The horseshoe walk of fame

 

 

The last two horseshoe crosswalks have been completed in the little town of Santa Ynez. When you stop at the corner of Edison and Sagunto Streets your tires will read the letters WHOA! It’s all spelled out in the shoes of local horses.

The crosswalks are in tribute to an historic and important part of the valley’s lifestyle. They have been written up in the New York Times, appeared on Huell Howser’s TV program, and even have been visited by bus tours from out of state.

 

The first two crosswalks, across Sagunto Street, were installed in the year 2000 to commemorate the arrival of the first horses in the valley two hundred years ago. These horses carried Spanish soldiers accompanying Father Junipero Serra on his trek up the California coast to establish missions. When the crosswalks were finished, they contained the shoes of some very famous horses as well as horses that were just the dear companions of local families.

 

   We were amazed when John Barletta, who was President Reagan’s Secret Service bodyguard, brought us shoes from the former president’s Andalusian stallion, El Alamein, and one from his guard horse, Qualianco. They often rode these horses together at Reagan’s nearby hilltop ranch. Then local veteranarian Doug Herthel contributed a horseshoe from another presidential mount, Sgt. Murphy.

    Valley residents Bo Derek, John Forsythe, Rona Barrett, Rand Brooks and producer Ray Stark provided horseshoes to represent the local film colony’s horses.

 

      Our Thoroughbred horseshoes were especially exciting with contributions from three local Kentucky Derby winners that had been owned or trained in the valley: Flying Ebony (1925), Grindstone (1996) and Charismatic (1999). Many Thoroughbred stakes winners and some of the state’s leading sires were included. Trainer and author Monty Roberts submitted a shoe from Alleged, the horse that he sold for $180,000 only to see it win the French Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe twice and be syndicated for $16 million. Shy Boy, the subject of his second book, also is represented.

 

 We received horseshoes from Olympic contenders trained by the renowned Erich Bubbel, and Charlotte Bredahl Baker brought us a shoe from Monsieur, the horse with which she won the Olympic bronze medal for dressage in 1992. We had the participation of National Grand Prix dressage and jumping champions, too.

The valley is Quarter Horse heaven and Cutters, Reiners, Ropers and Team Penners rallied around us and the project got more thrilling day by day as we realized how many exceptional horses had been or currently are a part of our valley equestrian community.

Jake, the favorite horse of John Mitchell -- founder of Ranchero Visitadores -- has a shoe in our cement.

 

Cracker Jack Sonny, the 1991 World Champion all around Paint horse owned by Margo Burnett, and Al Reece’s famous Superior Supreme all around champion, Gamblin’ Man, sent us shoes. As the horseshoes came in we became aware that the project had caught the fancy of not only young horse lovers, but people who were still riding in their nineties.

Not to be outdone by the Quarter Horses, the Arabian owners contributed shoes from national and international champions, and we discovered that at that time the valley had the largest group of racing Arabians, at Magness Arabian Farms. Draft breeds came clomping into view with giant horseshoes from the Belgians who once pulled the starting gates at Santa Anita. The owners of a Belgian horse who drew tourists around Solvang in a beautiful white carriage sent in a shoe. They had also taken part in the Liz Taylor -- Larry Fortensky wedding at Neverland. At the other end of the spectrum, the smallest shoes came from Icelandics and pony breeds.

 

In 2005, the Equestrian Center was asked to complete the other two crosswalks at that intersection in Santa Ynez. Again, we were amazed at the diversity of breeds and quality of horses that wanted to be represented. Almost unbelievably, even more breeds joined the thirty-two different breeds that already were represented. We now have more than fifty different breeds of horses here. In another article we will reveal all those amazing breeds and their owners.

Additional horseshoes came from national and international Arabian champions, as well as nationally recognized Quarter Horses, like Terry and Stephanie Larrabee’s 2007 world champion Cutting Horse, Doc’s Tee Boots. Gdapper, Henry Logan’s competitive trail riding horse, joined us.

 

More prominent Thoroughbred shoes arrived, including one from a racehorse from River Edge Farm that had sold for $9.7 million dollars, and their top California sire, Benchmark. Tommy Town also sent shoes from their leading California stallions.

We were contacted by valley residents wanting to memorialize a departed rider and his or her horse. The Benton Family made it a group event and contributed nine horse or mule shoes from different family members. This second time around, more mules joined in, as did various large breeds like Friesians, and a rare Gypsy stallion. Since dressage has become more and more popular, a flock of Warmbloods appeared, and a Reinland Pfalz Saar, Holsteiners, and Oldenbergs.

 

We have a shoe from Remington, the horse that Steve and Laura Cleaves used in police crowd control. Then the ponies didn’t want to be left behind: An Exmoor pony, Norwegian Fjord and Welsh pony joined us, and foreign breeds like Peruvian Pasos, a Schwalder Fuchs from the Black Forest of Germany and a French Selle Francais came in.  A shoe was even dedicated to all the horses that pulled the stage coaches, an important vehicle in our early transportation network.

 

In the end, more than 500 horses and their owners took part in this whimsical tribute to an important part of our country lifestyle. Information on the horses and their owners appears on the kiosks at the intersection. At the same intersection is a marker for the old stage coach route.

 

The crosswalks were sponsored by the Santa Ynez Valley Equestrian Center, which serves all types of riding disciplines as well as carriage driving. They are dedicated to serving our valley youth and also provide a location for the therapeutic riding program.

    The projects were again completed by the donated labors of Mark and Dan Hemming and Jon Stephen and their crews. The Santa Ynez Feed Store served as the horseshoe collection point. Other contributors were: Bill Deputy, Ted Martinez and Lat Welding. Also donating labor or materials were G.A.Chapman, Graphic Systems, M. Gallagher of San Luis Obispo, Coastal Demo and Mike Monighetti of Broken Bow.  Joe Knowles and James Jamieson stamped names on the shoes. It was a great learning experience for all of us.