Joe Cole: Atkinson Pony Farm History
Joe Cole: Atkinson Pony Farm History
Interviewed by: Carolyn Cuskey
Interview Date: August 4, 2007
Q: It is August 4, 2007 and I am interviewing Joe Cole at the Atkinson Pony Barn.
A: When I first started working and coming to the Shetland pony farm I believe it was about 1952, and I was a fifth grader at Country Estates School. And uh…all of our…all of this section - the mile section from Reno Street to 10th Street was all the Shetland pony farm initially.
Q: And all the way to Air Depot?
A: Yeah, that’s right, all the way to Air Depot. From Midwest Boulevard to Air Depot. Then part of it was hay meadow; we just strictly hayed it and raked our own hay and then Bill started developing Ridgecrest. And he uh… cut the Mockingbird and Bella Vista Streets into the addition and started advertising that “With every home sold you can buy a Shetland pony.”
Q: You could buy a Shetland pony?
A: Not buy, I’m sorry. You would get one for free with the home and the parents would bring the children down and they would get to pick out a pony. What I did at the pony farm at that time was whatever I was told to do but I broke all the Shetlands to ride.
Q: And you were like ten years old?
A: Yeah, ten to eleven to twelve. I worked here for about five years at the pony farm.
Q: Had you worked around horses before?
A: Uh…I had an uncle who had horses and cattle, so I had been around horses some before but I learned a lot while I was here. It was uh… I recall on Sundays we had a pony ride down here. Free pony ride. Anybody could come down and ride ponies from like 1:00-3:00 or 1:00-4:00 every Sunday afternoon and that was part of my responsibility was to get the ponies saddled up and down to the arena and then to help the children on and off the Shetlands and of course this was part of Mr. Atkinson’s marketing plan. He would get the families to come down here and get the kid tied into the Shetland ponies and then they would buy the house.
Q: Is that right. It’s kind of like these companies today where they give you a free weekend at their timeshare, then you get the sales pitch.
A: Exactly. So they would….and then we had a corral or had certain ponies that we had broke to ride and uh…they would get to come and sit on the fence and pick out a pony that they wanted and I would catch the pony for them and we gave the Shetland pony with the bridle and saddle and uh…saddle blanket with each pony. They were all alike. All the saddles and bridles.
Q: And that’s when they were buying a house? They got the house and all the stuff.
A: That’s right. And when they bought a house at the back of the lot they built a barn for the Shetland pony. At that time most of the yards, if I recall had chain link fences around them and most of them were pretty deep back yards.
Q: A half acre; I think he built those first houses like that.
A: One of the purposes was that the very back of the yard was fenced off from the rest of the yard for the Shetland pony. And that’s why the barn was built back there. And every house had one initially that was sold and the people got a Shetland pony.
Q: Didn’t the kids from Ridgecrest ride; they could ride all out in there?
A: They could ride anywhere they wanted, basically, on the property. The hayfield, the hay meadows. We actually had a uh… lane, a fenced lane that came from Ridgecrest. You could come straight down Mockingbird and then it ended, of course, the street ended and then this lane you could ride right down here to this barn from Ridgecrest. We would do that, I can’t recall how often, but I would go up there, ride up there on one of the ponies and uh… everybody would meet somewhere at somebody’s house and just start gathering up and then we all would ride ponies down here to the barn.
Q: Oh, it sounds like so much fun!
A: Everybody just had a wonderful time. Lot of good experiences.
Q: Oh, I bet. This was kind of the era of cowboy culture because of the television programs.
A: That’s correct. It was in the early 50’s and uh…cowboys and Indians were a big deal back then and so you know, it seemed like everyone wanted a Shetland horse or pony. They were a hot item.
Q: Do you know if Mr. Atkinson….he just started the pony business when he started building Ridgecrest right?
A: That’s correct. He owned this area before he started building Ridgecrest and he owned part of the homestead; part of where Mr. and Mrs. Saxton lived. The original house was there and that was kind of a country home or a weekend home for the Atkinson’s to start with. They lived in Oklahoma City and would come out here on weekends and he had horses initially out here, large horses and he would bring his friends out here and they would all saddle up and ride around the property in the square mile. It was a big situation and then Bill started buying the Shetland ponies and it…I mean at one time we had almost three hundred head of Shetlands.
Q: Wow. Were they all in the square mile?
A: No, part of them were here and then where Regional Park is. Used to be what we called our grey pony farm. They weren’t all registered Shetland’s over there so if you entered the farm actually off of Reno Street to go into the park area and Virgil (?) Trotter and his family lived in a house over there and they kind of oversaw that part and a huge red barn we had over there.
