Re: Does anyone remember the St. Francis Riding Academy?

07/24/26 - posted by Bambi Schwartz

I remember it well. My high school ,Katherine Delmar Burke had a Riding Team. Mr Jones was our instructor. He was very English, with a clipped mustache, tweed jacket ,and brown fedora. We would sometimes ride in GoldenGate Park, crossing Fulton and entering at 6th Avenue. The bridle path had tanbark then.There were still a lot of Service men in SF after the War and many times they would be driving through the park and would toot their horn and whistle at us, sometimes spooking the horses.We had competitions against teams from Lowell High School, Hamlin's, Sacred heart. They were held in the indoor ring. My favorite horse was Anza .I was horse crazy and always wanted a horse of my own.But that never happened. I left SF for college in 1956 and later was dismayed to find the buildings had been torn down to make way for the Safeway.I do have a photo of 3 teammates holding our horses if you are interested . My much younger brother took lessons there too. And a family story is that one day my mother forgot to pick him up after his lesson and he walked all the way home to Presidio Heights. I think he was about 7 years old.