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ETOWAH RIDING CLUB Turnpike Rd @ Brickyard Organizing Meeting held August 23, 1966
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Asheville Citizen-Times, May 2, 1969
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Times-News, October 11, 1968
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The club moved to the current location in 1973, Brickyard and Turnpike Road.
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First location of the Club from 1966 to sometime in 1973, off Norris Road behind Chelsea's Event Center.
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"The first meeting was on August 23, 1966 at Winborn [and Betty] Gash’s home, here in Etowah. Some of the persons present at that meeting were the Gash family of course (this is James and Tommy’s family), Mary Jon Tilley Allison, Ronald and Donald Smith, Judy Long, Silver Mann, Ike Cairnes, Kline Sintell, Jimmy Shelton, Glen Hunnicutt, Lloyd Thompson, Fred Laughter and the Gillespie family. After this first meeting, the meetings were held at the Grange Hall on Brickyard Road where the library now is [the library moved to the new building in 2008]."
Sylvene McDowell [written in 1993 - full story continued below] |
Western Carolina Tribune, September 20, 1968 (published with incorrect date of Sept. 13, newspaper error.) CAPTION, R: "Mr. and Mrs. Robert Souther are active organizers of Etowah Riding Club which will hold its first show Saturday near the golf course in Etowah. Mr. Souther is chairman of the event."
CAPTION, L: "Colonel Frank Huyler of Hendersonville [Rugby Road], will serve as Steward of the First Annual Etowah Horse Show to be held on Saturday, September 21 at the Etowah Riding Club. He is pictured above riding "Country Girl" at the finish of last years 100 mile endurance ride, held in Asheville. ..."
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This campout took place on October 12, 1968 shortly after the first horse show was held on September 21. Western Carolina Tribune
The above photo announces the 2nd show of the Club held May 3, 1969. L to R: James Gash, Mike Pace on pony, Yosihazer Kinoshita, Leon Pace, Philip Goodrich, Judy Long, Tommy Hefner, Charles McCrary, Kline Sentelle. WC Tribune, April 11, 1969.
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Joe Laughter and James Seay, members, prepare mounts for entry in a previous year. WC Tribune, April 11, 1969.
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When Horses Owned Families - the 1960s
"Fifty Years of Changing Trends" "Trend: The breeding of horses for recreational purposes, rather than for farming, racing, transportation, or warfare; this activity scarcely existed until after World War II and didn’t really take off until the 1960s. For perspective: The American youth culture of the 1960s and early ’70s, created by the baby boom generation as it came of age, was then a dominant element in the horse world as well. In fact, H&R was founded after its first publisher, Ray Rich, got a horse for his two young daughters and found out that he was part of a blossoming kids-and-horses trend. The same population cohort that wore Roy Rogers and Dale Evans outfits as children produced the first generation of adult amateurs and card-carrying non-pro riders, once formal programs came along at the start of the ’80s. The focus change from kids to adults is traceable in the sequence of H&R covers as it segues from the 1970s to a new decade and beyond." Excerpts from Horse & Rider magazine by Juli S. Thorson, Dec. 17, 2014 http://horseandrider.com/advice/50-years-changing-trends-26199 |
Remembering Clifford (1913-1992) and Kat (1918-1986) Shipman Gillespie
founding members of the Etowah Riding Club
by Sylvene McDowell
[Sylvene wrote this tribute to the Gillespies in 1993 and shared with Etowah Heritage in 2017.]
founding members of the Etowah Riding Club
by Sylvene McDowell
[Sylvene wrote this tribute to the Gillespies in 1993 and shared with Etowah Heritage in 2017.]