Q: Where was the barn?
A: It was right off of Reno Street. Oh, it would be from where you could actually enter Regional Park there at the stop light, just before you get to it on Reno. It would be back on the west maybe a hundred foot or hundred and fifty feet would be Mr. Trotter’s house. And then the barn was back behind there. And we would, the pasture was excellent there too, you know.
Q: That whole corner was pretty much pasture too. Except for those oak trees.
A: That’s right. We had a huge lake on that property back then that you could see from Midwest Boulevard. It was a big, big lake.
Q: I don’t remember that. Because I live just across from Regional Park. I was born and lived there while I was growing up in the 50’s and still live there. I remember the horses and the pasture.
A: Well, it was a big place, that area, and it was on to the south to where the barn and the house, you know where the proximity would be, it would be on south of Steed School. Kind of about where the Industrial park is a little west of that.
Q: They’ve got a couple of ponds over there by the golf course but it’s not them?
A: No it wasn’t those. But anyway, we had some ponies over there and some over here and of course Midwest Boulevard was a two lane street at that time and it used to be a big deal when they used to close the city of Midwest City. The police would close down Midwest Boulevard and Reno Street because we would drive the ponies from Reno Street farm over to this farm to work. Wean the colts and break them and things. So we had better facilities here to handle them so the police would just stop the traffic and a lot of the kids from Ridgecrest would come down, too, and we would just drive them right down Midwest Boulevard to the entry here coming in to the main farm and drive straight up past Mr. Atkinson’s house and then we would drive them back different times.
Q: I have never heard that story.
A: Oh yeah, it was a big, big deal. Uh….we did that several times.
Q: Now were the houses…what did the countryside look like back then.
A: There was some houses that – initially the houses on the east side of Midwest Boulevard were not there, initially. There were a couple of houses that were the original farm. I can’t tell you exactly how many, but there was a couple of houses down toward the south end of the property towards the cancer center, right in there and uh…there was a house for sure on the west side of Midwest Boulevard. That’s where Arthur lived that was the gardener for Mrs. Atkinson.
Q: Oh, do you know his last name? I think I have it in my notes.
A: Anyways, his name was Arthur, he was from England and he had a heavy English accent. He was the nicest person and he was an expert gardener and Mrs. Atkinson just loved him and his family. He lived in this house on Midwest Boulevard.
Q: Now was that a new house? It probably was an old farmhouse.
A: No, it was an old farmhouse. It had been there, that’s why I say that house was on the West side and at least one house on the East side of Midwest Boulevard between here and Reno Street.
Q: So there were no additional housing additions or stores or anything like that?
A: No. Anyway, that was kind of a fun time. Pony rides and parents just uh…parents had to get together monthly for the pony club for Atkinson.
Q: Now this was the Ridgecrest pony club? And where did those gatherings take place?
A: Yes. Right here. The meeting room at the pony barn, because most of the kids would ride the ponies down here to that meeting. They were encouraged to do that and they would tie then up in the arena. With every meeting we would have supper and just have a great time.
Q: That sounds like fun.
A: Oh yeah. The parents would drive.
Q: Sounds like a close knit community.
A: Yes, very much so back then. Everybody knew everyone in Ridgecrest because they all had the commonality of having horses and Shetlands. Some of the parents bought large horses so that they could ride with their children.
Q: Now where did they keep them?
A: In their corral at the back of their property.
Q: Okay.
A: They weren’t – some of them enlarged their lots back there at their barn, but their barn easily accommodates two horses. And uh…several of them had larger horses and some of them had, ended up having a couple of Shetland ponies, because they had two children or something and they wanted more than one.
Q: Now tell me about some of the specific horses. You were talking about Hillswick Oracle.
A: Hillswick Oracle is in the picture in the meeting room here and that’s Bob Robbins. That was the ranch manager to start with Bill Atkinson.
Q: So he would have probably started in 1952 or something?
A: Something like that. He lived in the house right up here that was on top of the hill. Used to have two houses here.
Q: That would have been the old homestead house.
A: That’s right. The old homestead house. And Bob lived in that house and then a house was below that, I believe, was moved in here. They may have built it, I don’t remember. Moses lived in there and his family. He was the Indian, Creek Indian. There was a whole family of them and they did the more labor intensive work like hauling hay and just whatever needed to be done. They were from over in Eastern Oklahoma. They were full blood Creek Indian. Their family lived in that house and Bob Robbins and his wife lived in the original house up here and he did everything associated with the ponies. He trained them and he showed them for Bill. He would take them and show them and then he would shoe the horses. He was a blacksmith; he did everything for them. At one time Hillswick Oracle – he’s in the picture with Bob – is a Blue Romeo stallion that Bill Atkinson bought for $10,000 dollars. It was astronomical back then but he was a world champion stallion at halter.
