The Clip-Clop Of Hooves

Lynne’s Riding School in Forest Hills is one of only a few remaining stables in New York City, and offers training and riding in Forest Park. Photo: Theresa Juva

By Theresa Juva

Tucked away at the end of 70th Road off of Metropolitan Avenue in Forest Hills, Lynn’s Riding School and Dixie Dew Stables are the remnants of the once-flourishing equestrian culture surrounding Forest Park that included 17 stables. These horse-riding treasures are hidden not only because of their dead-end street location; less people seek them out.

Lynn Holzhauser of Lynn’s Riding School said as the neighborhood changes—right across the street new multi-family homes have popped up—the stables become even more buried.

“The people that should have known about us are out in the country now,” she said.

Holzhauser’s family has owned the stables for 60 years; her uncle used to own and operate Dixie Dew until it was sold. In the 25 years she has worked at the stable, she said she has seen a shift in people’s approach to riding. Holzhauser remembers when kids 12 or 13 years old would take a bus to the stable for lessons before dinner time. Now riding requires much more parental involvement. In addition, horse riding has to compete with other activities, which has made it less popular, she said. The clip-clop of the horses is taken to the four-mile bridle path in Forest Park, currently the borough’s lone destination for horseback riding.

One side of the road represents burgeoning urban development while the soft-grounded, hay-speckled side is a throwback to a time when city life was a little slower, a little humbler.