Mile Away Farm

       There are probably few riders above the age of 15 anywhere in America who can't remember places where they used to be able to ride that are now off  limits to horses.   All horse people are aware of this increasing trend, all of them complain about it, but  almost none of  them do anything about it.
Virginai Walthour Moss was an exception to that rule.  Pappy and Ginnie Moss purchsed 98 acres  a mile or so north of their rented stables in the mid 1920's and named their new home  "Mile-Away Farm."

By the end of the Second World War,  Mile-Away had grown to more than 300 acres in size.   Mile-Away Farm became the spiritual centerpiece of horse country, and over the next decade Pappy Moss continued to buy and sell more and more land.

Two years prior to Pappy's  death, the Mosses created the Walthour-Moss Foundation, initially setting aside 1,700 acres of  land for preservation in the heart of horse country.  Today, the Foundation encompasses more than 4,000 acres of  land, a sanctuary for riders and nature lovers alike.  One outgrowth of the Moss stewardship of the land was the growing diversity of the Sandhills horse culture.   The Foundation became a boon  to casual  riders, fox hunters, point-to-point racers, carriage drivers, steeple chasers, hunter-jumpers and dressage enthusiasts.  Several Olympic and World Champion riders migrated to the Sandhills as a direct result of what  Dick Webb termed "the equine paradise Ginnie and Pappy created."





The farm passed to family  heirs and close friends.  "It was their hope that the property would eventually be broken up into smaller farms owned by people who love horses and want to see this remain horse country."