Co-Workers Help Woman Make Purchase of Love : Old Bay Outshines Show Stock at Benefit Sale

There was spirited buying Saturday when 14 young Arabian horses were auctioned near Thousand Oaks to raise money for the search for missing children.

But the fiercest bidding was not for the racy purebreds that were being touted as potential show horses. It was for the 15th horse, an aging nag that has grown to be the favorite of stable hands who tend the 150 championship horses being raised at Ventura Farms in Hidden Valley south of Westlake Village.

Workers Chip In

Digging into their own jeans pockets for cash, a dozen young stable workers chipped in to help a 19-year-old co-worker outbid other buyers by $1 and acquire the old horse.

There were shouts and cheers from her friends as Teresa Bruno’s $551 bid was accepted for Tsavan, a bay-colored gelding nearly 18 years old.

The auction was conducted by Ventura Farms and the Patro Arabians Ranch of Moorpark as a fund-raiser for the California Foundation for the Protection of Children. The group is headed by state Assemblyman Gray Davis (D-Sherman Oaks), who represents the Woodland Hills area and has spearheaded efforts to find missing children by having their photos placed on milk cartons and shopping bags.

“Having a year-old son of my own, I felt this was a good cause,” said Terry Gregory, who with her husband, Bill, manages the 1,342-acre Ventura Farms ranch for its owner, millionaire developer David Murdock.

Patty Trope, owner of Patro Arabians Ranch, and Gregory distributed brochures to the 80 potential bidders at the auction.

The pamphlets, which traced the horses’ mostly Polish bloodlines, boasted of each animal’s best points, predicting that each would likely excel in future horse shows in this particular category or that.

Of Tsavan, it stated simply that he was well-trained and was a “pretty horse” that had won honors in the past. It concluded that he “would make an excellent pleasure mount.”

Bruno, who lives in Newbury Park, led Tsavan into the auction ring and bit her lip as Gregory and Trope started the bidding.

The bidding began at $100 for Tsavan and climbed to $200, then $300, $350 and $400.

Bruno, who had saved $380 from her ranch paycheck in hopes of bidding, blinked back tears as she stood at the side of the ring.

Then she heard a muffled voice coming from a stable window behind her. “Go higher,” shouted Craig Johnson, 27, a horse groomer for Ventura Farms. “Bid again.”

Bruno glanced in surprise toward the stable. She could see her co-workers signaling frantically for her to raise her bid. Bruno offered $450.

Bid Raised Again

Someone in the audience offered $475. Bruno’s friends yelled at her to bid again; she offered $476. From the audience came a bid of $500. Crying now, Bruno offered $501. The other bidder went up $50, and Bruno topped her by $1.

The surprise drama set the audience buzzing. Simi Valley horsewoman Stephanie Bennett, who had offered the $550 bid, walked over to talk to Bruno. In a moment Bennett returned to her seat and announced she was withdrawing from the bidding for Tsavan.

“She really loves that horse,” Bennett said of Bruno. “She’ll give him a super home.”

There was applause from the audience and cheers from the stable as Bruno climbed onto her new horse and rode it out of the ring. She returned, beaming, to finish helping in the ring with the auction, which raised $5,601 for the missing children’s fund.

“Tsavan’s the horse the grooms all ride,” Bruno said after the auction ended. “I come in on my days off to ride him. He’s a great horse.”

The other stable hands said their action was spontaneous.

“We knew how much money Teresa had,” said Johnson, of Thousand Oaks. “And everybody knew how much she wanted Tsavan. When we heard the bidding go above her $380, we all just started chipping in.”

Stable worker Teri Englestad, 17, of Newbury Park gave $20. She said “every single person” on the 12-member horse-grooming staff also pitched in. “He’s such a good horse. We’d all fallen in love with him.”

Said ranch hand Kelly Barton, 21, of Moorpark, who contributed $5: “I think Teresa will let us ride him every once and a while.”