Horse Sense : Hollywood Show Makes a Good Ride for Children’s Charities
Not a day goes by that actor Alex Cord isn’t aware when he gets out of bed in the morning that he can get out of bed.
It doesn’t sound like much for a guy who competes in polo games, team penning and cutting events--all horseback competitions that require skill and athletic ability.
It does sound like a lot for a guy who was stricken with polio and spent part of his childhood in a hospital bed.
That’s why Cord didn’t hesitate when actor William Shatner asked for his help with the Hollywood Charity Horse Show. Cord knows what it’s like for a kid with an illness. He knows what it’s like to need help.
Polio “was the scourge of the planet” when he was a child in the ‘30s and ‘40s, Cord says. “There was no cure. I spent a long time in a hospital. I saw kids die and I saw kids become cripples.”
Cord says he was one of the fortunate ones and came out “relatively unscathed.” And the second annual Crown Royal Hollywood Charity Horse Show, Tuesday through March 17, is a natural for Cord. It involves two of the things closest to his heart--horses and children’s charities. He is organizer of the Celebrity Team Penning, which puts celebs on horseback corraling cattle.
The event, which raises money for 10 charities, is the brainchild of Cord’s good friend Shatner, who along with his wife, Marcy Lafferty, and fellow horse lovers Patrick Duffy and Barbara and Nick Thomas, founded the show.
The Shatners own a horse-breeding ranch in Kentucky and during the summer compete in American Saddlebred shows, mostly back East, where horse shows are prestigious events and offer big-money purses. They met Duffy at the L.A. Equestrian Center, where all three ride, and often discussed the lack of West Coast horse shows and the need for one at the equestrian center.
“We were at a loss as to why someone couldn’t make a real event in this town,” Duffy says. “We thought maybe we as celebrities could pull it off. We wanted to create something equal to the Kentucky Derby, something with a large purse. People go to the Kentucky Derby for the atmosphere, to be entertained. The entire town turns out for a week of events.”
Hollywood is the glamour capital, they reasoned. Surely, that atmosphere could be re-created here.
It could be and it was--though on a somewhat smaller scale. The Shatners, Thomases and Duffys jumped into the show production arena last year, albeit somewhat blindly they say now, and emerged with a world-class event.
Although putting Hollywood on horseback seemed an overnight success, it took a year of planning and more of Shatner’s time and energy than any of his missions on the Starship Enterprise.
“It’s an enormous amount of work and time-consuming,” says Lafferty, who also acts. “It is like producing a (motion) picture.”
If last year’s success and this year’s lineup are clues, the “Hollywood Charity Horse Show” sequel is destined to be even better.
The organizers have gotten past the first-year mistakes, and they’ve planned an equestrian Mardi Gras of sorts, with the horse show--which includes five-gaited, jumping, reining, pony and equitation classes--surrounded by children’s activities, celebrities and nightly parties done Hollywood-style.
‘Knowing it’s for the kids is part of why so many people want to participate,” says Barbara Thomas, show producer. “The celebrities who came last year really had fun.”
Among them is Christopher Atkins, whose 3-year-old daughter, Brittny, was the youngest rider in last year’s show. “I thought it was going to be boring; I didn’t want to sit there and watch horses going around the ring,” Atkins says of his introduction to equine antics. “But they’ve got dancing horses, jumping horses--I’ve never seen the stuff these horses can do.”
Atkins will be back again for two reasons: “No. 1, my daughter would kill me if I didn’t,” he says with a laugh. “And 2, I really got off on it; it’s a great show.
“There is something romantic and wonderfully exciting about horses. And (the event) is also bringing a tremendous awareness, letting people know (these charities) exist.””
Ten charities will share the proceeds: Ahead With Horses, Special Olympics, Make-A-Wish, Oralingua School for the Hearing Impaired, the Jeffrey Foundation, ICAN Associates, Friends of Child Advocates, Variety Children’s Charities, Juvenile Justice Connection Project and Friends of the Child Pavilion. All are returning from last year.
Last year, Carol Adams, director of development at Oralingua, was asked to find someone to sing the National Anthem. “My idea was to get a celebrity, then William Shatner asked if the kids could sing it. I said yes--though I didn’t know if they could or not.”
They couldn’t. But they started practicing, and when the deaf children sang, Adams says, “there wasn’t a dry eye in the house.”
The school earned $5,000 last year, but more important, Adams says, it received exposure.
Michael O’Hare of Special Olympics says they are eager to participate a second time: “We were so impressed by William Shatner and Patrick Duffy and their wives. It’s a labor of love for them and a great opportunity for us.”
The horse world wasn’t as easily convinced.
“They came to see what the show was like before shipping their horses, bringing tack and all their people,” Duffy says.
Apparently, they liked what they saw, because this year, Duffy says, “they signed up.”
“This year we’re building on the strengths of last year with a larger show, with many more horses, many more people,” Shatner says.
“Hollywood knows what an entertaining and fun event this is.”
L.A. Equestrian Center, 480 Riverside Drive, Burbank. Information: (213) 829-0129. Tuesday-March 16, 7 p.m. $10; children, disabled, seniors, $5. VIP parties $50; black-tie gala Saturday, $125.
