After 74 years, the beloved Griffith Park pony rides are no more. The city closed it, the last rides were Dec. 21 2022.
“Have a great ride!” shouted an enthusiastic Jeremy Hollis to his son, 4-year-old Bennett, who clung to a slightly bigger pony than usual at the Griffith Park Pony Rides Wednesday morning, Dec. 21.
Riley Olkiewicz, 2, rides a pony for the last time at Griffith Park Pony Rides in Los Angeles on Wednesday, December 21, 2022. The pony rides have been at the park since 1948 and the current owners lease was not renewed by LA Department of Recreation and Parks. Elvira Elicea gets Roxy Pasquarelli, Zachery Schumacher, and Esme Canning on ponies for their last ride at Griffith Park Pony Rides in Los Angeles on Wednesday, December 21, 2022. The pony rides have been at the park since 1948 and the current owners lease was not renewed by LA Department of Recreation and Parks.
Children ride the ponies for the last time at Griffith Park Pony Rides in Los Angeles on Wednesday, December 21, 2022. The pony rides have been at the park since 1948 and the current owners lease was not renewed by LA Department of Recreation and Parks. Hollis wanted his son’s last ride to be on a bigger mount, perhaps because he would never get another chance. The popular ride in which kids get on a pony as it walks along a circular track with a human guide is gone forever.
On Wednesday more than 50 parents, grandparents and children waited in line before 10 a.m. for the rides to open. The day before people queued up for 2 1/2 hours to buy the last remaining pony ride tickets. Employee Justin Valiente, 21, was resigned to the fact that all things come to an end. But he said he didn’t like the way this ended. “They believed all of the people who screamed at us for a year and a half. That is being rewarded,” he said. Valiente is studying to be a phlebotomist, he said.
The Los Angeles Alliance For Animals applauded the decision, as did other animal rights groups. “The time is now to eliminate pony rides in Los Angeles because it teaches children ponies are carnival equipment. They are not,” said group founder Zohra Fahim in a previous interview with this newspaper.
“I am going to take it easy, get out of the horse business entirely,” said Weeks, who lives in Studio City.
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