Q: That was before he bought him?
A: Yes, that’s correct.
Q: Now what does that mean when you say “at halter”?
A: That means he wasn’t a riding horse; he just had a harness on there. Nobody ever rode him.
Q: Oh, he just walked around and looked good!
A: That’s right! The handler, whoever was showing the horse, would just run along side him and then they would stretch out when they would stop and throw their head up. That’s what Bob was doing in this picture working with him and we had a mare that was a world champion mare. I was trying to think of her name because he bought her after she had become world championship at Bogey and she was outstanding.
Q: What did she look like?
A: She was a red, kind of a sorrel – she was an outstanding mare – I can’t believe I can’t think of her name – and, of course, we bred her with Hillswick Oracle and sold their colts and they just brought huge prices.
Q: Those weren’t the ponies that the kids got with the house?
A: No, they were not the ponies, although some of them were children of Hillswick Oracle. Most of them would have been geldings – didn’t give away many mares because they were too valuable. People wanted to buy the mares to breed so we didn’t give away many mares. It was the colts that were born as studs and later fixed them; so that was the majority that they would pick from.
Q: Do you think that had anything to do with the personality of those ponies that kids - I’ve heard a lot from the few children that I have talked to, grownups now, that had ponies, they would always talk about how ill tempered they were. Shetland ponies kind of have that reputation.
A: Shetlands generally are kind of ill-tempered a little bit but you know they are not necessarily born that way, in my experiences with all of them that I had to deal with. I mean they were gentle and once you worked with them, they would gentle down. You have to realize that kids are around them and they are taunting them and pulling on them and it irritates them, so some of the ponies would get pretty ornery.
The only Shetland that I remember that was really difficult, it was Linda Kerr’s Shetland pony that we gave her and it was named Pawnee Bill – that was what she named it. He was a little bitty pony built like a quarter horse, but he threw me more times than anything on this farm. He bucked me off and I just couldn’t believe it. One day Linda and her father and mother were here at the pony barn, and there used to be a barn right beside here that was L-shaped barn. There was a corral with a big high fence around and there were stalls in there. That’s where we had Pawnee Bill and I would ride him everyday. He threw me twice that day and Bill was watching me and her dad, and Mr. Kerr was a large man. He was probably 6’2 and probably weighed 250 or 260 and Pawnee Bill maybe was 30 inches tall and so Mr. Kerr said, “Let me show you just how to do that, I bet he won’t throw me.” I mean Bill could stand up and walk on this Shetland, that’s the differentiation in size. And Pawnee Bill took off running, threw Mr. Kerr off and broke his leg!
Q: Oh no. He was a strong little pony!
A: So that was an experience with the Kerr family. I believe Mr. Kerr had to wear that full leg cast for several months.
Q: That little pony heard what he said! Well that’s amazing. So they really were strong weren’t they?
A: Absolutely, they were unbelievably strong.
The facility’s changed so much from what it used to look like. Just immediately to the west of the pony barn was an L-shaped barn with a chain link fence all the way around it and uh…of course the two houses that were for the caretakers for Mr. Atkinson and then on up in the pasture – would be west of Mr. Atkinson’s house – there was a barn there that would have been a little bit to the north. Then there was a saddle room to the south of it. The saddle room would be almost straight west of the house. It would have been out the back yard just a little ways over there and it was strictly a tack room for saddles and stuff like that. And it had a hitching post that you could take your horse and tie him up. I believe I saw a picture of Mr. Atkinson and some of his friends on the big horses that are in front of the barn.
Q: Did it have a silhouette of a horse head?
A: No, this was at the big barn. It was half as long as this room here.
Q: Oh, it was a big barn then.
A: Both of those, well, houses and everything is torn down now. That’s what it initially looked like and it was kind of like a chicken house built right here too.
Q: Right, because he had Rhode Island Reds, I think.
A: At one time, and then they moved them up to his house and had quail and pheasant.
Q: I didn’t know about the quail and pheasant.
A: They had them because I ate breakfast I can’t tell you how many times with the Atkinson’s up there. Mrs. Atkinson was a wonderful cook and so gracious. So pleasant and Bill was too and they would invite me in for breakfast and we would have pheasant sometimes. They cleaned them right out of their cages back behind the house where they would catch one.
Q: Now you ate up there for breakfast? Was Bob Robbins there, too?
