Hoofs & Woofs Animal Rescue--photos

Check out some photos from our trip to Hoofs & Woofs Animal Rescue here in Valley Center on our Facebook page.

Click here to check out a gallery of clinic photos on the VC Vaqueros Facebook page!

The Valley Center Vaqueros Equine Educational Foundation will host a series of horsemanship clinics in March and April.
The local horsemanship group is excited to offer these clinics to the public at a cost of $5 per family per clinic, or $10 per family for the entire day. Guests are encouraged to bring a picnic lunch to enjoy between sessions.
The clinics will take place at the Valley Center Vaqueros Equestrian Park, located at the corner of Lilac Rd. and Valley Center Rd. The grounds open at 9 a.m. each day of the clinics, and the first sessions begin at 10 a.m.
The first clinic takes place on Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon, and is hosted by Margit Deerman and Cindi Gianinni. These instructors will present a demonstration of Parelli Natural Horsemanship that is designed to help trainers and their horses achieve the desired behavioral results with as little stress on the horse as possible.
Deerman is a third degree licensed Parelli Natural Horsemanship Instructor and Gianinni is a first degree
junior instructor. Deerman offers clinics and lessons at her M&M Ranch here in Valley Center, while
Gianinni owns and operates Savvy Stables, where she offers lessons and boarding. Deerman can be reached at www.margitdeerman.com or (760) 749-2129 and Gianinni at www.savvystables.com or (760) 751-2073.
The second session on Saturday takes place from 1–3 p.m. and features a demonstration of Driving Training by local trainer Julie Picot.
Picot trains and gives lessons in driving, dressage, hunt seat and western riding. She can be reached at (619) 884-3982 or by e-mail at jewels92040@yahoo.com.
Sunday’s clinics begin again at 10 a.m., and the first session, which lasts until noon, features a presentation by local veterinarian Dr. Linda Byer.
Dr. Byer’s demonstration on basic care is titled, “When to call the vet.” She is an active sponsor of the Valley Center Vaqueros, and writes an article for the monthly Vaqueros newsletter, Nickers and Neighs.
She is a Vaqueros board member and dedicated supporter of the new Valley Center Large Animal Safety Team (LAST). Dr. Byer’s email is lindabyerdvm@sbcglobal.net and she can be called at (760) 751-0807 for appointments.
On Sunday from 1–3 p.m., Sabrina Kahoutek will give a demonstration on Equissage.
Kahoutek teaches and does hands-on application of equissage, which is short for equine massage. She will work with two horses from the audience, to be arranged prior to demonstration date. Anyone interested in taking part in this demonstration should phone ahead for space reservation at (760) 473-9893. Her Web site is www.sabrinaequissagecalifornia.com/
The next series of clinics will be held on April 2–3 at the Vaqueros Equestrian Park, once again at a fee of $5 per family per clinic or $10 per family for the entire day.
The first clinic on April 2 runs from 10 a.m. to noon and features a presentation on trail and endurance riding by local endurance rider Heidi Helly.
Helly is the three-time Regional Featherweight Endurance Champion for 2005, 2008 and 2009 with her horse, Andreti, a Legion of Honor recipient. She has been riding for over twenty years and has logged over 7,000 miles in endurance riding.
This seminar will provide information on trail riding for pleasure or how to achieve your endurance goals, and everything in between. A variety of saddles, tack and accessories will be available to look at and try out, so attendees are encouraged to bring their horses along. There will also be an opportunity to discuss nutritional and conditioning needs and tips on camping with your horse. Helly will be happy to evaluate your saddle needs, and will have horses available for trying on saddles. She can be reached at (760) 749-4063 or by e-mail at vchorsegal@aol.com.
The second session on April 2 will run from 1–4 p.m. and will feature a presentation by Tom Kemp of the Escondido Mounted Posse, who will bring obstacles for sensory training.
Kemp will discuss desensitization of horses and mules for use in parades, etc. He has had experience in working with posse and parade animals for this purpose. Guests are welcome to bring your manageable and “relatively safe” horse to this event to work on sensitizing and desensitization, but the Vaqueros must be sure to keep this a safe activity while exposing animals to new things. For info please contact Tom Kemp by e-mail at goatowner@yahoo.com.
On April 3, the first clinic runs from 10 a.m. to noon and features a demonstration of Natural Balance Hoof Care by farrier Gina Rice.
Rice will work on two horses from the audience with arrangements made before the demonstration. She can be reached at (760) 716-2098 or by e-mail at ginafindyourhouse@cox.net to reserve a space.
The second clinic on April 3 will run from 1–3 p.m. and will be a trail obstacle practice, so guests should bring their horses to take part in the event. Anyone who would like to donate an obstacle to the club is encouraged to call Lorelei Jones at (760) 751-2284.
For more information, visit the Vaqueros’ Web site at www.valleycentervaqueros.com/ or check out the group's Facebook page here.

