About Us
The Gallop To Success program was developed in response to the unique needs and behavioral challenges of several at-risk youth who had attended summer camp sessions at our farm based setting in Southwestern Vermont. Our founders determined that a skills based program focusing on building competency, increasing self esteem, fostering compassion, and mentoring teamwork through interactions with horses and farm life would be transformative.
Our scholarship program was initiated to provide the youth we serve with a structured summer camp experience for those who could not afford it. Our scholarship recipients are young people aged six (6) to fifteen (15) at risk of negative outcomes or circumstances, including psychosocial and/or economic deprivation. GTS participants have always been mainstreamed into the general camp environment at the farm that houses our program. To avoid stigmatization, only senior staff know which campers are scholarship recipients.
Entering our fourteenth year of operation, our unique Gallop to Success program has changed the lives of hundreds of young people. In 2025, we provided scholarships for our week-long horsemanship day camp to twenty six campers, nearly double the amount we served in 2024! This is thanks to our volunteer Board of Directors, who did an exceptional job with fundraising. In addition, we continued to offer a Saturday Horse Club program to our GTS kids. A record eight of our summer scholarship participants received ongoing funding to continue their skill development and bonding with the horses, staff, and peers in year round programming.
We are very excited for the upcoming 2026 summer day camp season!
A Message From Our Executive Director,
Greetings Gallop to Success Community!
I am grateful to continue to serve as the Executive Director of Gallop to Success. I am delighted to be able to continue to connect children and families who experience social and emotional challenges with the healing qualities of horses. Gallop to Success continues to be a place where community members can fully be themselves while benefiting from the healing qualities of horses.
This year, we celebrated the retirement of Luther Brown from our board after his four years of service, and will miss his wisdom, professionalism, and insights. In addition, we celebrated the retirement of Irene Baldwin from our board. While she will stay on as the Director of Art and Writing Programs, we will miss her insights from working at camp, her excellent writing abilities, and her empathy for the children that we work with. We welcomed new board members with a wide range of expertise, including a psychotherapist who works in our local community mental health agency.
In addition, our program hosted twenty six day campers, nearly twice as much as last year. This year, we added funding for eight children to attend horse club throughout the year so that youth could benefit from a more consistent therapeutic program throughout the school year.
Our board continued to update the scholarship process, including updating the application and developing partial scholarships. Gallop to Success further developed our EAGALA program, appointing Scott Burg as the director. Scott and staff facilitated EAGALA sessions for local elementary school staff and students. I, alongside other staff, conducted staff training on the farm on trauma informed care for children and on EAGALA (Equine Assisted Growth and Learning Association).
We created a more extensive process for program evaluations and sent out surveys to families who had participated in programming so that we can continue to grow from this feedback.
This year DEI initiatives continued to be implemented. GTS hosted sixteen youth for the weekend at the farm in collaboration with the Association of Africans Living in Vermont (AALV) and the Burlington REIB. The aim for this weekend was to increase access to the outdoors and horses to those who are not often able to access this in Vermont, and youth and staff enjoyed riding horses, hiking, camping, swimming, and sampling local ice cream. I had the pleasure of connecting with youth who attended the weekend during the school year, and they described still experiencing benefits of the weekend. GTS continued outreach to BIPOC community liaisons and families. We improved measurements of our success by implementing psychological measures to show how our program is positively impacting children and families.
As an organization, we have a lot to look forward to. With the growth we have had this year, I am envisioning a bright future for Gallop to Success.
Alessandra Sorrento, LICSW, EAGALA (MH & ES), PATH Intl. CTRI
Executive Director at Gallop to Success