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Andrea
Galgano works at the admitting desk in the E.R. of Santa Ynez Valley Cottage
Hospital. But life can be even more exciting when she is with her Andalusian
horses. Her stallion Bandolero De
Plata keeps winning fantastic awards and is trained and shown by Bruce Howard.
In fact, when Bandolero was just a three-year-old he was the Andalusian
National Reserve Champion Halter. Since then, he has collected a host of other
championship titles and is a sensation when drawing an antique vehicle.
Andrea told
us that when she had visited the farm where Bandolero’s dame lived, she had a
mysterious feeling about the beautiful pregnant mare and actually bought her
foal (Bandolero) before he was born! It turned out that her intuition was 100%
correct.
Recently,
there was a large Cancer Charity benefit at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center
in conjunction with the Fiesta of the Spanish Horse. Andrea was the passenger
in a beautiful carriage as part of the parade of cancer survivors, and Bruce
Howard drove the antique vehicle.
In another
part of the Fiesta, Andrea’s white Andalusian mare, Ziara, who is a three-time
National Champion Mare at Halter, performed a free style dressage exhibition
with the well known Valley rider and trainer, Bridgette Huber, aboard.
Another
rider performed with them on a shining black Andalusian mare. The accompanying
music was Shania Twain’s stirring version of “I Feel Like a Woman.” At the
finale Brigette took off her hat and let her waist length hair cascade down for
a beautiful and feminine finale.
If you read
our recent article on Cindy McClellan’s Little Big Riding School, you can
imagine how enthusiastic the young riders become. We heard from one of her
pupils, Lauren Porcher, who started taking lessons from Cindy and attending the
horse camps, when she was just six-years-old.
Over the
Memorial Day weekend, Lauren competed in the Region 1 Arabian and half-Arabian
Championship Show at Del Mar, California. This show “Where the Turf Meets the
Surf” is one of the three California regional shows that prepare horses and
riders for the Youth, Canadian and US Nationals. She showed her seven-year-old
Arabian gelding named Sacred Torch+ and immerged with the Walk-Jog Western Seat
Equitation Championship and the Walk-Jog Western Pleasure Unanimous
Championship!
Her father,
Bill Porcher, showed a thirteen-year-old- stallion bred by Paul Hemming named
HR El Kareem+// and emerged as
Unanimous Champion in Open Western. This fabulous stallion stands at Bill’s
Ranch. The Hemmings are long time Arabian breeders and their famous stallion
Raffon and his off-spring have produced many Champions and Legion of Merit
Winners over the years.
Horseshoe
Crosswalks!
You’ve been
asking for it, so here’s the latest news about the final two Horseshoe
Crosswalks! Thanks to everyone for
their great patience and finally the Equestrian Center is very close to winding
up the collection and preparation of the horseshoes for the last two
crosswalks. They will cross Edison
Street at Sagunto St. which is the main intersection of the little town of
Santa Ynez. As you know, the first
two walks crossed Sagunto Street and had local people’s horse’s shoes embedded
in the cement in a pleasing design. Now two crosswalks at that intersection
will cross Edison Street.
Since there
are stop signs at those intersections, each intersection will spell out WHOA in
horseshoes, in the appropriate space.
On the
southwest corner of the intersection, you can find a kiosk listing the names
and breeds of the horses with shoes in the crosswalks and their owners. There
are some very famous horse’s shoes there: El Alamein, President Ronald Reagan’s
horse kept at his hilltop ranch, and Qualianco, who carried John Barletta,
President Ronald Reagan’s Secret Service Guard. There are also shoes from Charlotte Bredahl Baker’s
Monsieur, an Olympic Bronze Medal winner in Dressage; the Cleaves family’s
Captain, a beloved horse of the Sheriff’s Mounted Patrol; Kristin Ferguson’s
Grand Prix Jumping Champion; and Flag Is Up’s winner of Prix de l’Arc de
Triompe in France, Alleged.
Hollywood
celebrity’s horses connected to the Valley included John Forsythe’s successful
racehorse Mamselle Bebette, Ray Stark’s Fabulous Notion, Fess Parker’s Necktie,
and Bo Derek’s beloved Andalusian, Mouro.
Two
Kentucky Derby Winners who were trained by Valley trainer D. Wayne Lucas are
represented: Charismatic owned by Bob and Beverly Lewis, and the 1996 Derby
winner, Grindstone.
In addition
there were renowned Arabians, Hunter Jumpers, Cutting Horses, Reining, Roping
and Heeling Champs, carriage horses, draft horses, polo ponies, mules and just
beloved pet horses that gave pleasure to their owners for years. There are
three hundred and seventy-eight horse shoes in those two crosswalks.
The two new
crosswalks also will honor many renowned horses and will be completed within
the next two months. Their names will also be listed on the kiosk. The
crosswalks not only honor the faithful animals that have long played an
important role in our Valley, but it adds a bit of fun and whimsy to the town.
The Valley now has over fifty different breeds of horses!
Perhaps,
you also remember that just a block away, the Santa Ynez Valley Historical
Society has a remarkable Carriage Museum that is visited by people from near
and far and is managed by John Crockett.
Mark and
Dan Hemming-local contractors are again installing the horseshoe crosswalks.
The welding work of the hooks on the backs of each shoe was donated by Bill
Deputy and James Jamieson and James is also applying the lettering. Help with
putting the shoes on the patterns for installation will be given by Joe
Knowles. Funds from the horseshoe
crosswalks go to help support the Santa Ynez Valley Equestrian Center.