Head to Flushing on a Saturday morning, and — just 10 minutes from the heaving Brooklyn-Queens Expressway — you may see horses clip-clopping along 70th Road. There, these beauties and their riders follow a green horse lane marked by horseshoes painted on the asphalt.
As the horses cross busy Union Turnpike to get to the Forest Park Bridle Path, the sound of hoofs may be dimmed by the noise of traffic and frequent sirens, but the riders don’t mind. From Lynne’s Riding School, a block away from the park, they’re going to an oasis of pastoral calm.
“It’s completely unrecognizable that you are in the middle of Queens,” rider Shelley Rajman, 51, says about Forest Park.
City dwellers hot to trot after today’s Kentucky Derby — and the start of the Triple Crown racing season — don’t have to journey to the country to try horseback riding. Right here amid the urban sprawl, New Yorkers have found a way to tap into their inner urban cowboy, finding spots of “green” where they can be in touch with nature, hop on a horse and forget the stress of a harrowing week at work.
On a recent Saturday morning at Lynne’s Riding School, Manhattanite Terri Thomas, 53, put a saddle and bridle on Flicker, readying the horse for a day’s ride, guided by Lynne Holzhauser, the school’s owner.
It might be hard to imagine that such an idyll exists less than 10 miles from Times Square — and a 20-minute walk or short cab ride from the F train, but Thomas will spend her day in the saddle, riding along four miles of bridleways winding through 165 acres of oak forest.
In another part of the city is the Jamaica Bay Riding Academy, 30 minutes by car from Manhattan, or a five-minute cab ride from the closest subway stop. It’s owned by Anthony Danza, whose family has been in the horse business in New York for 80 years. Now 52, Danza has been in the saddle since he was 2.
At his barn, New Yorkers can ride along three miles of beach overlooking the bay. The stables also have exclusive access to the sandy bridle paths that weave through the vast Gateway National Wildlife Preserve. By mid-June, the paths are lined with flowering honeysuckle, and riders can spot the marsh birds that make the bay home. The only reminder of the urban jungle is the sight of planes coming in to land at nearby JFK Airport.
Suzanna Composto, 37, a Bay Ridge resident and mom to three (ages 6, 8 and 10) rode on and off as a child, but took it back up seven months ago.
“I love being around horses,” she says. “It’s a little piece of heaven here on the beach, away from the city’s hustle and bustle. I come here for serenity. There is no place I would rather be — so gorgeous with the trails along the bay.”
She finds her serenity here as often as five times a week. “It’s an escape for your brain: When you are on an animal, for that moment there are no other problems in the world.”
Cathy Davis, 40, has been teaching stressed-out New Yorkers to ride for 21 years. She now runs a barn in Bedford Hills, an hour by train from Grand Central Terminal. Many of her students come for the day from Manhattan.
“The attraction of horse riding is romantic, and [often] the pursuit of a childhood dream,” says Davis. “More often than not, my clients state they always loved horses, but couldn’t afford lessons, or had to give up riding because they went to college or had kids. Now they are established in their careers and family life, and decide it’s time to do something for themselves.”
In the stalls at Lynne’s Riding School, the first group of riders is ready to venture into the park. Thomas, who works in the retail industry, didn’t take up riding until her early 30s. “It feels fabulous to be outside so much when I sit at a desk all day,” she says. “Riding gives me a sense of freedom; it’s every little girl’s dream. I grew up reading lots of books about horses, like ‘Black Beauty.’ ”
Rajman drives the 16 miles from her home in Old Westbury, LI, about once a week, to spend the day indulging in some equine therapy at the 20-horse barn.
She’s been riding for 12 years, finding respite from her busy family life, which includes raising two children. She comes in from Long Island because she loves the crowd of fellow horse fans.
As she adjusts the saddle on Dakota, the horse she’s riding today, she says, “Being around horses is the very essence of my being. It has always given a purpose to my life.”
Michael Szerbaty, 53, a
Manhattan architect, and his 40-something wife, Janet Twyman, an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Massachusetts, have been riding together for 6½ years. They fell in love with trail riding during a vacation in Arizona, and decided to take lessons when they got home to Rego Park, Queens. “We were always interested in taking trail rides in national parks out West, so several years ago we decided we ought to learn how to ride.”
Yamaris Cruz, an occupational therapist from Ridgewood, Queens, has been taking her 6-year-old daughter Angelie to weekly lessons at Lynne’s since February. “We live in a small apartment in the city. We have to go the extra mile to expose her to animals and have her experience nature,” she says.
Other spots for urban horseback ridng can be found in Riverdale, The Bronx and even Central Park.
There, despite the closing of the beloved 115-year-old Claremont Riding Academy in 2007 (then the last riding stables in Manhattan), experienced riders can volunteer with the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation as part of an auxiliary mounted patrol. Riders patrol parks in Manhattan, The Bronx and Staten Island, acting as the department’s “eyes and ears.”
Back in Jamaica Bay, Danza is overlooking a ring where three riders are taking lessons. Above his desk in the tack shop is a placard with the Winston Churchill quotation most loved by horse enthusiasts. It reads, “There is something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man.”