A: No. It was just myself and Bill and Ruby and maybe Eugenia and Janette and, of course, Bill Jr. was already gone. He was in college and got married, so it was the family or some of their relative came up. I can’t even recall. They had some nephew that was around my age, but Bill would just treat me great. I drove the truck when I was just 10, 11, 12, 13. I drove it all over this place. He had a Dodge truck that had wooden racks on the side that said “Bill Atkinson” and had a painted picture of the Earl of Linwood, the grey dapple stallion - with his face was painted on each side of the pickup. They were wooden deals that were just slipped down into the pickup, there, and said “Atkinson Pony Farm for Boys and Girls,” but I used to drive that all over. I lived on Rose Drive and grew up there which is right off of Midwest Boulevard. He would have me go get his car sometimes and he had a 1949 Cadillac at that time and he said, “Well, give me my hat.” And so of course I handed him his hat and he said, “I will see you tomorrow.” He said, “Just drive on home”. I didn’t (laughing). I had a motor scooter that I rode from home. He would just do things like that.
Q: Sounds like a great time, the whole several years that you were here.
A: Seen and met a lot of people, you know, that as a young boy didn’t mean that much, but Mike Monroney and all the senators and, you know, high-powered people would come through here and come see Bill and he would always introduce them.
Q: Would they come down to the barn?
A: Oh, yeah. They would come down to his house and then they would come down here because I always had Hillswick Oracle and the mare’s name that was the world’s champion was Larigoes Copper Queen.
Q: Oh my, no wonder you couldn’t remember!
A: We just called her CopperQueen. I seen a couple of pictures of her harnessed up to a buggy, you know, a little surrey . It’s not the one at the end of the hall because Pete used to pull that.
Q: Now you are talking about the wicker one?
A: Yes, the wicker one. We used to have a Shetland pony by the name of Pete, not the best looking or prettiest around, but he was built like a quarter horse and he had pulled coal cars up from the coalmines. We bought him from a horse trader that would go around and Bill bought him and he was broke to pull thing and so, of course, we would harness him up and go wherever you wanted. He was one of the ponies that I would take down on Sundays for the kids to ride, like a lot of ponies he got kind of smart, you know. You would put somebody on him to ride around the arena and he would go about half way, now that he’s far enough away from you, you can’t bother him, and the kid would be on the back and they don’t know how to ride or guide him and he would go and just lay down. Of course, the kids would get off of him and he would go off and eat grass. He would never hurt the children, but he would do that all the time. Basically always had to have somebody lead him.
Q: Now when the kids came down there to ride, did they just stay in the corral down there? They didn’t get to go in the whole area?
A: No, not on Sundays. They could walk around and look at everything but we just had the Shetlands inside the arena and most of the people that would come on Sundays were inexperienced riders and some had never rode a pony in their life. Those ponies that we had down there were extremely gentle and didn’t kick or bite. Pete would do his lay down deal sometimes.
Q: Like a mule probably. That was all free?
A: Yes and it was well known. Sunday by 1:00 they were parked all over. The families were here and they come through the barn and looked at the ponies and then a couple of years we had horse shows. Large horses, like Morgan horses – dressed up in tuxedos and rode them and that was a real experience because these stalls were not made for big horses. Keeping the horses here and the judges.
Q: Where did the judging take place?
A: Right here.
Q: Did people sit on the grass like an amphitheater?
A: Yes, exactly. Because of the terrain going down nobody had a bad seat, but they had the judges in the middle of the arena. I don’t know if you have ever been at a horse show at the fairgrounds, that’s exactly how it was here. The English saddles and the tuxedos and hats. I don’t recall if we had it more than once, but we had it once here. It was a big deal.
Q: Was there other parties and events like that here?
A: You know, occasionally. Bill was pretty generous to people to have parties. He was very protective, too, because it was horses or animals, because anytime you get kids and people they want to run up and touch all over the horses. So he was protective of the ponies and the people around, too. Wasn’t really that many outside parties except for Eugenia and Janette would have some parties at the clubhouse. There was always visitors out here especially with Ridgecresthousing going on. The people who would be selling houses would say go on down to the pony farm and look at that. Momma and daddy buy the house you can pick whatever you want. Not many parents escaped.
Q: Well did Mr. Atkinson come down to the barn a lot?
A: Oh yes. He would come down and Dorothy Miller. After Mrs. Atkinson died Bill married Dorothy, but she would come down and they would help with registering the ponies, especially Dorothy because she kept up with the paperwork. To register those ponies was uh…she would sit at a little desk or a little table, whatever she could find out here in the hallway and write as we would bring ponies in, or up at the other barn.
Q: So she did the paperwork for all the ponies and kept the records?
