Wake Up! Valley Horse World!
“The Santa Ynez
Valley is absolutely famous for its horses and champion riders! And this means
famous all over the United States, as well as in many foreign countries!” Simon
said.
“We have multiple U.S. and world champions in many of our
horse breeds. Now, we’re seeing interest in the western riding events expand in
the eastern parts of America, and Europe is becoming crazy over reining,
roping, and working cow horse. The valley is just blooming; even our Valley
Pony club is one of largest in America,” he said.
Simon ’s
western riding conquests are multiple, and
he just received a certificate that states that his horse, Sparkling
Jackie, is the 2007 American Horse Association High Point Junior Horse in
dallying, roping and team roping! His years of competition in the American
Quarter Horse Association’s world circuit led, several years ago, to an
invitation for him to serve on the Board of the National Cowboy and Western
Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. Then came an invitation for Simon to be a Western representative
for events at the Kentucky Horse Park.
“First, they sent me an invitation to attend the Rolex,”
Simon said.
“This is a four-star three-day event comprised of
dressage, cross country and stadium jumping. There are only three four-star
events in the entire world, and the only one in the western hemisphere is the
Rolex at the Kentucky Horse Park.”
At this point, a big shaggy dog bounded into the room,
apparently intent on adding his two cents to the interview. But hot on his
heels is Sandy, Simon’s wife. She hauled the dog off my lap and said, “When
Greg said he wondered why he was receiving this invitation to attend the world
famous Rolex competitions, I said, ‘I don’t care what they want. We’re
going!’”
“It was there that they laid out a proposal for me to
join an International Council,” continued Simon.
“On this council I would represent the Kentucky Horse
Park in planning and calendaring many prestigious events.
They had also just received the exciting news that they
had been selected to host the World Equestrian Games in 2010! And this will be
its premier appearance in the western hemisphere. This is an extremely
significant honor for the Kentucky Horse Park.”
The International Council is a group of eight people.
There is one from Ireland and another from England, and there are four from the
east coast.
Then they jumped across America to the Santa Ynez Valley
in the western United States, and selected two more. Greg Simon will be
representing western horse breeds and Christy Metz will represent the Arabian
breed. What an honor we have received!
The World
Equestrian Games take place every four years and are similar to the Olympics.
They include competitions in eight disciplines, and most recently reining was
added to them.
“In Aachen, Germany, in 2006 when they had reining,”
Simon continued, “the Europeans fell head over heels in love with reining, so
it was a huge success. There will be between 600,000 and 800,000 people there
in the ten-day period, in September and October 2010, in Lexington.
“The majority of the people will be from outside the U.S.
— Europe and beyond — because of the very strong interest. The Lexington
airport, because of the Keenland racetrack and sales
facility, has very well-developed air transport facilities for international
flights, with special equestrian ramps. Flying horses is as common as flying
humans there,” he said
The Kentucky Horse Park consists of 1,200 acres and will
be able to accommodate all the participating horses. They have six polo fields,
a new equidome, jumping stadiums, a six-mile
cross-country course, and fifty different breeds of horses are permanently
there on exhibit.
They also have a practice racetrack for their full-time
jockey school and a cemetery where some of the most famous horses in the world
are buried. There is a fine museum, and the entire grounds are kept in pristine
condition. Their latest improvement is a four-star hotel on the grounds that
will be ready for the World Equestrian Games.
Simon is very involved at the Horse Park as the
International Council will be charged with encouraging the different breed
organizations to hold their events there.
They have the perfect facilities for everything from Thoroughbreds
to polo, and now they are expanding into the Western horse events.
Greg tells this story: “One night after the polo, cross
country and jumping people had come back from the World Equestrian Games in Aachen, … we were at dinner and they asked me if I had ever
seen reining.
I, of course, said, ‘Yes, I have.’ They went on to say
that they simply could not believe how incredible reining is! Now these are the
biggest equestrians on the east coast that were going on and on about reining.
“Then, I said, ‘If you found that so interesting, what is your opinion of the working cow horse?’ Well, they were
silent for a minute and then asked what it was. So I described the three
components of working cow horse, which are the herd work(
which is cutting to some degree), the flat pattern work (which looks a lot like
reining) and the fence work.
But when I started describing the ‘down the fence work’
the entire table stopped eating and told me I was crazy because no horse could
do that. They absolutely thought I was putting them on!”
It just happened that the chief executive officer for the
world games, Rob Hinkle, was sitting right next to Simon and he asked if Simon
could get him some information on working cow horse events because they would
like to have a demonstration of it during the W.E.G., which they felt would wow
the European visitors.
Now, it happens that Simon has had several world champion
working cow horses, so he is well informed.
He agreed to help. This would be the exposure of the
Western breeds of America to the largest group of equestrian enthusiasts in the
world, which could greatly energize the sport and its surrounding
industry.
“Over the twenty years that I have been competing and
going to Texas, which is the center of cow horse competitions,” said Simon,
“the more I heard ‘Santa Ynez — Santa Ynez — Santa Ynez!’ Even though we are a
small valley, we are a very definitive centric in the horse world in
competition. I am so damn proud of what we have! We have fifty breeds here! And
there are champions in so many of these breeds.
“And what is equally wonderful is that we appreciate each
other’s breeds and accomplishments. You go to Texas and it’s strictly Quarter
Horses. You go Kentucky, it’s all about running Thoroughbreds. You go to Florida
and its all about polo, he said.
“Here we have this incredible community of all these
breeds and disciplines intermingled, and we go out and whup
the world, and we come back here and it’s no big deal.
“Everyone
expects someone to have a world champion sometime, in this Valley. It’s great.
You come back here and you’re just part of a great family of equestrians!”