Horsing Around

Many visitors see NYC as a concrete jungle with no respite from a continuous bombardment of stimuli - noise, traffic, crowding - a nice place to visit but how could you live here. But that is primarily because visitors generally do not frequent those places (with some exceptions like Central Park) or engage in those activities that residents look to for relaxation and recreation. There is a large gamut of activities in NYC that residents partake in that may come as a surprise such as kayaking, tennis, birdwatching, biking, swimming, baseball, volleyball, pétanque, sailing, surfing, sledding, ice skating, gardening and horseback riding - the photo shows a lesson being had in a riding ring in Prospect Park Brooklyn. There are riding trails in every borough including Manhattan (Central Park). One of the biggest surprises is Claremont Riding Academy, the only stable in Manhattan (other than the mounted police - click here for a previous post). They occupy an entire building in the center of the upper west side - a multistory barn with riding ring. Over 100 horses are stabled there. Seeing horses in the city is always a welcome surprise - horses are large, magnificent animals and many of us can't resist the urge to indulge the relatively rare encounter - watching and if we're lucky enough, making contact ...