A: Yes, that’s right. She did. Bill loved the ponies and loved to come around. So he was down a bunch. Whenever one of the dogs would have pups usually they would put them in the chicken house out here and uh…to protect the pups until they got old enough to run wherever they wanted and so you always had Dalmatians.
Q: He had Dalmatians’ back in the 50’s?
A: That’s right. They would have big litters.
Q: I saw a picture of one dog that had seven or eight puppies.
A: Yeah, that was just the minimum. I think there were a couple of times that there were more than that. Anyways the pups would grow up here.
Q: Did he sell them or give them away?
A: I think he gave them away. I don’t believe he sold any of them; I think he just enjoyed animals and uh…you know Mrs. Atkinson, she was so kind and gentle but I’m not sure she was a wild animal lover, but she certainly tolerated them. She loved her flowers and trees and you know once they hired Arthur here she was in heaven. He was so knowledgeable of plants and things.
Q: And the yard looked pretty good, too?
A: Oh yes, they just kept it beautifully, you know.
Q: Did Mrs. Atkinson ever come down to the barn?
A: Occasionally, whenever we had functions like the pony club parties and things like that, she always came down and she was always so nice. Somebody would skin their hand or something and she would take them to the house, you know, and she never met a stranger, kind of like Bill, you were always welcome in their house. They had that beautiful front porch on that house, the original house you know that you could sit out there in that screened-in porch and enjoy just looking and she did that a lot in the evenings.
Q: Oh really. So that was before the big part of the house?
A: Yes, before the big part was put on.
Q: Do you remember when Mr. Atkinson, I’m not sure if this was in your time frame or not, when he announced that he was going to run for governor and that whole political campaign?
A: You know, I remember when he ran for governor because what a mistake we made not getting him. He would have been a great one. With him and I think it was Moore that ran against him and whoever, you know, that was president of the American Legion for the state or something, but anyway they were both well qualified but Bill was a lot better. I remember well the campaigning an uh.. I hated it when he got beat because he would have been a great governor.
Q: Now you’re talking about the 1958, when he lost in the primary?
A: Yes, that’s right. I think it was Preston Moore that beat him in the primaries.
Q: Well, J. Howard Edmonson was the one that beat him. . .
A: It was?
Q: Well, he must have because he went on to become governor and he was a Democrat.
A: It was a shame, but I would see Bill and talk to him even after I left here and grew up and got married, you know, because we lived in Midwest City and all the way through our family. And we ran into Bill and Mrs. Atkinson whenever my children, I had two that were real small – three, I guess, at that time. And he ran into us and Kent, my son, who was probably four or five years old, and told my son, “Well, why doesn’t your dad ever bring you out to the pony farm?” and blah, blah, blah. (laughing) It sounded like a Ridgecrest deal. I didn’t hear the last of it until we came to the pony farm and Bill just said, “You just bring your dad out to the pony farm and I will give you a pony”. My dad lived on an acreage then, and so finally after badgering from my son, we came out here and spent quite a while with Mr. and Mrs. Atkinson and this is after they had sold off most of the Shetland ponies.
Q: This would have probably been what the late 60’s?
A: Yes, late 1967 or 1968 along in there. So anyway we came out and he didn’t have many ponies then maybe twenty or so and uh…could have been a few more than that but he just had them all to the west of his house in the pasture there and so we walked out there and Mrs. Atkinson was with us and just talked. And so he said, “Kent, you see any you like?” Kent liked them all so then Bill said, “You just pick out any one, you can have any one that you would like. You just point to it.” So anyways he picked out a little white mare and I am sure she the offspring of Romeo White Cloud. So anyway Bill said, “She’s not broke but she’s gentle,” you know, never had been ridden. So anyway we got her and took her home and she was just so gentle and she was so easy to break.
Q: Oh, did you break her?
A: Oh yes.
Q: You did?
A: I broke her and just uh.. I never put a bridle on her you know, a bit in her mouth because kids can jerk so, you know, so I just broke her strictly with a halter and she would just - We had her for years, I had a blanket, and I didn’t have stirrups on her initially because a lot of kids can get their feet hung up in stirrups. The kids would ride her and I remember one time Candy was falling off so she said, “I am falling” and I just watched her and, I mean, you know, when she was just going like that, you know – and Powder Puff was the pony’s name – and she just stopped dead still and Candy wasn’t far from the ground and the pony never moved. She climbed underneath Powder Puff and Candy got up and brushed herself off.
Q: That’s nice because some ponies would have gone after her.
A: Yeah. But anyway the experiences from down here. I know Joe and Eugenia, they were just dating before they ever got married and I used to have a lot of fun with them. Because I’d kid – I still do, you know, Joe and Eugenia, they wouldget out and washing his car and he’d would back up and say “you missed a spot there!”.(laughter)
Q: (looking at a photo) This is Romeo White Cloud?
