Welcome to Glenmoor Farms
It would be the ultimate place to call home for almost anyone. Glenmoor Farms is a particularly beautiful Colorado horse farm that encompasses the best of all human possibilities. For owner Glenn Gilbert, it’s a frequent reminder of the glorious location where he grew up in the mountains surrounding Estes Park, Colorado. For his wife, Kelly, it’s a magical childhood dream come true. A place where she can breed, raise and train the magnificent Arabian horses she envisioned when she was just a little girl. For their daughter, Alexa, it’s a quintessential childhood home, where she will spend her youth riding, showing, working with mares and foals and learning about the Arabian horse industry, literally from the barn floorboards up.
“I knew it would take some time to make my dream of horses come true,” admits Kelly. “I knew that Glenn and I would have to have our construction business up and running strongly before we could buy the farm and the Arabian horses. Every morning now, when I get up and walk down the little road past our lake, I take a deep breath and stop and get excited … it’s really happening.”
“We will always have our work cut out for us here,” says Glenn. “From the repairing and the building, the shows and the foaling, horses arriving and horses departing, trainers and riders everywhere. There is still so much to be done and it’s easy to see that the farm could be a full-time job for all three of us.” That’s probably just fine. Multiple full-time jobs seem to be just the ticket for the Gilbert family.
The History of Glenmoor Farms
“After we got married, Glenn and I quickly realized that we needed our own farm if we were going to raise and show Arabian horses at the level we wished to be involved,” says Kelly. Following an extensive search for the perfect property, Glenn and Kelly came across the historic Boulder County farm they now call home. Well over a hundred years old, the original property had been a cattle and horse ranch. Abandoned for the decade following its purchase by Boulder County, the farm and its surrounding 700 acres were slated to be added to a nearby nature preserve. Previous attempts to purchase the property had run contrary to the county’s specific requirements regarding land use, requirements that precluded development. Glenn and Kelly were able to secure an arrangement that allowed the property to remain an Equestrian facility, as it was in the early 2000’s. “Fortunately for us," says Kelly, "the County didn’t want the land developed, so the fact that we wanted to restore it and continue to use it to raise and show horses was in our favor.”
The unique 70 acre estate in Longmont, Colorado, purchased by the Gilberts, had been sitting vacant, was overgrown and in desperate need of repair. “The good news was that the barn and arenas were all steel buildings that had been well built back in the late 1990’s,” says Kelly. “The bones were good and the rest just needed a facelift.” "We definitely had our work cut out for us," laughs Glenn. The original 1906 ranch house was sadly beyond repair. This historic house will be completely removed and replaced. Meanwhile, the Gilberts are carefully painting, restoring or replacing other on-site housing, multiple barns, outbuildings and pasture/paddock fencing.
Surrounded on all sides by the 2,000+ acre Lagerman Agricultural Preserve and showcasing spectacular views of the Rocky Mountains to the immediate west, Glenmoor Farm is located just 45 minutes north of Denver and 20 minutes from Boulder, Colorado.