Sylvene McDowell and Toby, 1980s
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"Sylvene was always in the midst of it. She was a big part of what made it special. She was quite the horse person, one of the best." Dorothy & Richard Brown |
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by Sylvene McDowell
Most of the present members of the Etowah Riding Club have no idea of the founding of the Etowah Riding Club, how it was formed and how it has survived to the present time. With the help of Dot and Jim Gillespie, I will try to bring back some of the memories of the years past. Jim is the only original member still belonging to the club. The first meeting was on August 23, 1966 at Winborn [and Betty] Gash’s home, here in Etowah. Some of the persons present at that meeting were the Gash family of course (this is James and Tommy’s family), Mary Jon Tilley Allison, Ronald and Donald Smith, Judy Long, Silver Mann, Ike Cairnes, Kline Sintell, Jimmy Shelton, Glen Hunnicutt, Lloyd Thompson, Fred Laughter and the Gillespie family. After this first meeting, the meetings were held at the Grange Hall on Brickyard Road where the library now is [the library moved from the Grange to the new building in 2008]. The riding club was formed by this group of people who enjoyed getting together and riding. It was intended to be a club for the whole family. It was decided later that to keep the club running, horse shows were needed to generate funds. The first horse show was held in [September] 1968 on the present Etowah Golf course property beside Marvin Orr’s property. [see map above - 1st Location of Club. Norris Road, behind Chelsea’s Event Center.] [Note: Sylvene's 1993 written account states the year 1967 as the first horse show. However, the correct year is 1968, as documented by the Western Carolina Tribune articles above.] The first ring was built with posts and sawmill lumber provided by Fred Laughter. The registration booth and the Feed Trough [concessions] were both built with sawmill slabs provided by the Laughters. I remember going to the horse shows at this location. It wasn’t long before the club was moved to Mrs. Tilley’s property where it still is. The grounds are so much better. There is so much more room for parking here and the natural lay of the grounds is ideal for the ring and the spectator area. Besides horse shows, the club sponsored trail rides; camp outs and participated in the local Christmas and Apple Festival parades every year. (Local being the Hendersonville, Brevard, and Rosman area.) Many families in this area have belonged to the riding club as they went through the “Horse Owning” phase of their lives. The family that has been here the longest is the Gillespie family. None have worked harder to support this club than them. Clifford was always there when the hammer and nails were needed or the paint brush. He owned a tractor and did alot of mowing of the grounds and disking and dragging of the ring. Kat always started about a month ahead of the horse show, baking cakes and freezing them. Back in those days everyone baked cakes and made ice tea and donated them to the club to sell on horse show day. Kat always did more than her share. She did not bake a cake, she baked cakes - pound cakes, chocolate pound cakes, and also her special “Horse Show Cake.” This was a cake like German chocolate with [the] best icing with chocolate chips on it. We all loved it! It was so good!! She also cooked the biggest pot of pinto beans imaginable (that pot, the best I remember, must have held ten gallons) and made corn bread to go with them. On Horse Show day, Kat worked in the Feed Trough. Back in those days we did the concessions ourselves instead of having it catered. When you worked in there all day you knew it. The day started at eight o’clock with coffee and doughnuts. From there on there were hamburgers, hot dogs, barbeque, ham sandwiches, pinto beans and corn bread and gallons of tea and drinks and coffee. At this time some people would come to the horse show just to eat. During those days the hill would be covered with cars and trucks and trailers all the way to the top and behind the hill on the back. The show started at 9:00 a.m. with 15 hunt seat classes and would be over around midnight and Jim remembers one time it was over at 3:15 a.m. That was a long day when you were working the show. The first 15 classes began lasting so long we decided to [do] a separate Hunt Seat show just for them. We did this until the Tri-County shows came along and then did those instead. Without the Hunt Seat at the classes, the show began at 10:00 or 11:00 a.m. and still does today. With a decline in the number of entries it ends earlier than it did also. Back in those days, Jim’s wife Dot always did the ribbons. The kids of the club members that wanted to present ribbons helped her. Jim always worked the out gate of the ring. It didn’t matter how long the show lasted, and Jim was always there rain or shine. Besides being faithful working members of this club, Clifford, Kat and Jim also were participants in the Horse Shows. In the beginning Clifford and Jim showed in the halter and riding classes with Little Boy (liver chestnut with a blaze face) and Kickapoo, Jim’s spotted mare. Kat did not ride but she loved her horse. She owned Bo Bo Bimbo, a chestnut gelding with a blaze and four white stockings. He was a Saddlebred Walking horse cross that she bought in Pickens, SC when he was 2 1/2 years old. Leon Pace rode him first followed by Jimmy Shelton, her nephew. Also her other nephew Bill Shipman rode him sometimes. Jimmy rode him a long time. I rode him last [and] by this time he was a teenager. He was a big, strong, fast and powerful Racking horse. Clifford always shod him. He won many trophies in this area. The Gillespie’s went almost every Saturday, if