A: That’s right. That’s Romeo White Cloud?
B: Was that kind of his temperament as well?
A: He was really – all the stallions we had – Hillswick Oracle was what you would call high strung. He wasn’t mean or anything, but he would let you know that you have got to handle him right. He wouldn’t kick you or bite you or anything, but he’d be away from you in a heartbeat if you didn’t pay attention and hold onto him. He was always geared up, you know. The Earl of Linwood was very gentle and very tame. For a stallion he was just always a pleasant pony, you know temperament was good. Romeo White Cloud would fit about in the middle between Hillswick Oracle and Earl of Linwood. He was not real spooky or geared up where we couldn’t ride him. He was the only one of three major stallions that we broke to ride - Romeo. The Earl of Linwood was just strictly a stallion, you know for breeding.
Q: That’s all?
A: He was just beautiful. Hillswick Oracle he was so high powered, he was just for breeding. And Romeo, that’s what he was initially, but we broke him to ride. He just, you know, had a good temperament; he didn’t bite or kick. So uh…still with
him being a stallion, he was always alert when you got him around other horses.
Q: So Mr. Atkinson really had brought a breeding program in here?
A: Absolutely. Let me tell you.
Q: He didn’t just have a few ponies for novelty, he made it into a business.
A: Initially it was just a hobby for him, that’s what he always said. His hobby, he paid some big money for, you know, the to- notch horses, but we started selling those things for unbelievable money and uh… I tell you that Hillswick Oracle – we sold his colts at $3,000 a head before they ever hit the ground. When they were born we would start to wean them and whenever you weaned them off the mare they would pick them up.
Q: So he didn’t have any trouble selling them?
A: No, but his older ponies, well not older, the ones that aged with him he wouldn’t sell them.
Q: Oh really, he got attached to them?
A: He was afraid that somebody wouldn’t take care of them or might abuse them. I know whenever he sold basically everything he had, he kept the mares that were twenty years old or something like that because he just couldn’t bear to see them go. That’s the reason he still had about twenty whenever we got ours and some of them had colts. Some of them he would keep until they died. We’ve had – Dr. Vierling was our vet. He lived in Ridgecrest and he used to have the animal clinic in Del City where Wal-Mart or Sam’s is there on Sooner and 15th. He used to be on the west on the south side of the street. Del City Animal Clinic or something, he was a big animal vet. He did all of our things and I would always help him when we would doctor horses and things. He would take us along with whoever the ranch manager was. I mean Bill would keep these mares that were old, old, old and doc would come out he would get some up and Bill would be down there looking at them. Do all kinds of things to make them survive longer. Bill just didn’t want them abused. Anyway, whenever he sold all his ponies here basically the only ones he didn’t sell were the older ones here. The mares that he had for years and didn’t want to get rid of them
Q: They were kind of like pets?
A: Yeah, they were just, you know, pets.
Q: How did he come across the horses that he purchased?
A: At auctions.
Q: He went to auctions?
A: Ah-huh.
Q: Now he did that himself?
A: Oh yeah. There were a lot of Shetland ponies back then, because people were interested in them.
Q: It was kind of a national phenomenon.
A: That’s right. Just went out of sight – the prices. Bill would go to these auctions; we used to go to one at Perry, Oklahoma. A guy named Perry Carlisle. They would sell a $1,000 head or so. They would come from everywhere and people could consign and sell ponies.
Q: Did you go to some of them?
A: I went to a bunch of them.
Q: Bill took you?
A: Yeah, because we would sell some of them and we would buy some and uh…it was just a big deal back then and of then the market went away. Even the white pony hitch that we had, you know, he bought them. . ..
Q: He bought them as a set?
A Ah-huh.
Q: He didn’t breed those?
A: No, he them in their entirety and the wagon with them and everything. And then George Cook was the driver which was one of the full-blood Indians that worked here on the place. George was the handler and the driver of the white pony hitch. After I wasn’t down here anymore – the hitch was still here when I left and I don’t know how much longer George was here. He was Moses’ brother in-law, I think it was. They were all Creek Indians.
Q: I wonder if he lived in the area?
A: George? They were all from over around in the eastern part of Oklahoma. By eastern I mean by Okemah, Chandler, or Prague. North of I-40 and they used to…always a lot of relatives to see Moses. He was the older Indian of that family and then George was Moses wife’s brother and he came and worked for Bill. He was a much younger guy and a hard worker. He was the driver of the white pony hitch.
Q: Do you remember Moses’ last name?
A: UH….