Jerilyn Lagus brings Icelandic horses to Valley Center

By: Dan Kidder

The rough, unforgiving terrain and frigid winters of Iceland made survival on the island impossible for all but the hardiest early settlers.
And in order to navigate that terrain, tame the land for crops and protect themselves in times of war, those early settlers needed a horse that could handle the harsh life.
Necessity brought about the Icelandic breed of horses, but today, the unique little horse is valued for its intelligence, good temperament and versatility.
Here in Valley Center, Jerilyn Lagus knew she found the right horse for her from the moment she found Icelandics.
“I had a beautiful Paint horse that had to be put down when it was only nine years old,” she says. “So I looked for a horse that was going to last.”
The answer proved to be Icelandics, a small breed that falls right on the classification border between horse and pony. Thick-legged and shaggy-haired, the hardy little horses are usually right around four and a half feet tall and come in a wide variety of colors. Originally brought to the Nordic island by Scandinavian settlers more than 1,100 years ago, the horses quickly proved their worth as reliable saddle horses, pack animals, plow horses and even war horses.
Icelandics are known to live into their 40s and are commonly used for breeding until the age of 30. And not only are they long-livers, they seem genuinely to enjoy life, wherever they happen to be. They are characteristically good-natured, docile, easy to break and very friendly, but they are far from boring. Naturally inquisitive, they learn quickly and are almost fearless. They live well in stables and corrals, but thrive when they get to spend even part of the year in their natural environment, even when the weather drives some animals (and people) to hibernation.
“There are no natural predators in Iceland, so they just don’t get afraid,” Lagus says. “That’s one of the challenges of raising them elsewhere. A lot of horses have died from snakebites because they think it’s a stick or something harmless.”
One more characteristic that makes Icelandics unique is their gait. The breed is the only five-gaited breed in the world, able to walk, trot and gallop, as is common with most horses, but also able to tölt and pace. The tölt is a four-beat ambling lateral gait, similar to the high-hoofed style of the Tennessee Walking Horse, but able to move more quickly. The pace, also called the flying pace, is a smooth style in which the horse moves its left front and rear legs in unison, then follows suit with its right front and rear legs. While the tölt is natural for all Icelandic horses, although it must be refined through training to achieve show-quality results, the flying pace is a gait that only some Icelandics can perform. These five-gait horses are prized for this ability and are sought-after for breeding.
Because Iceland has strict legislation regarding its horses, the Icelandic breed is the only breed in the country. No other livestock animals are imported, and once an Icelandic horse leaves the island, it cannot return. These restrictions result in very few diseases in the horse population, but make it difficult for Icelandic breeders to show their horses in international competitions.
The Lagus family has four Icelandics; three mares and a gelding. The male is named Odinn, while the females are named Fjola, Snaelda and Eva. While the Lagus’ are getting their eight acres on Anthony Ridge Road ready for the horses, they are currently stabled at Harmony Ranch, where Heidi Helly uses them to teach her horsemanship students.
“My granddaughters learned to ride when they were three and five years old, and Heidi’s students ride them too,” Lagus says. “I’ve never seen one kick a person, they’re good trail horses, and they’re almost dog-like because they’ll follow you around.”
Lagus is a registered nurse and a member of the North American Riding for the Handicapped Association (NARHA), and because of the Icelandic’s mellow temperament, she says she would like to use her horses to help disabled or physically challenged people learn to ride in a relaxed atmosphere.
“We used to have [an Icelandic] stallion, and when we moved, he went to [the] Helen Woodward [Animal Center] to be used as a therapeutic animal,” she says. “And I want to get my horses involved with NARHA because they’re so easy to handle. We want to use them for more than just our family. They’re so good, they don’t get nervous, and they’re great with people who have physical difficulties or with kids.”
Lagus recently joined the Valley Center Vaqueros with her Icelandics, and her daughter Sonja Bedolla, along with granddaughters Mikayla and Madison, have participated in past Vaqueros shows as well.

