Let's Revitalize the Potomac Horse Center

Join the Friends of the Potomac Horse Center and Help Us Preserve Our Past and Secure Our Future

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Our Mission

Friends of Potomac Horse Center is a network of individuals passionate about helping restore and revitalize the Potomac Horse Center. We're launching a capital campaign to raise $1 million over the next five years to repair, rebuild, and upgrade the Center's facilities. Our mission is to secure PHC's future as an asset for the riders of today and tomorrow.

Read about PHC's rich history and our story here.

Photo by Caroline Ziemkiewicz on Unsplash

Laura Osburnsen

"My horse, Sweetie P.T., has found a wonderful new career with PHC."

Potomac Horse Center Beginnings

Potomac Horse Center was founded in the late 1950s as a world-renowned international equestrian training center intended to provide Olympic-level training and teach advanced horsemanship. In the 1960s and 1970s, PHC grew to be the largest riding school in the U.S. and during 1964, conceived and launched the Potomac Valley Dressage Association (PVDA). The center has produced internationally known riders and trainers, U.S. Equestrian Team members, and international and Olympic judges in dressage, combined training, and hunter jumpers.

The now public facility is owned by Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC) and operated by the same family for the past 25 years.

Potomac Horse Center Today

Today's PHC seeks to offer an experience with horses to all members of the community - starting with "mini mites" through adults of all levels and riding disciplines: dressage, hunter/jumper, combined training programs and high-level clinics with visiting trainers.

In addition to its extensive lesson options and hosted horse shows, PHC offers a range of recreational opportunities including birthday parties, pony rides, trail rides through surrounding wooded parkland, open houses, summer camp, and therapeutic riding.

However, at more than 50-years old, the physical infrastructure of this unique and wonderful facility needs major upgrades that the business cannot support and the M-NCPPC cannot fund. The Friends of Potomac Horse Center are embarking on a capital campaign to raise $1 million over the next five years to continue PHC's proud history and its ability to offer these unique experiences to all members of the community. We need, to repair, rebuild, and upgrade PHC's facilities to secure its future as an asset for the riders of today and tomorrow.

Please show your care and concern now with a donation or a pledge. Donations are tax-deductible and handled directly by the Montgomery Parks Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, not the Potomac Horse Center. We appreciate your support!