there was a show to go to. By the time I started showing Bimbo, his specialty was speed classes. I showed him in other classes, but this was his best. He was clocked in Decatur AL at the Racking Celebration with Jimmy Shelton riding at 39 mph. Clifford also enjoyed showing. He bought Sun’s Fascination; he was a beautiful chestnut with blaze face Racking stallion. I showed him for Clifford sometimes. He also won many trophies and ribbons in the racking classes. Jim also had Little Girl (beautiful liver chestnut mare with flaxen mane and tail and blaze face). She was the daughter of Kickapoo and Little Boy. Eddie Gosnell rode for Jim most of the time winning many trophies also. My son Darrell also rode her sometimes. Dot and Jim want to donate all of the trophies they all won over the years to the Etowah Riding Club. That is the reason I am going into such detail, is so you will understand what Jim an Dot are giving up to donate most of Clifford, Kat and Jim’s to the riding club. They want them to go where they will be properly appreciated, to person who ride and enjoy horses. The trophies are to be used for Fun Days or whatever the club decides to use them for. Clifford and Kat were known by most of the Riding Club members as “Uncle Clifford” and “Aunt Kat.” Clifford was born in 1913 and died on September 10, 1992. He was employed at Ecusta for 33 years. Kat was born in 1918 and died October 31, 1986. She was employed at the cafeteria of Etowah School. They lived, and Jim and Dot still live, across the road from the school since 1958. Kat certainly was a wonderful cook. We all remember her wonderful food at the monthly meetings and the campouts. Another thing she faithfully did every January was to call for sponsors for the two horse shows coming up that year. Her goal was $1000. This was enough, at that time, to buy the trophies and ribbons for both shows for that year. There is no telling how many years she did this. She did it every year as long as she was physically able. Kat was known by another name, according to Lloyd Thompson, our long time Horse Show announcer. He announced at one of the shows that he had heard something he wanted to share with everyone. He had heard a tale about a certain person he proceeded to call “The Boot Lady.” It seemed that when she was showing at one of the local shows, Bimbo was not placing as well as he normally did, so she wanted to know what the problem was. So at the supper break she decided to ask the judge. She caught up with him as he was heading for the porta-john. She asked him and his reply was, “Lady I don’t like your horse and I don’t like you.” He turned to walk away and when he did, she helped him along with a swift kick to the seat of his pants with her boot. (I have always had a mental picture of this, a small probably 5 ft tall, fifties lady, always wearing a dress and knee boots, giving the judge the boot.) She was never able to live this down. Everyone kidded her about it and Lloyd Thompson mentioned it every chance he got! Before Clifford died he wanted Jim and Rosie Powell and Grady and I to promise that we would do our best to keep the Etowah Riding Club going. Jim, Rosie and Diane joined the same night that Grady and I did, that was the February meeting of 1974 at the Grange Hall. If anyone had a horse and rode, Clifford always tried to get them to join the club. That is the reason lots of the members came and joined. Clifford and Kat were valuable assets to this club. Members today have no idea of all the contributions they made. Jim still attends the meetings when he can. Dot has been unable to attend in a long time due to health problems. Thankfully, the Etowah Riding Club continues to exist and hopefully it [will] continue for many more years to come. Sylvene McDowell former Club secretary & Etowah Valley native (Big Willow) written ~ 1993 |
Clifford Gillespie & Sun's Fascination
Kat Gillespie & Bo Bo Bimbo
"This beautiful cake, made by Kat Gillespie, was the center of attraction at our Easter Supper. The ribbons in the foreground [were] won by the Gillespie family and their nephew Jim Shelton." Western Carolina Tribune, April 11, 1969.
This photo was taken across the street from Etowah High School.
Sylvene McDowell & Sunrise Surprise, daughter of Sun's Fascination.
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Club Members, 1966 - 1972
Member information compiled by Leon Pace, March 2017 Allison, Heath and family Bryson, Arnold Clayton, Harry Crawford, Gaither “Doc” and family Crawford, Howard and family Dycus, Tommy and Betty Sue Edwards, Martha Galloway, Clyde and family Gash, Winborne, Betty and family Gillespie, Clifford, Kat and Jim Goodrich, Phillip Grimm, Gail and Wendy Hefner, Joe Lee and family Hendrix, Carl and family Hofecker, Glenn and family Hyler, Col. Frank Jackson, Emery and family Kinoshita, Yoshihazer and family Laughter, Fred and daughter Long, Judy McCrary, Billy and Benny McCrary, Charles McCrary, Fred and family McCrary, Rex |
members, cont.
Orr, Marvin and family Osteen, Leroy and family Pace, Leon and family Seay, James “Red” Sentelle, Kline and Esther Shelton, J. D. and family Shook, Bill and family Smith, Harold “Spud” and family Souther, Robert and Carolyn Staton, Bill and family Staton, Jim and family Tillinghast, Rose Whitmire, Robert and Margaret Ike Cairnes and Ralph McKinna were active horse people, and encouraged the formation of a riding club. Leon is not sure if they were ever members. Dr. J. G. Betts took care of the veterinary needs of the horses of most of the club members. He served as show veterinarian and offered advice, but Leon does not believe he was ever an official member during the years of 1966 - 1972. |
Clifford Gillespie leading the Club in the 1979 King Apple Parade, Hendersonville. Barry Brown is riding behind Gillespie.