Rescued from near death, Magic the horse brings joy to his new family

By RHODA REILLY

My seven-year-old Thoroughbred gelding, Magic, is truly a magical horse.
From the moment I saw his photo on the Southern California Thoroughbred Rescue Society Web site, I knew this was a special horse. I had seen his before photo of when he was a few days away from death by starvation, his eyes lifeless and his spirit broken. Then, I viewed the after photo of a few weeks of rehabilitation when his spirit began to shine. After adopting him and providing him with the love and dignity he deserved, his true nature began to reveal itself.
Magic is full of love, humor, intelligence and bravery. I first discovered his humor when he would try to help me clean up his corral in the morning. He would sneak up behind me and take the rake in his mouth making sweeping motions until he would decide it was time to fling the rake. He also loves to take my cowgirl hat when I’m not looking in his mouth and play keep away. One day my husband spit water out of his mouth into Magic’s nose. Well, Magic decided to get even by getting a drink of water and walked over to my husband who was bending down in the corral and dribbled water on top of my husband’s head. Magic thought this was so funny that he decided to do it to other people as well. He would nonchalantly come over to someone who would be sitting outside the corral and dribble water over their head.
Magic obviously had very little training in anything but running on a racetrack. Once I began ground work with him, he picked up immediately and would anticipate my every move. He no longer tried to walk me and allowed me to lead him in only one lesson. His first ride on a trail was one of wonder and delight. He would spook ever so slightly at something new, but with encouragement he would bravely walk past the spooky obstacle. He seemed so excited to be out exploring rather than the tedious training he received of racing around a track. He held his head up high and proud, and his muscles rippled under his saddle. He now has the majestic look of an elegant and powerful race horse.
Magic soon figured out where the special treats in the tack room were kept and once after a ride, decided to go right to the door to see if he could get a treat. Before giving in to him, I made him learn a trick. I asked him to give me foot, foot, which meant he had to paw the ground with his left leg. With a little nudging he picked it up immediately. Then I would tell him, other foot, foot and he gave me his other front leg. Now he has a routine of prancing to the song, foot, foot. After he got bored with this, I began to teach him other tricks. His latest trick is to bow. He is 17.3 hands and it is amazing to see him get down on his leg and bow so willingly.
I am a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and work as a psychotherapist out of my home. I often use my animals (dogs, cats & horses) to help clients in the healing process. Magic has become an excellent therapy horse, not only with the children I work with, but also with the veterans I serve who have deep emotional wounds. He is extra sweet and tender with children and is always willing to give them a very calm ride (unlike myself whom he likes to kick up his heels with). He seems to sense my clients’ vulnerability and treats them with special care. He instills a new-found confidence in them. He is able to teach them about love and trust, something he has apparently learned himself. Magic could have easily turned out to be a horse with many psychological problems due to his horrendous maltreatment. Just as the clients I work with continue to display their resilience and courage to transform their adversities into triumphs, Magic has proven what happens when a broken spirit is given the chance to learn to trust again and allow the power of love into their lives.
I will always be grateful for the Southern California Thoroughbred Rescue Society for their heroic efforts in saving these magnificent horses who are so deserving of a second chance. I will also always be grateful to Magic for enriching my life and the lives of my clients.

