Prospect Park Riding Ring Takes Shape With New Stable Owners

PARK SLOPE, BROOKLYN — The new owner of the Prospect Park horse stables may have started officially rebuilding the park's riding ring when he bought the stables last year, but his role in reconstructing the once-dangerous equine area has actually been 14 years in the making.

John Quadrozzi, Jr., owner of Gowanus Bay Terminal, bought the former Kensington Stables last year after the property went bankrupt and ridership continued to decline. He has since returned the stable's original name from 1917, Prospect Park Stables, which will be operated under the new entity "Brooklyn equine."

The most recent project for the new owners has been upgrading what is now known as "the Q," a riding ring near the Bartel-Pritchard Square entrance that Quadrozzi said started his dream of fixing up the stables back in 2005.

He saw firsthand that the ring needed updating when he would watch his daughters ride back then, Quadrozzi said.

"The make-shift ring then had no footing, was rocky from water streaming erosion, had inconsistent lane width, had an abnormal horse shoe shape with a very sharp turn at one end - it was once actually a just a big loop around some trees at the end of a bridal path," he said. "When going to watch my daughters train, I'd watch horse after horse stumble and at times fall and dump their riders."

Quadrozzi decided to help fix the ring by donating the materials and resources to have it reshaped and resurfaced with stone-dust footing.

The ring started to take shape — a Q shape instead of the former horseshoe shape, that is — and helped make it safer for Quadrozzi's daughters and other dedicated riders who fell in love with horseback riding at the park, his daughter, Xiana Quadrozzi said.

"While other kids hung out on the street corner, we played games with horses and rode till sunset, and sometimes past," said Xiana, who has joined the new stable business. "To us 'Barn Rats,' the initial reshaping and footing at the Q was like paving the streets with gold."

But, Xiana added, ridership at the ring still suffered. Despite Quadrozzi's efforts, the final step of adding fencing to make the ring an enclosed space didn't pan out — at least until now.

When he bought the stables in 2018, Quadrozzi began the process of adding a special fencing around "the Q" meant to protect both the horses and riders and create a more "respectable" equine area.

"The missing piece, the fence, makes it function properly," Xiana said. "We no longer have to be faced with the suddenness of joggers and dogs innocently crossing our schooling activities or startling our horse at a time both horse and rider need to concentrate on equitation practice."

The fencing won't be the end of the renovations, though.

Quadrozzi said he was inspired by the construction to add a queuing area, complete with a watering trough, at the tail of the Q so that horses can be staged or rest safely outside the arena. He also plans to build custom mounting blocks, a custom wooden gate border fencing on the bridle paths and, if things go well, even more upgrades to the ring itself.

"Once we restore substantial ridership, I will propose a more grand renovation to level out the entire grade of the Q by adding knee walls to the low areas and to slightly increase the arena's exterior and interior size to competition standards," he said. "I envision even bleachers and a judging stand like any arena of substance would have."

The Prospect Park Stables, found in the Kensington corner of the park, will also get an upgrade.

Brooklyn-equine hopes to bring horse boarding, equestrian apparel and tack outfitting, a coffee and tea spot, a room for equine education, entertainment, events and parties to the stables. The new facilities will allow for lessons, public riding, pony parties, after-school programs, a summer camp and even Polo.

The group also hopes to set up a partnership with Centenary University, where Xiana is pursuing an Equine Business Management degree, for an internship program. Students from the school can visit the stables using mass transit from New Jersey to Brooklyn, John said.

Quadrozzi is also in talks with GallopNYC, an organization that uses therapeutic horseback riding to help people with disabilities. Using the riding ring will help the nonprofit, which already uses other locations in Prospect Park, expand its services to those in Brooklyn, said Nicole Cicogna, GallopNYC's executive director.

The organization is also working to build a covered riding arena in the park, she said.

"We are committed to working with John and bringing riding back into the park," she said. "This (riding ring) is a nice complement to be able to bring services to Brooklyn."

Photos provided by John Quadrozzi Jr.