Saddle Up Stables wasn’t just a summer business or a tourist attraction. It was a way of life.
That’s among the things Dixie Follette wanted to convey when she and her daughters Lisa Armstrong and Suzi Cocca and Suzi’s husband John met with us last week to talk about Saddle Up Stables in the wake of its June 10 sale.
Saddle Up Stables opened in Diamond Point in 1974, but it traces its origins to the 1930s, when two horse-traders from North Carolina began leasing horses to resorts and children’s summer camps across the Adirondacks.
Until the sale last month, the 60-horse stable and trail riding attraction was owned and operated by the son of one of those horse-traders, Henry Follette, and his family – fourth generation included.
Henry Follette, who died in 2015, “was a legend,” said his daughters.
“He was a great horseman,” said John Cocca. “If there was a horse that needed some seasoning before carrying customers, he was great at that.”
“He was often out scouting horses,” said Lisa Armstrong. “And when he was, he would leave us to run the stable.”
Henry Follette was also a big personality.
“These New Yorkers couldn’t wait to sit on the porch and talk to him while their kids went riding. Even though he was a southerner with a drawl and they were from the city, they would always just hit it off,” said John Cocca, a Lake George native.
Apparently, Follette was also a man driven to succeed in the highly competitive field of Lake George summer attractions.
“We were open seven days a week,” said Lisa Armstrong. “If there was a customer, we were open. If somebody wanted to ride, we had to be there.”
For decades, starting in the late 1940s or early 1950s at Sunnybrook Acres – the resort known today as Twin Birches – the Follettes’ horseback rides – including or especially moonlight rides to the top of Lookout Mountain, with bonfires, cookouts and singing cowboys – were a staple of summer life on Lake George.
“Our market was the second-home resident or the visitor staying in one of the motels,” said Lisa Armstrong. “Horseback riding was part of a vacation, or even part of the daily activities.”
Many of those visitors and summer people became regulars, returning year after year, generation after generation. They looked forward not only to seeing Henry Follette and his family, but their favorite horses.
The children’s summer camps remained a vital part of the business.
“My dad would pick the campers up in a pick-up truck, put them on benches in the cargo bed and drive them here,” said Lisa.
Many of “the cowboys” leading the trail rides were local teenagers – Dan George, Butch LaFonde and Bud Ramsey were among the names mentioned.
After Labor Day, the family would return south for the winter, moving back to Lake George in time to open the stables for Memorial Day weekend.
Dixie, who married Henry Follette in the 1950s, can remember spending the summer in a tent. As the family grew, they moved into trailers which they would tow north every year.
“My mother worked full time until just recently. Suzi and I never took a day off,” said Lisa. “The only exception was a rainy day. We loved those because it meant we could relax. But if the rain stopped, we had to get back to work.”
Among the things the family will miss most about Saddle Up Stables is the people whom they came to know over the years, as neighbors or customers, said Suzi Cocca.
Moreover, she added, “I know of no other life. It’s all we’ve known.” The Follettes are leaving much more than a business or a piece of property, and leaving behind much more than pleasant memories. Like any place where the most consequential events in life take place – marriage proposals, weddings, memorial services – it will remain in their hearts. And something of each of them will remain there as well.
