Back in April/May of 2021 I was brought on to work at the barn located in Wunderlich Park in Woodside. I teach anything from programs, camps and lessons, I do pony rides, I guide trails, I offer schooling rides for horses who need correction or training and I do a whole lot of barn management and horse care.

I gained some knowledge over time about our wonderful work location, but decided I wanted to do a data dump for you guys.

As I mentioned earlier Wunderlich Park is located in Woodside, California, and is a historical site if you’re into that sort of thing. Originally our location was just a redwood forest occupied by the Ohlone people prior to colonization. By 1840 the land was given as part of a land grant and ultimately changed ownership as many as 9 times before being forgotten and left to be.

In 1872, the land was named the “Jones Ranch” by Simon and Everett Jones and was mostly treeless as it had been logged for years before they acquired it. The Jones family had the stone structures that make up what’s left of the dairy house, barn, house etc put in around 1874 through 1904. It was almost all torn down in the 1980’s, but a couple structures still stand today.

In 1905, James Folger II and his wife Clara bought the land and built the “Folger Stable” I know today. The land was used as we use it today. To breed, ride, and train horses for show, transportation or pleasure. The barn is an indoor barn which is very typical for East Coast barns since they have severe weather to make it through in the winter. It offers lush stalls with individual tack boxes, a carriage room/museum, a locked temperature controlled tack room, heated wash racks and a feed room.

The inside is decorated with pink marble baseboards, skylights, redwood wainscoting and old photos of the barn pre refurbishment. There’s an attic that seems like a perfect living space if there was a kitchen, heating a bathroom and walls to break up the space. Otherwise it’s what I assume is left of the hay loft and storage.

Attached to the main barn is 945+ acres of horse friendly trails. Because we’re all about being accessible to the public we are a hot spot for public equine trail access. We are happy to have you park your trailer on site to use our trails for the day, for free!! The one hang up right now is we aren’t accepting any outside horses at this time due to the current EHV outbreak in our area. Once that passes and the local veterinarians give us the all clear we will be happy to see you on trail again. We have a great arena for boarders and leasers, but it is not for public use unfortunately.

Besides all that history, you can find an odd variety of plants, fungi, lichen/moss, animals and people as you wander through our space preserve. There’s a couple run down buildings in the trees and what we call “natural jungle gyms” in the form of burnt trees with peek holes. I highly recommend taking a hike out, there’s quite a view from up there!!