The History of Pleasure Acres Equine Feline Rescue Center
The farm of George and Barb Martin of Salem Township holds memories from nearly a half-century ago. She remembers when her dad hitched up Johnny, the pony to pull it. He then tied the pony to Nellie, his own big red mare. Tying Johnny to his mare ensured that Johnny would not run off with us. They rode all around their farm in Salem. Barb
rode and drove horses almost before she could walk. Those memories of nearly a half-century ago are still fresh, and the homemade pony cart is still in the museum. The James R. Hornock Horse Drawn Equipment and Horse Drawn Carriage Museum is a tribute to her late father and to farm days of past. Hornock was raised on a nearby farm in Salem and his wife, Olga, grew up on a dairy farm, also in Salem. They bought the present farm over 60 years ago and ran a dairy business and raised a few horses. Mrs. Martin and her husband, who is now retired from the restaurant industry, bought the farm in the 1993 and continued raising horses. Hornock passed away at the age of 84. Barb’s first horse was born here on the farm, when Barb was 7, and died 37 years later, when she was 44. Barb held his head when he was born and she held his head when he was put to sleep, in the same field that he was born in. His name was Trigger,
Mr. Hornock initially used horse-drawn equipment on his farm, and when he finally got a tractor, it was a John Deere. It was the only make he would ever buy. When Mr. Hornock was a little boy, his father went to the other dealers who wanted the work horses in exchange for a tractor. The kids, in his family were upset and crying, and so the John Deere dealer told him, ‘You can make payments on the tractor. Let the kids have the horses.” Since that day, Pleasure Acres has only had John Deere equipment. Hornock was laid out, at the funeral home, it was only fitting that he be covered with a John Deere blanket. Barb and her father acquired a number of carriages and wagons over the years. The museum collection also has a bobsled, a surrey with the fringe on top, and a buckboard wagon identical to the one that Mr. Hornock once used to take grain to the gristmill at Saint Vincent Arch Abbey, near Latrobe. There are passenger wagons, and two newer Meadow Brook carriages made by the Amish. And, of course, Mrs. Martin’s little pony cart is on-site. Walls, posts, shelves and cabinets are filled with other old farm equipment, harnesses, hay hooks, sickle bars, plows, a corn planter, stretchers for repairing wire fences, milking equipment, big metal cans, and many more things that Mr. Hornock used on the farm decades ago. A tack room in the barn holds some priceless treasures — a series of framed photos of Mr. Hornock’s funeral procession moving through the snow-covered farm. The procession was led by the first tractor on the farm, a 1936 John Deere. A rider less horse with boots placed backwards in the stirrups, was an important part of the funeral procession, since Mr. Hornock was a World War 2 veteran. All of the horses lined up along the fence as the procession went by, in honor of the man they loved so much. His spirit remains on the farm,
Pleasure Acres Farm is a lifelong dream of Barbara’s, who purchased her parents’ farm in 1993, along with her husband, George. Ever since Barbara was a young child, she could be seen, trying to rescue every stray animal that wondered onto the farm. Over the years, the farm has become home to several such animals. During her career, Barb made considerable financial investments in numerous abandon and abused animals. In 2016, Pleasure Acres Equine & Feline Rescue Center, a 501(C) 3 Pa. non-profit corporation was established. This new corporation will assist in maintaining the care these rescue animal’s needs on a daily basis. We can now accept tax deductible donations from businesses, family, friends, and the community. Thus the inception of Pleasure Acres Equine Feline Rescue Center.
