Part of Prospect Park’s rocky and dangerous horseback riding trail is getting a much-needed makeover.
The so-called “Shoe” at the end of the three-and-a-half-mile bridle path, where riders and equines are prone to accident from a bumpy trail, will be rebuilt over the next two to three weeks, thanks to a Brooklyn man whose daughters take riding lessons in the park.
“As soon as my daughters started riding, an instructor complained that there were areas of the path that were too dangerous,” said John Quadrozzi, Jr., of Quadrozzi Concrete Company in Red Hook.
Quadrozzi’s workers are filling in crevasses along the route from Kensington Stables just outside the southeast corner of the park to a ring just inside the park at Bartel Pritchard Circle.
The conditions were so treacherous that a former manager of the stables moved her steeds upstate over the summer rather than risk continued injury in Brooklyn.
The current president of the Kensington Stables, on East Eighth Street and Caton Place, welcomed Quadrozzi’s gift, but hopes the city or park will make permanent drainage improvements to halt trail erosion.
“Quadrozzi’s gift is pretty nice, but the real challenges are tremendous,” said Walker Blankenship. “The problem is all the water not having anywhere to go.”
Blankenship said he’s working with the Prospect Park Alliance on a multi-year project to correct the underlying problems.
