Tuesday, April 7, 2015

My Horse Friends

A major facet in my youth was horses. Our Lutheran church friends from Germany, two elderly brothers Karl and Ernie Wolff, owned Hillside Stables in Omaha, Nebraska. When I was three years old the family went to see the horses and I rode an older mare.

Hillside Stables had many interesting and impressive horses such as:
Golden Centaur - an elegant palomino with arched neck, large dark eyes; white, wavy tail and mane and a high tail carriage.
 Pepper - the black, classic Morgan;
two thoroughbreds ridden by seventy-year old twin sisters;
Snow King - a white 30-year old retired circus horse;
Private Eye - a handsome, dark chestnut Saddlebred with green-hazel eyes;
and my champion Appaloosa - Spottum Bottum.

Point of interest: at Hillside Stables, in the 1960’s, feed, hay and board in a box stall with use of tack room and all facilities was one dollar a day; and horse rental was $1.25 an hour!

In Omaha, Hillside was located on a huge property bordered by the Papio Creek on the south and west, by Dodge Street on the north, and by the Interstate on the east. There were 3 large pastures to ride in, and a tree nursery too! It was a true pleasure to be at Hillside!

A Jewish friend, Elisse, owned a beautiful palomino named Golden Banner. Since she was Jewish she kept God’s Ten Commandments including keeping holy Saturday - the seventh-day Sabbath. The Fourth Commandment says that cattle (domestic animals) should not work on Sabbath.
Exodus 20:8-11. So on Sabbath Elisse would only turn Banner out to pasture and then give him a good rub-down; she never rode Banner on the seventh-day Sabbath.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Snow King . . . I used to ride a horse by that name. He was kept for a time by Dorothy Bryan on 63rd & Decatur Street. We rode in horse shows at Hillside, plus I rented horses there and rode in Elmwood Park. I recall one time that Hopalong Cassidy's horse, Topper, was boarded there while something was going on in Omaha. I was thrilled to pet a "movie star."

Unknown said...

Where was Hillside Stables located? Where Elmwood park is now?