As presented to the membership at the March 1984 general meeting.

By R. W. Day, Club President 1984

 

For the trip down memory lane, we wanted to talk about our club’s history.  Ralphine Lightfoot, (now Ralphine Call) with the help of a few of our original members and present members got together to discuss the club’s beginning.  What is about to be presented to you, is what we have placed together from that nights conversation.

 

One of the first Horse Clubs in the area was called the “Hemet Valley Riding Club”, this name later changed to the “Hemet San Jacinto Valley Riders”.  This club slowly faded out and the same group of peoplere organized again in December of 1965 as the “Los Caballos Horse Club”.

 

Doc Hurst, a charter member came up with the name of Los Caballos (the horse).  Some of the members at the time were:

 

Doc Hurst                     Howard and Fran Moore

Abe Meeks                   Odas and Eula Rose

Dusty Bowen               Al and Norma Garwood

Bob Crosby                   Harold and Buela Hager

Cicil Cox

 

The first few meetings were held at Bob Crosby’s house on 7th and Sanderson.  Later meetings took place at Dave Meeks real estate office on Sanderson and Florida.  This is the site of the present Bob’s Big Boy (Coco’s since 1996).  Then for about 2 years the meetings were held at Jim Alreds’ home on Stetson and Stanford.

 

Howard Moore was elected as the first president, with his wife Fran as secretary and his daughter-in-law as treasurer.  The presidents since then have been, and this is only an approximate order:

 

1.  Howard Moore  1965                           

2.  Cicil Cox  1966                                     

3.  Norma Garwood  1967                        

4.  Dan Fuller  1968                                   

5.  Odas Rose  1968, 1969, 1970                            

6.  Bob Willard  1971                                  

7.  Whitey McCullary  1972                         

8.  Joann Van Avery  1973 

9.  Gordon Von Avery  1974

10.  Mary Luther  1975

11.  Fred Freeze  1978

12.  Jack McKensie  1978, 1979

13.  Daryl Hodges  1980

14.  Jim Robbins  1981

15.  Sandy Sada  1982, 1983  

 

This brings us up to date as far as the presidents are concerned up to 1984.  The following is a list of presidents from 1984 to date.

 

16.  Bob Day  1984, 1985                                  

17.  Ralphine Lightfoot  1986                   

18.  Bob Day  1987, 1988                                   

19.  Larry Hillis  1989                                

20.  Bill McLeau  1990, 1991                             

21.  Dave McCormick  1992                    

22.  Sue Best  1993                                    

23.  Bob Day  1994                                     

24.  Ron Schafer  1995, 1996                           

25.  Tom Pavlovsky  1997, 1998                      

26.  Bob Day  99, 2000

27.  Tom Pavlovsky  2001

28.  Bob Day  2002

29.  Terry Bentrum  2003

30.  Bob Day  2004

31.  Ron Schafer  2005

32.  Gail McCormick  2006

33.  Mike Downer  2007, 2008

34.  Tom Pavlovsky  2009

35.  Rhonda Schafer  2010

36.  Mike Downer  2011-May 2012

37.  Renee Daniel  June 2012-end of 2013

38. Cary Lewis  2014, 2015, 2016

39. Melodee Waldman 2017

 

The original members had high hopes for a prosperous club.  They had access to some land on S. Lyon St. near where Astairs Restaurant is now. They purchased a trailer from the Lyons Club for $250.00 to use for a snack shack.  They bought corrals, and chairs, anything that would help and could be purchased on credit.  After about 6 months they figured they were about $44,000.00 in debt.  Even the $32.00 per year membership dues wasn’t enough to bring them out of the hole.  From this point on things started to fall apart.  The officers and founders of the club called a special meeting at their headquarters on Lyon St.

 

They had no electricity “for some reason, like lack of payment”; they had to use the head lights of their cars.  At this time, they decided that in order to keep the sheriff from repossessing everything the club owned they would have to haul it off and hide it in the hills. 

 

Shortly after this, Odas Rose was able to negotiate for a piece of land for an arena on Grand Ave. in San Jacinto at the old sewer farm.  About a dozen members really pitched in to help develop, clear and level this ground, they even built restrooms.  In approximately two years the debts were paid off and the club was operating in the black again. 

 

From the very beginning, the club sponsored monthly shows and play days.  Their main objective was to be a family oriented club and give the local kids something to do.  The first annual show started at 9am and ended at 4am. They only quit then because everyone, kids, horses and adults were too tired to go on.  They netted $700.00.  The only requirements for the show were that the kids all wear boots and ride something that resembled a horse.  The next big event was a club sponsored BBQ, where they raffled off a saddle.  Bader Agee sold Joe Martina the winning ticket.   

 

Due to a boundary dispute, the city asked the club to move from the San Jacinto arena.  The club was on the move again.  The next location was at the Double Butte Park in Winchester, which in 1996, was the location of the Winchester dump area.  Here again there were big plans for a centrally located meeting hall and show arena.  Due to the out of the way location, this arena didn’t go over very big.  Of course whenever the club didn’t have its own arena, they rented the fairgrounds.

 

At the general meetings and pot lucks, they had entertainment and guest speakers, much like we do today.  At one of the past general meetings, Dr. Wallace, a local Veterinarian, came to do a presentation and showed a film on foaling.  Evidently, it was a little explicit and several members who had children at the meeting got a little hot under the collar.  I wonder how we would react to the same film today.

 

After Double Butte, the club held its meetings at Hemet Federal Savings, which it soon outgrew (long before the fire).  We then moved to Jack Brown’s Rose Valley Ranch until he closed it.  We then went to the cafeteria at the fairgrounds, then to the San Jacinto Lions Club, our present location.

 

Along the way, one of our past presidents, Fred Freeze and several club members at that time decided they would like to see some of our girls in the club displaying their skills as riders and he asked Dusty Bowen to direct an all girl drill team.  Shortly after this, one hot afternoon, several of the girls and their horses met at Dusty’s to try and put together a routine.  They began practicing at Dusty’s arena with 8 or 9 girls of varied riding abilities.  The first few shows were done at a trot and eventually they graduated to a gallop.  Since then, the girls have been involved in many parades and have represented the club many times by carrying the colors into various rodeos and other local events.  They have paid for their own uniforms, upkeep and have provided their own transportation.  They have supported many of the various club activities and held fund raisers of their own.  They have been virtually self-supporting.  Many of the club trophies on the podium have been awarded the club due to the girl’s participation, hard work and sacrifice.

 

In the past 19 years, there have been many play days, horse shows and trail rides that were not mentioned, but certainly they have not been forgotten.

 

This was typed and filed as CLUB HISTORY by R. W. Day 2/29/1996

Changed and retyped by R. W. Day and updated 1/13/2003

Revised 7/16/2006   

Revised and spelling corrected 3/25/2009 by R. W. Day

Revised and updated president list by Melodee Waldman  7/28/2010

Revised and updated president list by Melodee Waldman 10/5/2015

Revised and updated president list by Cambria Gehrs 5/2/2017