The sight of an NYPD Mounted Unit officer riding down a Bronx street can still make even a lifelong New Yorker look twice. For Jackie McQuade, owner of Schuyler Hill Funeral Home on East Tremont Avenue, it is a sight that brings her running out the door.
For generations, the McQuade family has been closely tied to horses in the Bronx, from professional equestrian competition and the stables of Pelham Bay Park to horse drawn funeral processions and the NYPD Mounted Unit. Over the years, the family has donated horses to the NYPD, supported the purchase of others and helped keep a part of the borough’s equestrian history alive.
“Every time the mounted horses go by the funeral home, my staff tells me and I run outside to say hello,” McQuade said. “Sometimes they even wait for me to come outside. I have to see the horses.”
That connection began long before McQuade took over the family funeral home.
“Horses are in our blood,” McQuade said.
That passion came from both her father, James E. “Jim” McQuade, and her mother, Kathleen “Kathy” McQuade. Jackie grew up around horses and went on to build an accomplished equestrian career of her own. At 15, she became the youngest female rider to win the USET Finals in show jumping. She turned professional at 18 and spent years competing and working in the horse industry.
“I was lucky to have had a very successful horse riding career,” McQuade said. “I met many interesting and famous people. But I never forgot where I started, which was right there in the Bronx.”
Eventually, McQuade stepped away from her professional equestrian career to continue another family tradition, operating Schuyler Hill Funeral Home.
The family’s history in funeral service stretches back four generations. McQuade traces those roots to her great grandfather, Edward Noble, and her grandmother, Margaret Noble McQuade, who operated the family’s first funeral home in South Amboy, New Jersey. At a time when funeral service was largely a male profession, Margaret served families who preferred that a woman prepare their deceased female relatives.
The family later established Schuyler Hill Funeral Home in the Bronx. Rather than naming the business after the McQuade family and having it identified solely as an Irish funeral home, it was named for the surrounding Schuylerville neighborhood. Jim McQuade took over the business in 1980 and became a familiar figure throughout Throggs Neck before his death on May 12, 2022, at age 75.
Even the funeral business found a way to connect the family’s two traditions.
In partnership with City Island Stables, formerly known as the Bronx Equestrian Center, Schuyler Hill offers families the option of a traditional horse drawn hearse. The stables are located on Parks Department property along Shore Road in Pelham Bay Park and have long been part of the equestrian community in the East Bronx.
Black and white teams of horses have been used for funeral processions and ceremonial occasions, with the white team also participating in the Throggs Neck St. Patrick’s Day Parade.
When Jim McQuade died in 2022, he was carried through the neighborhood in the horse drawn hearse led by the black team. The procession brought together his connection to horses with the neighborhood where he spent decades serving families and the community.
The McQuades’ involvement with horses also created a longstanding relationship with the NYPD Mounted Unit. Over the years, the family donated at least four or five of their personal horses to serve with the Mounted Unit. They also made financial contributions that helped the NYPD purchase at least three additional horses.
One story that has remained with the family dates back to the 1970s, when NYPD Emergency Service Unit officer Donald Thacke helped rescue a Mounted Unit horse that had fallen into a manhole. Thacke died earlier this month at age 84, bringing new meaning to a story the family has remembered for decades.
For the McQuades, the connection to public service extended beyond the NYPD and horses. Jim McQuade was also one of the founders of the Throggs Neck Volunteer Ambulance Corps.
The need for a local ambulance corps became especially clear after a family member fell from a roof in Locust Point and the emergency response took approximately 45 minutes. The incident showed the importance of having local volunteers who knew how to navigate Locust Point and other parts of the East Bronx that could be difficult for those unfamiliar with the area.
That commitment to the neighborhood has continued through generations of the McQuade family, whether through funeral service, volunteer organizations or their involvement with horses.
Today, horses can still be seen traveling the trails of Pelham Bay Park, leading funeral processions and carrying NYPD officers through the streets of New York City. For McQuade, they remain a connection to her family, her career and the Bronx neighborhood where it all began.
“The next time you see a Mounted Police Officer on horseback, thank them both for their service,” McQuade said.