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Leon Pace recalls when Etowah was horse country
Club member, 1966 - 1972 "In 1963 in June, me and my wife Jean moved to Etowah. We didn't know we were moving to horse country. We lived on School House Road and that was a freeway for horses and horseback riders. The first one that I encountered was James Gash about 12 years old on an appaloosa pony named Tony. And then I got to see Ike Cairnes and his two boys. They'd ride over the river and back. And Mary Jon (Tilly Allison) would be with them sometimes. And the Smith boys, they lived between my house and the river. And I realized that we were in horse country." Billy Hall and some other children were playing with a little buckskin pony in the subdivision that we lived in. They brought it up so Mike (Leon's two year old son) could see it and take a ride on it. They told us it belonged to some highway patrolman who, I think, lived on old 64 toward the fire department and he wanted to sell that pony. And so I bought that for Mike. Anyhow, Clifford Gillespie stopped down there and talked to me and said, "You know we're starting a riding club and that boy's got a pony. Ya'll need to join the riding club." ... So we attended the first meeting at the Grange Hall [the second meeting of the club]. Club activities included - there were regular meetings held at the Grange Hall. There was a Christmas party and dance each year, either at the Grange Hall or the Lions Club building. We had organized trail rides and some of the places that we rode were the Follies and the trail in the Pisgah National Forest, and the Dupont property. And we made short rides through the neighborhood. Believe it or not, there wasn't enough cars that you could ride on the roads around here then safely. And one other little story I want to tell. We use to ride to Earl Gray's house. Earl would come out and watch us go by. My kid was small so I was afraid to have the pony loose with just him riding it by himself, so I always rode with a lead line. And Earl enjoyed telling people that we started riding when he (Mike) was so little that we had to tie him on the pony. But we never tied him on it. That was a lead line for safety. After the riding ring was constructed, we would sometimes gather there to work the horses. We did overnight campouts and trail rides to places like Cantrell Creek Lodge, Wolf Ford off the Yellow Gap Road in the Pisgah National Forest. We rode from here over to Pinnacle Mountain above where I live now one time and camped out at a little old lookout on Pinnacle Mountain where they come off with hang gliders now. The Wash Creek field at North Mills River, we camped over there on October 12, the same year we had the first horse show (1968). And we used Frank Merrill's place near Cascade Lake. And we camped one time at Neil Hawkins' farm up at Blantyre. And for a fundraiser before we had the first horse show, we sold tickets and raffled off a horse. And a Mrs. [Margaret] Combs, a retired teacher from Etowah School, won the horse. And we took up a collection and provided groceries and toys and clothing and things for needy families for Christmas one year. And one big thing to do back in those days was to go to Greer, South Carolina to attend the horse auction and tack sale. There would be several club members at that occasionally. And then of course put on horse shows. And I'm talking from 1966 to 1972. That was my years in the riding club." |
1970, Leon and son Mike Pace, six years old, on a club ride at the old bridge over the French Broad River - Etowah School Road & Pleasant Grove Road.
Mike Pace with his pony Flicka & Laverne Pace, ribbon girl (Mike's aunt).
Mike Pace barrel racing on Flicka.
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 Dorothy Dalton Brown riding Allegro
Richard Brown recalls club fun and work "We would have fun days where we'd have a picnic and we'd play games and we'd have races. We'd show our horses and let the kids have a chance to walk them around the ring and we'd have announcers that would egg them on and make them feel like they were pretty important. And it was a wonderful family [time].
We did lots of work, you had to keep the fence in repair. You had to keep the Feed Trough in repair. You had to make sure that the place was mowed. ... We all participated and we'd camp out for two or three nights. ... It was a good social interaction we had in the club for young families." |
Richard & Dorothy Brown with Chance - joined the club in 1978
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For more about the current activities of the ERC visit the website, etowahridingclub.com and facebook
From the ERC website:
Welcome! The Etowah Riding Club is located in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina near Hendersonville, Brevard, and Asheville. We are a NonProfit {501(c)(4)} group who care about horses, enjoy riding, and have the desire to become better horse people.
ERC meets monthly throughout the year to socialize and learn. During warm weather, we sponsor several shows and events. Members and friends ride together informally throughout the year.
The Etowah Riding Club was founded in 1966, close to 60 years ago, and is still going strong thanks to community support, generous property owners, and active members. We are striving to be a resource for local equestrians that helps support the many equine trails & activities we have in our area.
From the ERC website:
Welcome! The Etowah Riding Club is located in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina near Hendersonville, Brevard, and Asheville. We are a NonProfit {501(c)(4)} group who care about horses, enjoy riding, and have the desire to become better horse people.
ERC meets monthly throughout the year to socialize and learn. During warm weather, we sponsor several shows and events. Members and friends ride together informally throughout the year.
The Etowah Riding Club was founded in 1966, close to 60 years ago, and is still going strong thanks to community support, generous property owners, and active members. We are striving to be a resource for local equestrians that helps support the many equine trails & activities we have in our area.
This page is presented with the generous contributions of Dorothy & Richard Brown, Sylvene McDowell and Leon Pace, former members of the ERC, 1960s & 70s.