The Story Behind York Hills

To explain the creation of York Hills Horse Park, I must start with an explanation of the people who were key in the process of bringing this to reality. In looking back over the last year, I just want to thank God for the way He works over a lifetime and how He can bring about the desires of one’s heart in His own way.

In the early 70’s, Dr. William E. Fitzkee started acquiring property west of Albion in York township. He came here from York, Pennsylvania and set up practice on York Street in Albion. He had a growing desire for hunter jumper horses and built his stable up to 28 show horses with full-time help. He became an accomplished showman, winning many events throughout the Midwest. He especially enjoyed his property which grew to four farms covering nearly 1000 acres. The terrain, with rolling hills and woods, reminds him of Pennsylvania and the property he rode on as a youngster.

As years have gone by, he has geared his stable down to personal pleasure and continued to consider his land not as farmland, but as horse country. He posted signs to this effect and believes that this is the correct use for his property. Doc truly is a horse lover.

My name is Dale Orr and I have been interested in horses my entire life. In 1978 I started my business, Orr Cabinetry, and bought my first walking horse. It has been quite a journey, but I have always relied on my hobby (training walking horses) as an avenue to burn out my energy at night after work. I have enjoyed showing and trail riding for almost 30 years and probably always will.

A couple years ago I noticed that not much was happening out at Fitzkee Farms and I asked Doc if I could ride on his property. He agreed and I started to ride. This lead to me building a trail system and in doing so made my imagination work.

After putting close to 500 hours on two different tractors, I went to Doc with my idea of a horse park. I explained that I had ridden trails all over the country and told him stories of all the places I’ve been. It became evident to me through all of my work that this was just too big and nice to keep for personal use and that it would be wonderful to share with other horse people. Doc, who had spent his life running and gobbling up fences and competing, at first did not understand the concept of trail riding. He didn’t realize that people would enjoy meandering down a trail through the woods and fields observing wildlife and visiting with one another.

I took him out and showed him all the trails and he was impressed. I told him of my dream of managing and maintaining a horse operation and how much my wife, Becky wanted to be involved and he gave me his blessing.

We immediately went to work. We thought the name York Hills was appropriate and I sketched out a concept for a logo and Vision Graphics perfected it and we built our operation on that. We formed York Hills LLC and did all the office work. We put in road crossings, parking area, log cabin office, picnic pavilion, tables, swing and grill, refrigerator, horse water, some outdoor stalls, hitching rail, trail markers, caution signs, wood fence, entrance gates and mowing and spraying equipment. This is just the beginning and we will continue to build on this. I also bought a large tractor mounted insect fogger and am going to fog the trails. We believe without the pest of mosquitoes and deer flies, people will be apt to patronize the park during the summer. This is going to be expensive and I’m going to put out a donation box and hopefully will receive help to purchase ingredients to fight off those bugs.

The operation of the park office is going to fall on the shoulders of my wife, Becky. She too is a true horse lover or can I say animal lover. She is so excited about her new job and has done all the work that I’m really not good at. She has taken over all the office work and has made her little cabin her own. There is a lot to do with rules, waivers, ledgers, business recordkeeping, promotion, organizing, and communication, decorating and planning. She loves doing this and I’m glad she does. She will be taking care of the daily details and will be the main contact person. We have worked together all through this endeavor and are hoping for a satisfactory outcome.

As you travel out 300 N west of the stoplight in Albion, you will notice the conservation club, Black Pines Animal Park (a new zoo), Augusta Hills Golf course and York Hills Horse Park. They are right next to each other and we believe this to now be the recreation center of Noble County. Noble County has much more to offer, Chain-O-Lakes State park, good golf, lots of lakes, fishing, boating, etc. But we think it’s neat that these four services are next to each other in York Township

We are sure that York Hills Horse Park will grow in popularity as time goes on and I’m sure that it will bring us some form of satisfaction seeing people of like interest living out a thought that came to me while I was sitting on a tractor seat busting through brush trying to make a place for me to ride.

York Hills is a private park provided to us by the good Lord and we are happy to be a part of it. You know this park is only for horses and riders. There won’t be anyone else. Just equestrians. Our motto is "York Hills Horse Park - Only Horses All the Time!"

The Story Continues . . .