Horsey Ontario and Pomona

According to the Chino Champion, May 3, 2008, Parnell Girls School was located "in a small valley west of Highway 71 and Riverside Drive, behind where the Great Indoors store is. It was razed in 1981 to make way for Rolling Ridge Estates."

I used to work across the street, where Home Depot is now, between 1979-1988, and don't remember seeing anything there except some stones and rose bushes that led me to believe something had been there once.

[Dee, thanks for the info. Funny timing that Parnell would have been mentioned so recently in the Champion. -- DA]

David Allen -- You're my hero! And, Dee -- thanks for the note on Parnell Girls School. Now I know that at least I'm not hallucinating about my experiences there, all those years ago!

[At The David Allen Blog, we live to serve. -- DA]

I had a girlfriend who went to Parnell...1968(?).

Then later I had a friend whose mother worked there. My girlfriend had been sent to Parnell to put some distance from me as our hormones were being a little too active.

Mary: I was just remembering Parnell with a friend who also rode there.

I remember it very well, my mom would drive me and a friend from Glendora over the road at Puddingstone dam and down Kellog hill to the 71. You entered onto a dirt road and drove back past a grove of trees (eucalyptus?) south of where the 60 crosses the 71 now. We went on Sat's for lessons and would stay most of the day, this was in 1965-67? All the stalls were under this huge building, indoor ring, 2 rings outside, cross country course, you could ride the hills forever, it was beautiful. The trainers were Roy Traylor and Jane Arrington.

I was not sure about the school though, it was up on the hill away from the stables, wondered if it was a boarding school or ?. It certainly was not very large, but had some dorms. I too went on to show Hunter, jumpers in S Ca after that, could we know each other?

I was a student at Parnell from 1969 to 1971 and have fond memories of the school.

The actual address of the school was Hwy 71 & Riverside Dr. at Garey Ave. The stable was Rocking RT Ranch and the school was located a little bit up the road from the stables. It was a boarding school which grades 2-12 were taught. It had two dorms, a meeting hall/kitchen/dining room, administration building, several classrooms and a pool.

When I attended I was in 5th, 6th and 7th grades and Parnell had a great academic program. Smaller classes, more 1 on 1 attention for all the students. The greatest thing was for PE you rode horses, what more could a girl ask for?

My second year there I started showing horses for the school. Hunters and jumpers mostly and we went to shows from Santa Barbara to Del Mar and many places in between. I even purchased a horse from Roy Traylor named Parnella. The training we got from Roy Traylor, Jane Arrington and Jocko was a great and I continued showing horses after leaving the school.

It was sad when I learned the school had been torn down and there was nothing left of it but memories...

[But thank you for yours, Kim. -- DA]

Kim,

I too attended Parnell School for Girls. I was in 9th grade. My experiences were far from yours though.

I don't have the fond memories of the place like you do. The place is like you said. I lived in the dorm on the left as you would be driving up the road towards the school.

Roy was notorious for trapping the girls in the corners of the stalls and would try and get them to kiss him. Scary, is how I remember it.

Miss Yoder who was in charge of the girls was so old she would talk to herself and always got the girls' names mixed up.

Trust me it was not a great place to live. It was more where parents sent their daughters when they didn't want them living at home. At least that is the way it was for us older girls.

Yes, the only thing that was good and kept a lot of us going was the horses, and of course going home on the weekend for the month. That is if you were lucky enough to go home.

Sorry, don't mean to darken your memory.

Regards,

Michelle

Parnell was a nightmare. There were mean girls there of whom, to this day, I would seek revenge. It changed my life. Leave me alone with them and only one of us would come out breathing.

My parents wanted my sister to go to school there, but it never happened for some reason. I don't thing she wanted to go.

I, too, was one of the "peasants" who took lessons at Rocking RT in 1969 and 1970 (Hi, Mary!). Overall, I have wonderful memories of those days. That said, I can say that there was a definite "class" system in place: if your daddy had money, and there was a possibility that Roy could sell you a horse, you got treated better.