Poems Worth
Remembering • page 106

Back From
The Cold

p
age
108

sports
trail/el .•

In The Saddle

LYNNE MEREDITH COHN

Special to the Jewish News

I

n the morning, the horses
breathe steamy small clouds •
into the cool air. Beyond the
dewed grass stand solid sta-
bles, sheltering some of the finest,
sweetest mares, ponies and stal-
lions, ready for a ride. At the
Bloomfield Open Hunt in
Bloomfield Hills, each day brings
another chance to glide above the
ground or trot around the fenced-
in ring, and the people who
patronize this club do so out of a
love of riding, nothing else.
Barbara Goldberg, 51,
knows that love intensely.
A horseback rider since the
age of 5, Goldberg rides com-
petitively today, even though
her children - Carey, 24, and
Dan, 20 — never took an
interest in the sport mom
adores.
"I loved the aM-
mals," she recalls. "We
were always animal
people, had dogs. I
guess it was just
something we always
did and loved."
Goldberg began riding because
her mother did, and the sport
became a way of mother-daughter
bonding. She took lessons and
tagged along to the barn. In
kindergarten, Goldberg attended
school for a half-day, riding each
afternoon.
"As I got older, I could spend
whole days at the barn," she says.
"They would have to draab me
away I would clean stalls or clean
horses or give little kids lessons. I
always loved the animals and loved
riding."
Interest in horseback riding as a
pastime is growing across the coun-

try, according to Cindy Perez, com-
munications manager for the
American Quarter Horse
Association (AQHA), in Amarillo,
Tex. With friendly stables cropping
up in most counties, it's easier for
the average person to do it, says
Perez, and riding provides some
therapeutic elements for disabled
and ill folks.
One AQHA event that draws

increasing support is its annual trail
ride for charity. Begun in 1997 "as
a celebration of the joys and bene-
fits of horseback riding," the initial
60 sites across the country have
become 100 individual trail trots in
five countries this year.
A native of Detroit, Goldberg
spent her childhood riding days at
a stable in Northville. The family
didn't have their own horses, just

took lessons and rode the horses
that belonged to the barn.
Nowadays, Goldberg lives in
Franklin with her real estate devel-
oper husband Fred and owns three
horses. One, a thoroughbred cross
with a German breed called a
Hanoverian, she named Camden;
that's the one she rides at the Hunt
Club and in competitions.
Goldberg's 24-year-old horse, Burt,

The sport of horseback riding
is trotting into
the mainstream.

=

7/16

1999

Detroit Jewish News

103