After Mr. Pfeil sold the Appleton Riding Club, Joyce Glassnap, Nancy Harriman and Joyce Larsen all had jobs as exercise girls at Estherbrook Farm.  Mrs. Esther (Petersen) Harwood owned it and paid us $1.00 an hour to exercise the horses there, an unheard of wage for a teen in that day.  Lucky girls!

BELOW:  This picture was taken at a reunion held at Estherbrook Farm, probably at the bridal shower Ms. Harwood gave for Joyce Glassnap and Carl Krieser.  (Left to Right) Mr. and Mrs. Leo Hackl of Green Bay; Mr. Pfeil, who was then living in a retirement home in Waupaca, attended the affair.  He was a wonderful “grandfather figure” to Joyce as she never knew either of her grandfathers.  Mrs. Esther P. Harwood and Mr. H. S. (Bert) Harwood are on the right.

UPPER RIGHT:  The long front entry road to Estherbrook was flanked by white fences around the pastures, a large riding ring, green trees and picturesque hitching posts.  It looked like horse heaven, and it was!  The white horse-head posts and the colorful groom hitching posts were very popular among the “horsy set” then.

CENTER RIGHT:  This was taken on Santa Claus Sunday.  Mrs. Harwood (on her Gilda Grey), Santa Claus and Mr. Harwood (on Red) are ready to get started.  Santa Claus Sunday was an annual affair when all of the riders at Estherbrook rode through the neighboring area distributing candy to the children.  The horses were all decorated with ribbons and jingling sleigh bells.  They always pranced briskly in the cold weather and it was a delightful parade.  The children gathered in flocks to catch the candy as it was thrown out to them.

LOWER RIGHT:  Joyce Glassnap is enjoying a pause along Lover’s Lane, one of the many wooded trails at Estherbrook Farm.

Estherbrook Farm

TOP RIGHT:  Joyce Glassnap poses for another picture along Lover’s Lane.  When the horses were in need of some good exercise, we usually rode in the ring because they got a better workout there, but occasionally we’d take some of the wooded trails on the hillside along the brook.  We had to watch carefully for tree roots  and ruts that could trip the horses there so we usually didn’t go as fast in the woods.  It was a nice change of pace for us though, more of a pleasure ride.  There was also this upper trail between the woods and the outer edge of the pasture that had safer footing.  We used that one more often than the lower trails.

BOTTOM:  Joyce Glassnap is up on Hero.  We were just back from a parade and Hero was pretty unsettled here.  As we were crossing the bridge on the way home a car-full of boys came up behind us yelling and honking their horn.  Hero tried to bolt but he was hemmed in by the bridge and the kicking horses in front of him so he started to back up and rammed his rump into the car as it passed.  It’s a miracle he wasn’t hurt.  He was very skittish and not on his best picture-taking behavior after we got back.  He kept shaking his head.  He wanted his safe stall.  No small wonder!

TOP LEFT:  In the cold winter months, cats loved to sleep on the horses’ backs in the barn to stay warm.  This one is on Hero’s rump in his tie stall.  Sometimes 2 or 3 cats snuggled together.

BOTTOM LEFT:  Joyce Glassnap relaxes by the old orchard.

TOP RIGHT:  (Left) Joyce is up on The Captain’s Choice, “Cappy” for short, and Nancy Harriman rides The Highlander.  We’re “trotting out” in the large riding ring at Estherbrook Farm.  We might exercise one horse or as many as six horses in an afternoon.  If we only needed to exercise one or two horses, we gave each one a good workout, perhaps a half-hour to an hour.  If there were a lot of them to exercise, each only got a 15 to 20 minute session.  As we finished with one horse, the farm manager would have the next mount saddled and ready to go.  He also unsaddled them and put them up in the barn for us.  I never saddled a horse there.  Nice!

CENTER RIGHT:  “Cappy” stretches out to have his picture taken.  Joyce is up.  Cappy and Highlander were both five-gaited horses.

BOTTOM RIGHT:  Nancy follows suit with Highlander.