If Your Child Badgers You for a Pony, This Festival Offers a Chance

March is clearly “the month of the horse” in San Juan Capistrano.

Granted, the community gives its due to horses the other 11 months of the year--city regulations preserve riding trails and have encouraged a concentration of riding stables within its boundaries.

But this month the city goes all out with the San Juan Capistrano Heritage Festival, which pays homage to horses through a range of equestrian activities.

The celebration starts today with a 1:30 p.m. jumping demonstration and a pony raffle at The Club, based at Ortega Equestrian Center. If you’ve ever dreamed of becoming the owner of a horse--er, pony--this is your chance.

“Banner,” a 9-year-old gelding who can jump, is the raffle prize. Richard Vind of Diamond Bar has donated the POA (Pony of the Americas) gelding, along with a month’s free boarding and training at The Club, an exclusive horsemen’s facility.

The prize is valued at more than $5,000, according to Paula Voorhees, president of The Club.

“Banner has been a trusted member of our team, and over the years he has taught a lot of children how to ride,” she says. “He’s pony-size, but he’s really like a small horse. He’s easy to ride, and he can do anything a horse can do.”

If the raffle winner doesn’t want the pony, Vorhees said The Club will buy him back for $500. Proceeds from ticket sales will be donated to the Arthritis Foundation.

Tickets are $3 each or four for $10. They may be bought at the fair or at The Club’s office.

The raffle will be preceded by a jumping demonstration by Dorothy Bayliss, chief trainer at The Club. Bayliss, who competes in grand prix jumping events, will ride several horses to illustrate the difference in how hunters and jumpers should perform. Several junior riders from The Club will also take part.

The Club is one mile east of Interstate 5, just off Ortega Highway, at 27252 Calle Arroyo. For information on today’s events, call (714) 661-3090.

Next weekend, The Club will be the scene of another Heritage Festival event: championship team penning. The professional competition among Western riders will take place March 12-13 throughout the day.

The final weekend of the Heritage Festival begins with the Fiesta de las Golondrias (festival of the swallows) parade, which is the largest non-motorized parade in the state. Equestrian units will ride in the March 26 parade, which begins at 11 a.m.

The Lions Club Rodeo, an annual event, takes place March 26-27. More than 150 professional rodeo contestants compete for more than $5,000 in prize money in seven events: calf roping, bareback riding, saddle-bronc riding, bull riding, steer wrestling, team roping and barrel racing.

Performances are Saturday, March 26, at 3 p.m., and Sunday, March 27, at 2 p.m., both at the corner of Junipero Serra and Camino Capistrano. Tickets are $8 for adults and $4 for children under 12; free for children under 3.

Last year’s rodeo was a sellout, with standing room only. Tickets are available in advance throughout Capistrano Valley at chambers of commerce and retail stores, and through members of the Lions Club.

Proceeds from the rodeo will help the Capistrano Lions Club work with the blind and with the hearing- and speech-impaired, as well as providing funds for scholarships and youth-recreation services.

For more information on the rodeo, call (714) 493-3816.

Last weekend’s Orange County Dressage Show attracted riders from as far away as San Diego and Bakersfield to the Orange County Fairgrounds Equestrian Center. International judges Victor Hugo Vidal of Huntington Central Park Equestrian Center in Huntington Beach and Inez Propfe-Credo of Arizona judged about 150 rides. Competitors who rode away with top honors included:

High score of day--Barbara Ogle riding Impala and Pinky Roberts on Arconada tied with a score of 68.96%. The riders, both from San Diego County, received their scores in first level test 4. They were qualifying rides for American Horse Shows Assn. year-end awards at first level.

International (FEI) high score--Rebekha Maffei, a dressage rider and trainer from Orange Park Acres, scored 63.68% at Prix St. Georges level aboard Excaliber. She also won the Intermediare-1 test with her other international horse, Fleming, scoring 60%. Both her mounts are 16.3-hand Holsteiner geldings that she imported from Germany.

Junior high score--Erin Bahner, a 12-year-old rider from Orange County, had a 63.75% score in first level test 1, the highest score in her division. The youngest rider in the show, Bahner competed against 16 riders to win junior high score.

Darlene Sordillo, an author of two books on horse training and competition, covers equestrian events for The Times. Her column appears every Saturday. Readers may send horse-related news to her at: Orange County Life, The Times, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, 92626.