month later.
“We have not replaced the three school horses that we lost,” said Lynch. “They’re hard to replace, as they all had hearts of gold.”
She added, “Our Muddy Brook community is a great big family, and everyone played a huge role in helping us keep going—whether it was to come water the horses, give horses hay, muck stalls or help put stall mats into stalls.”
A new building, which will not house horses, is almost complete. It will be used for an office, laundry room, tack room, feed room and storage. “Having a new structure has been so helpful for everyone,” said Lynch. “It gave us all life and reason to keep moving forward. It was a bright start [after] something that was tragic.”
Determined to be accidental, the fire took the lives of three Muddy Brook school horses, and the estimated loss was $500,000.
