Rocking Horse Ranch

Grandpa and Nana’s anniversary at Rocking Horse Ranch in Highland NY.

Rocking Horse Ranch Resort was created in 1958 by Toolie and Gloria Turk. In 1962, they were joined by Toolie’s brother, Bucky. Although Toolie and Gloria were born in New York City, they became involved with horses at an early age. Gloria rode at stables in the Bronx, while Toolie’s introduction to horses came from the man who delivered ice by horse and wagon on the lower eastside of Manhattan.

The brothers were first generation Americans, their parents having emigrated from Europe. Although they went to school and held jobs in the city to support the family, weekends found them upstate working at dude ranches and Catskill hotels to earn extra money and be able to ride horses occasionally. Toolie eventually ended up managing one of these ranches, where he met Gloria.

Dude ranches were different then, without the frills that a resort offered. It was primarily just horses; accommodations were rustic and facilities weren’t family-friendly. Toolie and Gloria thought that families would love a ranch that catered to their needs, so they started looking for a place that they could convert into one. The closer they were to the city, the more expensive were the places that they looked at. Eventually they started west…and got as far as across the Hudson River from Poughkeepsie, into Highland.

There, Toolie and Gloria found the only place they could afford. It was a place called “Friedman’s Shady Lawn Rest Hotel.” One of the oldest hotels in Ulster County, it had been closed for twenty years. To transform the aged hotel into a modern resort, they had to learn to be carpenters, electricians, and stone masons during the week, while catering to guests on the weekends. Occasionally the guests exchanged their working skills for a stay at Rocking Horse Ranch.