Bridle Paths Too often, our beloved neighborhood rid-
ing paths, used daily by backyard horse owners and at riding stables, receive scant attention in discussions and articles about trail riding. But for most of us, the fi rst steps in our lifelong ro- mance with horses were taken along just such paths. Communing alone with that fi rst horse on a safe, tree-lined path was the magic that
Ancestors of Today’s Trails by David A. Turner with photos by Katherine O. Rizzo
On this month’s Equiery cover are Randy Crawford, riding his trail horse Grady, and Crawford’s partner Dave Turner, holding U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu’s trail mare, Miss Oreo. Randy and Dave are the owners of Mieza in Prince George’s County. Crawford’s gelding is descended from the same Tennessee Walking Horse stock used at nearby Harmony Hall Plantation by owners Charles Wallace Collins and his wife Sue Steele Collins in the 1920s.
bridle paths. In the 20th century, forced from public roads by automobiles, as- phalt and bicyclists, determined eques- trians established bridle paths. In Maryland, no existing bridle path is older than the one in historic Broad Creek on the Potomac River near Washington, DC. It runs along a 1660s colonial roadway, the fi rst footprint of transportation in the National Capitol area. Here,
every ride promises
sightings of fox, blue heron, wild turkeys or deer. T is is remarkable because it lies only nine miles from the U.S. Capitol Building. Equestrian history in the tiny
The bridle paths of Broad Creek offer several views of the Potomac River.
Bridle paths in Broad Creek make their way through several historic properties and along various canals.
bound us to our sport. T ese sacred places are taken for granted. When experts expound on “much-needed infra- structures for the future of the horse industry” they overlook these treasures. Bridle paths are the backbone of the pleasure horse and show horse world. Without these trails,
there are
only riding courses and rings where knowledge- able instructors and col- leagues scrutinize each and every move, an ac- quired pleasure. Many of Maryland’s public trails started out as
Prince George’s community has been continuous for 350 years. High points include the formal carriage route of the prominent Addison family in the 1670s and early steeplechases from the village to the nearby Anglican church. In the federal era, Broad Creek was an importa- tion point where new T oroughbred breeding stock from Alexandria, Wil- liamsburg, Norfolk and Dinwiddie was shipped to race tracks and farms in Upper Marlboro, Baltimore and cen- tral Maryland. Today, Broad
Want Water was built in the early 18th cen-
tury in the Tidewater style, probably for Thomas Addison. It originally had wood walls but all that remains today are the two brick end walls and its chimneys.
Creek’s bridle path is seldom more than eight feet wide, one to two miles long, with natural foot- ing, and dotted with
small wooden bridges where Potomac River tributaries fl ow much of the year. At one point, archeologists discovered a stretch of colonial brick-paver roadbed beneath the earthen path. Like other bridle paths, it is used by residents or by invitation and its existence depends upon the goodwill of cooperative landowners and St. John’s Episcopal Church of Broad Creek. Instead of street numbers, homes in modern Broad Creek tend to have names like Harmo- ny Hall, Piscataway House, Kituchcia, Emma Place and Mieza.
The Piscataway House was originally built in the 18th century in the village of Piscataway shortly before the American Revolution. It was moved to its current location by Charles W. Collins of Har- mony Hall and rebuilt in 1932.
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JULY 2012 | THE EQUIERY | 27
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