Debi McSwain combines love of horses with love of art

Horses are a lot of things to a lot of people.
From the chargers of the cavalry to the companion of the cowboy, horses and humans have found unique and lasting bonds in so many different ways.
For Debi McSwain of Valley Center, horses aren’t just her friends.
They’re works of art.
Though she majored in fine arts for film and television and minored in French at Chapman University, McSwain says that studying abroad at the Academie Du Port Royale in Paris changed her life.
“I was studying in the Sorbonne, and they offered an art class up in this little attic,” she says. “The bathroom was just a hole in the floor and the teachers spoke only French. It was near the cemetery where Jim Morrison is buried. But I thought, ‘This is great!’”
Since then, McSwain has combined her love of horses with her passion for art, painting a series of equestrian-themed pieces.
“I started riding at age ten, then got out of it as a teenager, but got back into it in my early twenties,” she says. “A few years ago, I started following this program where you do a painting a day and post it online. I use my four horses for a series called ‘Four’ that I’d really like to continue. I was doing that for about two years while I was taking care of my husband’s grandfather, but we’ve been so busy for the past year or so that I haven’t kept up with it. But I really want to keep going with that.”
The four horses McSwain paints are characters in their own right, and have their own artistic undertones. Cody, the oldest at age 17, is a Paint, though he looks all white from a distance. He shares a corral with Georgia (named after Georgia O’Keeffe, the modern American artist), a 12-year-old mare. The younger horses are seven-year-old Vinnie (named after Vincent Van Gogh) and Fiérte, a six-year-old Hanovarian and son of Georgia. Both Cody and Vinnie are great-grandsires of Secretariat, the thoroughbred who won became the first American triple crown winner and is featured in a new feature film.
McSwain shows Fiérte in dressage competitions, but says that Vinnie is “still trying to figure out what he wants to do.” She adds that she broke them both when they were young, but admits that breaking a horse is probably not something she wants to continue doing.
McSwain and her husband, Dan, both enjoy the outdoors, especially with their home right on the edge of Hellhole Canyon Preserve. Debi says that the family is thinking about starting an after-school program for kids in the area.
“I would love to teach kids about horsemanship and art,” she says. “And my husband loves nature. He could take the kids out on nature walks around here. Our daughter [Brittany] is coming back down [from Ukiah, in Northern California] and she could teach them yoga. It would be a really fun way to share what we know and what we love with the kids in our area.”
In the meantime, McSwain and a group of her friends enjoy riding horses on the trails around Hellhole Canyon and camping in different areas across Southern California and beyond.
“The older horses are great trail horses,” she says. “My girlfriend and I will go out riding for two hours at a time. We see coyote, quail, we even saw a bobcat up here the other day. And we’ll go camping on the weekends in Cuyamaca or up in Casper Park in Orange County.”
As for her art, McSwain says that she’s eager to begin some new projects.
“We’ve been rehabbing this house for over a year, and now that we’re moved in, I’d like to get back into more painting,” she says. “I want to do some really big paintings, like life-size. And I’m going to keep on painting my horses. That’s what I love.”

See the full gallery of photos on the Roadrunner Facebook page and visit McSwain's Web site at www.debimcswain.com to see more of her pieces.

