CARES National Horse Show : A Fund-Raiser Riding Horseback

Sometimes Betty Petit wishes she and her friends had chosen a simpler way to raise money for their favorite charity than putting on a horse show.

But they had tried bake sales and boutiques, banquets and balls, and nothing raised the amounts they were looking for to support two child day-care centers at County-USC Medical Center and do other philanthropic work for the hospital.

By 1982, the members of CARES, County-USC Medical Center Auxiliary for Recruitment, Education and Services, were, as Petit put it recently, “starting to get desperate.” For lack of funds, CARES already had closed the day-care center it operated in the outpatient clinic. And the one in the general hospital was dangerously low in financing.

When Petit, a lifelong horsewoman who lives in Flintridge, came up with the idea of a horse show for a fund-raiser, the other CARES members bought it, even though most of them are involved in other recreations and are not interested in horses.

Wednesday Opening

“The CARES people and the horse people didn’t know each other,” said Weta Mathies, chairman of this year’s CARES California National Horse Show, which begins Wednesday at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center in Burbank and continues through Sunday.

“Betty got everyone together,” added Mathies, who resides in South Pasadena with her husband, Dr. Allen Mathies, president of Huntington Memorial Hospital. (He will sing the “Star Spangled Banner” at the opening ceremonies.)

“I remember when we started (planning the show) we met under a tree at the Equestrian Center, because Betty has her horses stabled at the center. It was the end of October (1982) and we had just six weeks to put it together. I still don’t know how we did it.”

Petit explained it this way: “The (equestrian) center had just opened and I was talking with Royce Cates (who trained Petit’s three American Saddlebreds until his death in 1985) one day and he said, ‘You know what this place needs? A horse show.’ And I thought, why not one for CARES? I talked it over with Royce and he thought it was a good idea. But he said, ‘Don’t give a little horse show, give the biggest one you can.’

First-Class Start

“So, after talking with Betty Ann (the late Betty Ann Hibbard, who founded CARES as the hospital auxiliary in 1969) and the rest of the people, we decided we didn’t want to start with a crummy show and work up. We’d start first-class.”

And they did. Since 1982, when it was sanctioned and accredited as a Class A horse show by the sport’s governing body, the American Horse Shows Assn. in New York, the CARES National has been drawing more and more entries every year, until it now offers the highest prize money of all the horse shows in the Western states.

Starting Wednesday, more than 650 horses from across the country, including Saddlebreds, Morgans, Hunters, Jumpers and Roadster and Hackney ponies, will compete for $52,000 in prizes. Money for prizes comes from selling show boxes and advertising, enlisting patrons for the event and from entry fees. All proceeds go to support CARES programs.

Putting on the show is a task that consumes almost a year of CARES volunteers’ time, according to Petit, a former nurse who has raised 10 children. “There is so much to do now that we start working on next year’s show as soon as this one is over,” she said.

No. 1 Horse Show

Only a few days ago, the CARES National, held each February since 1983, was voted the No. 1 horse show in the West by members of the United Professional Horsemen’s Assn., a group of male and female trainers of all horse classes throughout the United States.

“That really amazed me,” Petit said last week. “To think that we beat out Santa Barbara. They’ve been having that show there in July for about 50 years. And we beat Del Mar, too. That’s a very big show.”

The 1986 CARES National will be dedicated to the memory of American Saddlebred trainer Cates, who died last year. There also will be a perpetual trophy given in his name, just as there is one awarded each year in memory of Betty Hibbard, who died of cancer in 1984.

Since Hibbard founded CARES 15 years ago, the auxiliary has grown to 450 members and added a PRO-CARES arm--50 members--for professional women who cannot attend day meetings with the regular group.

With funding from its first horse show, CARES reopened its children’s day-care center at the outpatient clinic and now supports two free day centers for persons with doctors’ appointments at County-USC Medical or those visiting patients there. The group also runs two gift shops, a magazine and fresh flower shop and a diet food store in the medical complex.

With corporate and individual donations, CARES installed a classroom structure, complete with kitchen, at the general hospital and expanded services to families using the medical center.

Last year, about 20,000 children, ranging in age from two days to 13 years old, were cared for at the day centers, provided educational and recreational services and lunches. Both centers are open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.

CARES also manages a TV project for the hospital, installing 77 televisions, and contributes toward other equipment for patients’ needs. Its main source of income each year is the horse show and a benefit dinner-auction traditionally held on the show’s Saturday night.

“People think since it’s county hospital that things are funded by the government, but we don’t get any government money,” Petit said. Through a grant from the Ralph M. Parsons Foundation--it matched the proceeds from the 1985 horse show, $55,000--CARES was able to hire Elizabeth Deese as its first executive director of the child-care centers last summer. There are 10 paid staff members and the rest of the center workers are CARES volunteers.

Petit said that in spite of its recent top show honor, few people in the Los Angeles area are aware of the CARES National.

“I think crowds have been increasing every year, but it’s so hard to get across to people what you’re doing. Even people who love horses don’t know it’s here.”

(Recently, some people also have tended to confuse CARES, the hospital auxiliary, with two other local groups whose names include the word CARES, and which currently are involved in a legal hassle about their rights to the name.

(L.A. CARES is the name in dispute.

(Although the nonprofit hospital auxiliary was the first to use the acronym CARES, it does not use L.A. CARES and has no connection with either of the other groups.

(Los Angeles Unified School District’s Child Abuse Recognize and Eliminate program, founded six years ago to train teachers to detect and report child abuse in city schools, has used L.A. CARES since its inception.

(But, in 1985, the Gay and Lesbian Social Services Center in Hollywood began sponsoring a program to educate the public about AIDS, acquired immune deficiency syndrome.

(Center officials called the program the Los Angeles Cooperative AIDS Risk-reduction Education Services, shortened to L.A. CARES.

(The name problem is unresolved, but while lawyers for both groups discuss the matter, the AIDS education program is being called officially, Los Angeles CARES.)

From its beginning four years ago, the CARES National has made a profit, something show finance chairman Lil Howland says is “unheard of and unbelievable. We made $27,000 that first year.”

But in 1983, the CARES horse show also had weather problems, something that is worrying all of this year’s show planners.

“We’re just praying it doesn’t rain anymore for this show,” said Bobbie Gavigan, who, along with Weta Mathies is one of CARES founding members and does publicity for its horse show. “That first year, we had so much rain it was like two lakes out in the outdoor rings. People were up to their knees in water and mud. We had to truck in sand.

“We’ve learned a lot since that first year,” said Weta Mathies. “That first year, we didn’t know we were supposed to feed the judges, and there they were sitting out there in mud up to their knees for a whole day, and they never told us they didn’t have food.”

This year, just as they did for the 1985 show, actor William Shatner and his wife, Marcy, will serve as honorary show chairmen.

“Royce (Cates) was the Shatners’ trainer, too,” Petit explained. “So that’s how we all got involved. You don’t know how much the Shatners have tried to help with this show. They are really trying to help us make it work.”

The Shatners both will ride in the National, as will Petit. She was show chairman last year and could not compete.