Q: I bet Eugenia would know.
A: Yes, I bet so because she will know Moses. Now George is George Cook. I remember his name.
Q: But he was a brother in-law so….
A: Yes, that’s right. I can’t remember Moses last name.
Q: That’s interesting. Do you know about any other Native American people that were in the area? I know that Nawassa and Wonga streets run off of Douglas on the east side. That was a Native American family that had homesteaded there.
A: You think?
Q: Well, Hazel Craddock told me that.
A: I don’t know. I do know Moses and them came from over east a little. Like I say they were full blood.
Q: Maybe Mr. Atkinson met him at an auction or something.
A: Well he could have. Moses wasn’t really a horse person.
Q: One thing I wanted to ask you about was the pond over there where the golf course is. I heard a story that Mr. Atkinson – it was like a two acre pond. Was it that big?
A: Yeah. The creek had always been here.
Q: It’s a spring. It was spring-fed?
A: Yeah. It was dammed up. I don’t know if Bill dammed it up or what. There was a big dam up there because we used to drive across the dam to get from this side of the pasture to that side without having to come down here to the house and then cross out to the pasture.
Q: So it acted like a bridge?
A: That’s right.
Q: Probably a homesteader. There was a family named Miller that homesteaded here. I don’t know if they were the original homesteaders, but that’s who he got the property from. They had owned it for at least 35 years.
A: They could have; it has been here for years. I remember when they was draining it, you know, they was catching fish. . . .
Q: That’s what Mr. Atkinson said! Somewhere in his writings he said that they had a big fish fry when they drained the pond.
A: They did. They drained the pond.
Q: What kind of fish were they?
A: Mostly they were catfish. I remember big catfish.
Q: That would have been fun.
A: At that time Eugenia and Joe, after they got married and everything, their first house was across the street and Bill Jr. was living down in Texas somewhere, I don’t recall where. I would see him occasionally when they would come up and visit. I think initially they just had Leslie their oldest daughter. That was the only child that I remember.
Q: They had a lot of children.
A: Yes, a bunch.
Q: Well, was there anything else that you can think of that you would like to say? How did you work here? Did you work after school?
A: I would work after school and on weekends and then in summer I would work all the time. My duties were just whatever, you know. I broke Shetlands, I cleaned stalls, I’d haul water, I’d feed them, and I go out to what you would call check the horses. Either I would drive the truck out or I would saddle up. We had a couple of bigger horses here, and we I had a couple of Shetlands that I rode that were larger Shetlands. We didn’t raise them here; we bought them from a trader. There were horse traders that would actually travel around the country. One guy Joe something, was one of the bigger traders. He had a semi-truck that he would have with him at all times – he had a driver. They would have ponies in the back of this.
Q: Those poor little ponies!
A: They wouldn’t have them herded up like you see these traders now. The would have halters on, and they would have hay on the floor and they were worth some money, but he would bring ponies around and Bill bought several times. Like Pete, the little Shetland that pulled the surrey around here, he bought him from Joe. Bill bought a couple of other ones from Joe that I rode that were a little larger than Shetlands. Really good riding ponies, you know. I would go out and check the ponies in the pasture and make sure one wasn’t sick or hurt or something like that.
Q: That must have been fun.
A: Oh yeah. And if they were, then we’d cut them out and try to get them up to the barn. A few times, you know, they didn’t want to cooperate and we would rope them, down in the pasture. Dr. Vierling would come up and we would doctor them there.
Q: How long would it have taken you to do something like that? Would you pack a lunch?
A: Ah, just to check the Shetlands, you know, if you were checking all the pastures here and if you didn’t have any problems – if you just rode through them and going from one pasture to another, it would probably take you two to three hours. If you were very observant, which Bill said make sure you pay attention to them and don’t just, you know, just because they are standing there, you know, kind of ride up on them and let them move a little so you can see that they are okay.
Q: And you’d check the fence, I guess, while you were out there?
A: Oh, yes, and, of course, Bob Robbins was the initial manager and then Dick – what’s Dick’s last name, golly [Beard] – Dick came after Bob left as the manager of the pony farm. They were here all the time, and they would check fences and everybody did what needed to be done. As a general rule, most of the Shetlands didn’t fight the fence very bad. We always kept very good fence particularly on the exterior to make sure they never got out. And then the last manager of the pony farm, Dick – he had a horse and a mule – a miniature mule.
Q: A miniature?
A: A miniature mule. I rode the mule and some places there are some pictures of me in a clown outfit with face paint on, and I would ride Pete who was a Shetland mule and he was a trick mule.
Q: Now that’s not Pete that pulled the wicker basket?
