Polly Jo Woodard
Brittany Curtis
Ms. Lind
English/History
12-18-07
Outline
1: Basic Information
-Name
-Siblings
-Parents
-Immediate Family
2: Childhood
-Friends
-Hobbies
-School
-Jobs
-Pets
-The Farm
3: Horses
-Shows
-Classes
-First horse
4: Davis Condo stables
-Borders
-Trail Rides
-Summer Camps
-Breeds
5: Tykenbay Acers
-Year built
-Meaning of name
-Number of horses
-Breed
Brittany Curtis
Ms. Lind
English 10/ History
12-18-07
~ Polly Jo Woodard~
I have not lived in the small town of Etna for very long, but I do know a few things about it. Everyone knows everyone, news travels fast, and everyone loves animals (especially the horses). It’s a quiet place with a lot of trees, fields, back roads, barns, old houses, and farm animals. It’s not very exciting, like all of those bright, busy cities you see in movies and magazines that are more what I find ideal, but Etna is very welcoming.
The element that I feel best represents the small town of Etna is a wonderful woman, cousin, and next door neighbor. This would be Polly Jo Woodard.
Curtis
Tykenbay is a big, gray barn that sits next door to my house. It’s a horse stable with fifteen horses that have their own special names and personalities. There’s also a little black barn cat, Lucy, which recently decided to plant her roots in the barn’s loft. Although this stable is rather new, maybe five or six years old, everyone knows about it, knows exactly where it is, and knows the woman who runs it, P.J. (short for Polly Jo), as well as her husband, Doug. They’ve lived in the town of Etna for goodness knows how long, so they’ll be excellent resources for information. There are riding lessons year-round and a horse camp during the summer. The horses, as well as the most skilled kids that ride at Tykenbay, go to horse shows and seldom come back empty-handed. Because it is so famous for its warm, down-to-earth atmosphere and the great company that Doug and P.J. are to anyone who goes there.
Curtis
Interview with Polly Jo Woodard
12-4-07
Basic Information
Name: Polly Jo Woodard (Davis)
Born in 1955 at Bangor, Maine.
Nickname: P.J
What town did you grow up in?
I lived in Etna my hole life actually I lived on the same street too.
Siblings?
Yes I have 2 brothers Kurt and Kendal and a sister, Yvonne.
Parents
Barbara and Ken Woodard
Parents Jobs
Well my dad would always stay home and milk cows and sell their milk.
My mom would help my dad with milking and she would help take care of the chickens.
Husband?
Doug Woodard
Doug is now retired from working construction.
Married in 1973 and had a child in 1983 when she was 23.
Daughter?
Tyra Woodard
(Age 24)
Curtis
Tyra is now Spanish and a French Teacher at Carmel Elementary.
She also gives therapeutic horseback riding lessons to adults and children .
Childhood
Friends
Jenny- Best friend
Next door neighbor- Owen –made brooms for them.
What did you like to do as a kid for fun?
I liked to help take care of the baby cows and try to ride the older ones.
Me and my best friend, Jenny would go over to Mother Agge, my next door neighbor’s and she had 4 horses and Jenny and I would ride them bareback around in the pasture.
What horses did you ride over there?
Umm... I think I remember riding a red and white paint named Scout and Jenny would ride a horse named Lucky.
How old were you when you got into horses?
I think about 10 or 12 I can’t really remember.
What was your daily routine?
First, I would get up around 7:00 or so and I’d eat breakfast and go do morning chores. I would be there until noon then I would clean myself up and eat lunch. After lunch I would go play basketball.
Pets?
Well besides the cow and the chickens we had a bull dog and a boar and a couple of cats.
After high school...
I got married and lived in a trailer then built and house on the same property.
Curtis
School
P.J attended Etna- Dixmont elementary school in 1965. Then she attended high school at Hermon High.
Did you go to collage?
No.
If you did go, what would you have gone?
University of Maine in Orono.
What would you have majored in?
Animal Science, Zoology.
Jobs
Shoe Shop (Newport shoe) worked there for 11yrs.
Self employed. She took care of the chickens. She cleaned and feed them.
Then she did some paperwork for her brother Kurt.
Pickle Palace.
Lil’ Mikes.
Davis Condo.
Plymouth Group Home (Now Sweetzer).
Home Provider and Tykenbay (present).
Horses
First horse
Doug bought me a Morgan who was a gelding for my 16th birthday.
Curtis
What was his name?
Curtis
His name was Bay.
Second horse.
Morgan. Max.
Started showing at age 18 with Bay.
Stopped show at age 28 then Tyra started showing.
Classes.
-Western pleasure.
-Hunt Seat.
-Parade class.
Only family member who liked horses.
Davis Condo Stables
Later on P.J and Doug made the farm into a horse stable called Davis Condo Stables in 1990.
She had summer camps for kids.
Curtis
They did lots of parades in Bangor, Caramel, Etna, Plymouth and East Corinth.
They had over 200 horses.
They had mostly standard bred horses (Racing).
Had lots of Trail rides too.
Borders
-Supreme Court Judge
-Nurses
-Racers
-Woman’s doctor
8 years later the farm got sold.
Then they bought 36 acres of land almost across the street form their house and built another horse stable and named it Tykenbay Acers.
Tykenbay Acers
It was built in 1998.
The meaning of the name:
TY-Is for her daughter, Tyra.
Curtis
Ken- is for her dad who passed away from an aneurism.
Bay- is for her first horse.
They still are running the stable.
Right now they have 15 horses.
They mostly have Morgan’s, Quarter Horses, and Arabians.
Curtis
Work Cited
Woodard, Polly Jo. Personal interview. 4 December 2007.
