HORSING AROUND : Leisure World ‘Kids’ Take to Saddles for Fall Show Ending 25th Anniversary

George McLean knows what it’s like to get back in the saddle again, but it took him 50 years to do it.

The last time he rode horses regularly was as a child in Long Island, N.Y. On Saturday, McLean, 64, who began riding again in February, was a performer riding his horse Wind Song at the Leisure World’s Fall Horse Show in Laguna Hills.

“It’s just like bicycle riding,” McLean said. “Once you learn how to ride, you always know how to ride. It’s marvelous.”

McLean calls himself “one of the kids” among the 644 members of the Leisure World Saddle Club. Many of the club’s members are new to horseback riding or have just taken it up again.

Anniversary Celebration

The club’s show on Saturday showcased half a dozen equestrian exhibitions and was the final event in Leisure World’s 25th anniversary celebration.

While the show included more traditional events such as jousting and a equestrian square dance, the Space Cowgirls were a bit different. Dressed in black with silver lightning bolts on their chests, the Space Cowgirls wore tinsel wigs on their heads and blue rings around their eyes. Before about 200 spectators, they rode around the ring to Space Age music.

Then, suddenly, the Space Cowgirls pulled off their wigs, surprising the audience with stocking-covered, seemingly bald heads.

Having fun and riding horses keeps them young, say Saddle Club members, whose ages range from the 60s to the 80s. Their motto is: “No Rockin Chairs for Us, Just Rockin Horses.”

“I think any program that’s rear-active will keep you young,” said Jack Chezick, 73. “Remember that when you’re 85.”

Chezick, a retired cattle rancher, now guides riders through trails on the equestrian center’s 160 acres of property.

Unlike Chezick, many members of the Saddle Club come from horseless metropolitan areas.

“They have had a desire to (ride horses), and now they have a chance to,” said Ted Martin, 70, the announcer of the horse show and president of the Saddle Club. “This is something different.”

Martin himself took up the sport just 3 1/2 years ago. Although he once fell off a horse, and another time a horse fell over as he was riding it, Martin persevered.

“It’s freedom and a challenge,” Martin said. “You want to participate in some of the activities, but they have so many of them (at Leisure World). You have to prioritize them so you don’t get burned out.”

Jim Goode, 85, who rode horses to school when he was young, said that the stables have become a meeting place for many residents of Leisure World. In fact, they treat it as another clubhouse.

“We have a nickname for this place,” he said. “We call it Clubhouse Seven. It’s another activity. It’s a bunch of nice people.”

About two-dozen members of the Saddle Club are more than 80 years old, and several of them participated in the opening drill event at the horse show. A plaque on the wall of the Saddle Club’s recreation room reads: “Over 80 is a source of pride if you can find a horse to ride.”

Camillo Leri-Liberali, 81, who rides a horse named Max four times a week, said: “It’s more fun riding. I love it.” It also eases his back problems.

“Just that little riding today has helped it,” he said.

The show Saturday opened with Don Smith, 80, on Glamour Girl, and Earl Donaldson, 72, on Sasha, bearing the American and Saddle Club flags. That meant flag in one hand, reins in the other.

They were followed by other showcase riders, some of whom came from outside Leisure World as special features of the show, included the Medieval Times riders, who performed jousting acts, and the Valley View Vaulters, a group of handicapped gymnasts who performed stunts on the horses.

For the horses, said Wilma Hart, 72, appearing before a large crowd is a challenge. “When the music starts playing,” the horses are “performing too,” said Hart, who rides a horse named Count Viscount. “It takes a horse with a lot of stamina, and it takes a horse that’s well trained.”