Hideaway Ranch, Castro Valley - LV

[@ginap5003]

Oh, the memories this video brings back! Good and bad. I began to work at hide-away Ranch in December 1973 when I was 13. I was absolutely horse crazy! My step-father’s employee was the son-in-law of Hide-away’s owner, Lloyd, and he arranged for my sister and I to work there. We worked on Saturdays catching, brushing and saddling the horses for the rent-string. We led trail rides, and unsaddled and fed the horses, then our ‘pay’ was getting to ride for an hour at the end of the day. My parents bought one of the intended rent-string horses, a young Appaloosa named Patches that my sister and I were to share. Within a month they bought another little green broke mare for my sister, so we each had our own horse. I remember so many of the friends we made there, and Oh the stories we could tell! About sleeping in the hay barn in sleeping bags for a week during the summer and sneaking over onto EastBay MUD land and bombing on our horses down the fluffy soft dirt fire trails! We stayed boarding at Hide-away and still worked the rent-string for a while. One day, I had forgotten my hackamore bridle and asked the ranch owner, Lloyd (I think his last name was Smith, but I can’t remember now), if I could borrow one from the rent-string tack room. He said yes and followed me in there. He proceeded to approach and grab me, pushing himself against me and kissing me-this disgusting 60-something old man! I was stunned into paralysis at first, then panic set in and I pushed him away, running out of the tack-room.This memory is burned into my brain, and I will never forget it. When I ran up to the upper barn area, I saw and told one of the girls that worked there. She didn’t believe me, and then Lloyd assaulted her a year later. She apologized to me and that is what gave me the courage to tell my parents. We learned this pervert molested several girls, one whom he allowed the ‘special’ privilege of riding his beautiful saddlebred mare, Chrystal. My parents confronted Lloyd and, of course he and his family denied everything. We moved our horses to Regal Stables. I still don’t know why my parents never told the police or why no one else did either. That man did a lot of damage.