Pam Hargesheimer takes first place in World Championship Appaloosa Show

Equestrian show veteran Pam Hargesheimer of Valley Center has waited a long time for this.
Hargesheimer and her appaloosa Skipa Maxi Treat won the Non-Pro Masters Hunt Seat Equitation division in the 2010 World Championship Appaloosa Show, which took place in Fort Worth, Texas, from Oct. 22–30.
“It’s been a long journey,” she says. “My mom was a horse trainer, but I had never really won any medals. After eighteen years of trying, and after spending the last year training after work, riding in the dark, and walking on treadmills just to be ready, it finally worked out.”
Hargesheimer has come close to winning the championship, after she won the Reserve Champion award for taking second place in 2006 and 2009. But taking the first place prize has been something she admits has been on her “bucket list” for a long time.
In addition to taking the win, Skipa Maxi Treat, known to the Hargesheimers as Daddy Max, was the Reserve World Champion in the Hunter In Hand Four & Older Stallion division, took sixth in the Aged Stallions Halter division and finished ninth in the Novice Non-Pro Western Equitation division.
Pam and her husband, Dean, have been showing appaloosas since 1992, coincidentally the same year that their champion, Skipa Maxi Treat, was born. Both Hargesheimers are used to being around horses, especially Pam, whose mother was Peg Richardson, the founder of TLC Riding Center in Norco.
“I grew up with a mom who was horse crazy,” Pam says. “When I was thirteen, my grandma bought me my first horse, and that was it.”
Pam and Dean both spent their childhoods around horses and horse shows, and they found a mutual connection through their love of all things equestrian. Even though they both say they got a little sidetracked with marriage and raising children, their mutual interest in horse showing came through again.
“It was our daughter’s fault. She told us, ‘I want a horse!’ and we got her one,” Pam says with a laugh.
Along with their champion stallion, who is double registered as an appaloosa and a palomino, the Hargesheimers also have another appaloosa named Couldn’t Get Much Hotter.
“He is loud,” Pam says of the young horse’s dramatic coloring. “He’s the typical appaloosa; white with polka dots.”
The Hargesheimers work with the Calizona Appaloosa Horse Club, supporting and promoting club events and competing in open shows. They also sponsor youth riders on occasion, saying that equestrian sports are a good outlet for kids.
And the Hargesheimers also have a secondary passion, currently in the form of a 1948 Plymouth convertible still in mid-assembly in their garage. Dean estimates its progress at about 60 percent, and Pam jokes about whether or not they will put a trailer hitch on it to haul their horses back and forth to competitions.
“Very funny, Pamela,” Dean replies.

Horses Are Celebrities Too At VC History Museum

By Dan Kidder
Valley Center has long been known as a rustic getaway from the hustle and bustle of Southern California.
But those who live here may not know just how famous some of their neighbors might be. And not only their human neighbors, but some of Valley Center’s horses are celebrities in their own right.
“For a small, rural community, I’m constantly amazed at the number of celebrated individuals we have in town,” says Bob Lerner, curator of the Valley Center History Museum. “And animals too. Some horses are more famous than the movie stars. And the list keeps growing.”
To celebrate these celebrity horses, the Valley Center History Museum has put together an exhibit highlighting these famous animals and their Valley Center connections.
Disney’s new film Secretariat is captivating audiences with the story of the triple crown-winning racehorse. At the Valley Center History Museum, patrons can learn about the famous horse’s connection with our town through two of his descendants.
Other famous racehorses highlighted in the exhibit are Sea Orbit, the most successful foal of Seabiscuit in the racing world, along with a descendant of Seattle Slew and a championship-winning horse named Khemosabi.
For fans of the movies and of classic literature, one famous Valley Center horse will no doubt be of interest. Still residing in town is Blanco, the white Andalusian who played the role of Shadowfax in the Lord Of The Rings movies.
In addition, the Valley Center History Museum showcases some famous cowboys who have left their mark on our little community through years, including Randolph Scott, Gary Cooper, Big Boy Williams, and John Wayne.
“These were cowboys who rode their own horses,” Lerner says. “There were no stunt doubles.”
The museum has a wealth of artifacts from the estate of Steve Reeves, the actor best known for playing the title role in the 1957 movie Hercules. On display at the museum is Reeves’s saddle, which Lerner points out was present at Reeves’s memorial service when the actor died in 2000.
“A lot of people ask, ‘How did these people get here?’” Lerner says. “Of course, there is no one answer, but a few of us have speculated about it. Back in those days, movie stars had it in their contracts that they could only live a certain distance away from Hollywood. So we figured that some of these cowboys wanted to know how far they could get away from the big city and still honor their contracts, and Valley Center falls into that.”
The exhibit featuring Valley Center’s famous horse connections opened on Oct. 8 and will continue through December.
The museum, located at 29200 Cole Grade Rd. is open Tuesday-Saturday from 1–4 p.m. Admission and parking are free. For more information, visit the Web site at www.valleycenterhistory.org or call 760-749-2993.