Juckas Riding Stables in Pine Bush is celebrating their sixtieth anniversary.

The stable was opened in 1965 by Karen Juckas, a lifelong elementary school teacher in Pine Bush with a passion for trail riding. Her husband, Don Maney, bought and sold horses and owned a tack shop in Goshen where he sold equestrian supplies. Juckas and Maney both passed suddenly in 2020, within three weeks of each other. Juckas left the business to her daughter who realized quickly it wasn’t for her, and was planning on selling the property.

In came Lori Maney-Lentini and Brian Stevens. Maney-Lentini is Juckas’ step-daughter and Stevens, her grandson. Maney-Lentini was a senior vice president at a nonprofit and an author in the mental health sector. Stevens owned a property management business and a small, homestead farm far upstate where he raised horses along with cows, pigs, lamb, and poultry.

They spoke at Juckas’ memorial service and, “after a few bottles of wine,” Stevens, according to his aunt, “looked at me and said ‘Here’s what we’re going to do: you’re going to quit your job and cash in your retirement plan and I’m going to go home and sell my business and my house.’”

The reason for this total reorganization of their lives to take over the stable, Maney-Lentini said, was because “we didn’t want this sold to developers, because for her whole life Karen wanted this to be left as a nature preserve, but she didn’t get around to it in time.”

The family legacy was preserved as the aunt-nephew team officially took over Juckas Riding Stables back in October of 2021. Thankfully, both parties weren’t coming into this experience blind. Both Maney-Lentini and Stevens were raised on Maney’s horse farm in Goshen, and Stevens had horses at his homestead.

Their intention was to preserve the mission of the farm, honoring Juckas’ desire to “keep people engaged in this world,” Stevens said, because, “if you can’t keep people interested in [the sport], it slowly disappears.”

The job itself can be grueling, and it’s hard to find help. “People don’t want to be 24/7, 365 on a farm out in 20-degree weather with 30 mph winds, taking care of livestock at 2 a.m. because a cow is ready to have a calf,” Stevens said.

Unfortunately, another tragedy fell on this family only four months after purchasing the business, when Stevens fell off of a horse at the stable and broke his neck, paralyzing him from the neck down. “It was a freak thing,” Maney-Lentini said. “He was messing around.” It was a young horse who was not ready for a rider, Stevens said. If it had been a couple millimeters difference, he said, he likely would have died.

Stevens took the next few years to recover. Although he’s still mobility impaired, he is able to walk and perform his duties at the stables.

Even recovered, the riding business isn’t all sunshine and beautiful manicured trails. The trail riding industry has drastically changed in the past thirty-odd years. Stevens said that there used to be trail riding operations all throughout Sullivan, Orange, and Ulster counties, but now, he said, there’s only four.

The interest started waning, he said, “around the time Nintendo came out,” while at the same time costs rose for land, taxes, animal feed, and what they say is the kicker – insurance. “The insurance industry has just about pushed everyone to the limit,” Stevens said.

Despite all of this, Stevens said that “overall our numbers have been tracking upward since we purchased,” and this is due to, they believe, the shift they’ve made in the old business model. They now keep the stable open all year, and have expanded the number of trail rides per day. Maney-Lentini believes they are one of the biggest trail riding operations in the area, comfortably taking out ten horses at a time, with a cap at around 14. They currently own 23 horses that live at the stable and roam the 87-acre property.

Since taking over, the duo has added a summer and winter camp, a free petting zoo with goats (who just had kids), pigs, a rabbit and donkeys, a date night experience, photoshoots, engagement parties, a riding team and lesson program, and cow sorting and roping competitions. In 2023, they were voted one of the ten best riding stables in New York by Best of the Best.

Juckas Riding Stables also prides themselves on their affordable prices, hoping to keep the sport accessible for anyone willing to give it a try. Their standard price is $95 for a 45-minute trail ride. Anyone from age 7 on up can participate, no matter their experience level.

“It’s a sport that, like many others, has gotten to the point where it prices a lot of people out,” Stevens said, “but we put programs together and let the public experience it so parents don’t have to buy their kids a horse and make tens of thousands of dollars of commitment.”

A highlight for Stevens is the $20 pony rides for children. He sees them as a direct homage to his grandmother’s legacy, since her focus was always on getting children to experience the sport at a young age.

“You get a toddler riding a pony for the first time and 99 percent of the time you get halfway around the arena and they have the biggest smile on their face and they don’t want to get off,” Stevens said.

Maney-Lentini and Stevens say they are fortunate to have received so much support from the Pine Bush community.

“People show up and help,” Maney-Lentini said. “When someone comes here and has a great time and posts about it [on social media], it’s great. It helps us increase awareness, so people who haven’t tried it can try it.”

They are looking forward to celebrating their 60th anniversary event, which is invite-only and will feature family, friends, the Pine Bush Chamber of Commerce, and even people who worked at the stable back in the ‘70s.

Juckas Riding Stables is open seven days a week and is located at 1204 New York 302, Pine Bush. You can learn more about them on their website www.juckasstables.com, Instagram @juckasridingstables and Facebook.