A: No, that’s a totally different mule. Dick owned the little mule and he brought him with him and I worked with him and uh….whenever we did it for some of the pony clubs and stuff. Pete would sit down and he would lay down. You would put a blanket on him or he would reach back and get the blanket and pull it off. He would drink Cokes; he loved Cokes! I rode him in a couple of parades too.
Q: How cute. Now he wasn’t a Shetland donkey? He was a mule?
A: He was a mule. I mean he had the ears and he was dark brown or almost black, but I had a lot of fun with him. He would just do anything. A few time we put him in the car! Dick would take the backseat out of the car and put him in the car and rode around and people would think you are crazy. (laughing) They couldn’t believe their eyes. Pete was just an easygoing mule. I used to race some of the kids on Pete, you know, you never think a mule can outrun a horse. On the path coming from Ridgecrest to the pony farm I’d race a couple of the boys. . .
Q: Did you win?
A: Oh yeah. He was pretty fast.
Q: Wow that sounds like fun.
A: But anyway, Dick had a mule and he had the big horse named Jim and he was a trick horse. He would sit up and kneel down and lay down and do all kinds of things. Dick had spent a ton of time with him.
Q: So it was kind of entertainment?
A: Yeah, they were entertainment. He would entertain groups that came out. Bill was good friends with a big Shetland breeder out of Ada, Oklahoma that would come out, Ace Hutchinson and he owned some jewelry stores down there.
Q: That name is so familiar.
A: He and Bill were pretty good friends and so he bought some ponies from Ace and he bought some from Bill. Ace had a huge pony farm down there. Anyways it was a fun time.
Q: Do you remember any, it was very country back then, do you remember any wild animals? Was their more of the urban animals like we have now like skunks and raccoons?
A: Yeah, you would see coyotes out here once in a while.
Q: Did you hear them out there sometimes?
A: Sometimes, sure, because as you said there was nothing on to the north of us at all until you get to 23rd and then Midwest Boulevard turned into a gravel road. It wasn’t even paved at that time. Since it was all country out here and Bill owned another farm to the north of here and it had a big pond out there and a barn and a house out there. We occasionally put some ponies out there. And then he owned another place on down towards 23rd and that had a place on it. A lot of men used to meet there and play cards. You would see some coyotes here and you’d see a lot of raccoons and possum.
Q: Never any mountain lions?
A: Never any mountain lions, but you would hear stories. Never did really see anything like that.
Q: How about any deer?
A: Yes, we would see some deer every now and then. 10th Street was just a two lane street at that time too, and occasionally when I would go out there were a few trees, not a lot, mainly by the creek I would be riding out to check the ponies and occasionally I would jump a deer. They would be laying down during the day and they wouldn’t move until you got near them and then they would take off towards 10th Street. They would go across 10th and into the woods over there. Nothing over there, just one house between here and 23rd, I think, at that time. That was the place that Bill had and then they started building those other homes along there.
Q: Well it just sounds great.
A: It was a good experience. Bill gave you a lot of opportunity to be responsible for things. He would give you things and make you responsible and if you messed up, you know, I mean he would call it to your attention and talk to you about it, but it still gave you some help later in life to learn responsibility.
Q: He didn’t have an angry temper?
A: No, never. Of course he got mad at me a few times when I really messed up, you know, (laughing), and Mrs. Atkinson, of course, I never saw her mad ever. Eugenia and Janette were just fun, you know, they were in high school at the time, you know, just young and enjoying life.
Q: That’s great. Well, I certainly do appreciate you participating.
A: I am happy to do it. It is many fond memories.
Joe Cole also made these additional comments about the pony barn:
The two west side bathrooms (handicap and women) were originally combined with the
storage closet to form one big room used for tack and saddles.
At the south end of the barn, the west side room was originally for carriages. The wicker
buggy and another one were kept there. It had a garage door on the south side of that
room. The east side room was originally a blacksmith shop with a forge where iron items,
including horseshoes were made. The farm manager (Bob Robbins or Dick Beard) did
the blacksmithing and horse shoeing.
In the 1950s, there was white board fence like the corral fence on the west side of
the pony barn.
Other buildings:
There was an L-shaped barn just west of the pony barn with a chain link fence corral.
There were chicken coops on the north side of the house. The farm hand and his family
lived in a house northwest of the Atkinson house on the hill, and there was another
house south of it about where the west gate is. The big barn with the horse head silhouette
was just north of the metal Quonset hut, and there was a tack building south of that, but
detached. The tack building had a hitching rail outside where horses could be tied.
There was a fenced dirt lane from the end of Mockingbird Lane down to the Atkinson Pony Barn.
