Brooke Charland was the riding director in 1969 and left wonderful notes about her summer with nine horses to handle eight girls in each class. (The extra was for rest and replacement.) Mert and Ollie Webb saddled and unsaddled their horses with the help of the staff.

The horse shelter with stalls had been finished in time for the sessions and protected the horses from the strong winds and sun and provided a place for the hay and oats. There was an old trailer near the shelter that housed saddles, bridles, brushes, currycombs, fly spray, first aid kits and other items.

Gail and Lori were her assistants, and they helped with the division of classes into beginner, intermediate and advanced. The beginners had the morning classes when the horses were fresh. The intermediate classes learned to trot. Every advanced class is a joy,” wrote Brooke, who loved how quickly they learned. Most of the girls had either owned horses or had a genuine love for riding in the advanced class.

Across the road from the ring was Beaver’s Bend, where most of the beginners rode. The main path was behind the ring, tennis courts and riflery range. There was a flag beside the trail that indicated when shooting was in progress, and the lead rider was always instructed to yell “horses” before passing the range and again when leaving. The path went past the range and out into a hilly field, which was a big circle with side trails that ended at Explorer’s Hill. (Only the advanced riders could ride those steep, narrow hills.)

Donna Harwood was the activity director the summer of 1970, but her main responsibility was in the riding area, with Mary Swantek as her assistant. (Donna had been the the riding assistant the summer of 1968.)

“There were numerous riding trails into the new land Maqua purchased in 1970 and land formerly owned from the riding ring,” Donna wrote in her report. She described the ring as enclosed with log fencing, three serviceable gates, which exited to the shelter area and riding trails. Log stumps inside served as guides for pattern formation in the ring for reign practice. It was a grass ring with sandy soil at the edges. She diagrammed the trails in her report, which were a maze of trails leading from the ring through the woods and into open fields.

Unlike Brooke, Donna decided not to divide the classes into beginner, intermediate and advanced. Instead, she chose to have a “conglomerate of all ages and abilites”, allowing the more advanced girls to ride the more difficult horses, and experimented with different ways to teach her classes. Her emphasis was more on safety than form and she was grateful for the advice of the Webbs, who provided the horses and assisted her.

Sarah Dufendach’s riding classes in 1972 put the emphasis on fun, more than gaining what she described as “vast amounts of irrelevant knowledge”. The Webbs provided thirteen horses, and the tack and found them to be flexible and cooperative with the needs of the group that summer.

In 1973, Sharon Rosy McLeod taught with nine horses, provided by Mat Fox from West Branch. She brought her own horse from home, and managed to secure old mattress pads to use as horse blankets. She taught in three divided classes, and insisted upon proper shoes, long pants and an application of insect repellent, as most instructors had.

Pamela Moore and Brenda Rzeppa shared director responsibilites in 1976. Cabins came as a group instead of class divisions, which made teaching more difficult since there were varying abilities. Brenda had a personal preference for English riding, and expressed a desire for that style to be taught, but the report never stated if her request was granted.

Each director had comments in their reports for improvements, which included new barn, fencing, buildings and relocation of the ring. The program sometimes had to deal with untrained junior staff, bad weather, and unreliable hay delivery.

Who was your riding instructor? What level class were you in? Did you advance while in your classes?