It had been 10 years since I'd attended Equestfest, the Tournament of Roses equine exhibition, in the days before the Rose Parade. And this year I found myself revisiting a few things that I hadn't done for a decade.
Equestfest had actually been canceled in 2016 because of an outbreak of equine herpes virus, EHV-1.
And it didn't happen in 2020, either, with the cancelation of the 2021 Rose Parade because of the COVID-19 pandemic).
The horse show takes place every year at Los Angeles Equestrian Center in LA's Griffith Park, bordered by the Rancho Equestrian District of Burbank, California. That's a residential neighborhood that's zoned for horses—and many of the single-family homes also have horse stables.
There are some places in the Rancho district where you can rent horses, too—either for Griffith Park trail riding or for your horsey filming needs. (After all, it's just east of Warner Brothers and Disney studiios.)
When at Equestfest, my favorite place to camp out is at the warm-up rings—where you get a sneak preview of the horse teams and their masters and a closer look at their fancy dress.
But the main show is inside the Equidome, where drill teams like the Norco Cowgirls show off their bling and fancy footwork.
You even get to see one of the Riata Ranch Cowboy Girls stunt-riding two horses at the same time.
Not all the horses at Equestfest will march in the 2025 Rose Parade; and not all the Rose Parade horses were featured at Equestfest.
Some participants seem better suited for a showing off in a large arena than plodding slowly down Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena—like the Northwest Spotted Drafts from Ferndale, Washington, whose eight-horse hitch demonstrated a docking maneuver in advance of its procession through Pasadena (its first ever) on Wednesday morning.
Although the finale to the show is pretty spectacular, when all the horse participants come out onto the Equidome ring all at once and clip-clop along the wall to wave at the crowd...
...I still think the best part is when you can go meet the performers (of both the equine and human variety).
The Norco Cowgirls—the drill team from "Horsetown, USA" that rides American Paint Horse, American Quarter Horse, and Appaloosa breeds—has participated in the Rose Parade since 2013.
Los Hermanos BaƱuelos Charro Team from Altadena will be making its 16th appearance at the Rose Parade on January 1, 2025.
The New Buffalo Soldiers of Shadow Hills are celebrating more than 30 years of involvement in the Tournament of Roses as part of their historical educational outreach about Black American soldiers of World War I.
Blue Shadows Mounted Drill Team of Lake View Terrace made its Rose Parade debut upon American Quarter Horses in 2019—and is now gearing up for its sixth year of participation.
And then sometimes you get to meet a horse who's a star in their own right, without necessarily being hitched to a Rose Parade team...
...like Maverick, who enjoyed snoot boops and forehead strokes...
...and like Heaven Cent, a 15-year-old purebred Kellogg Arabian mare (a descendant of the Cal Poly Pomona herd). She made her parade debut at the Rose Parade in 2020; and this Wednesday morning, she'll be pulling a reproduction of a back-to-back village cart.
I haven't yet decided whether I'm actually going to the Rose Parade this year, but now I really want to see these horses in action, surrounded by floats and marching bands.
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