Parade is largest of its kind in country

BY STEVEN LIBOWITZ
DAILY SOUND ARTS EDITOR

The horses are coming! The horses are coming!
Fiesta has a lot of detractors, but nearly everyone — save perhaps for the city sweepers who have to clean up the manure — loves the parade. El Delsifle Historico, the Historic Parade, as it’s officially known, is considered the largest equestrian parade in the United States.
The parade — which begins at noon today at the west end of Cabrillo Blvd., travels east along the beach to State Street, then turns left and heads up Santa Barbara’s main thoroughfare to Sola St. – features more than 650 horses spread out over 85 different entries.

And while it just seems like a lot of fun and pageantry today, the Fiesta Horse Parade is also all about tradition.
“It essentially recreates the Rancho period of in California and Santa Barbara between the Spanish and American rule,” said Dennis Rickard, chairman of the parade, and the great-great-grandson of one of the city’s patriarchs, Jose De la Guerra. “People basically governed themselves. It expresses that unique life and camaraderie, and the vaquero (cowboy) was an essential part of it.”
The parade began in the early 1920’s as the genesis of Old Spanish Days, which was originally held in the Santa Barbara County Bowl. It was an opportunity for ranchers to come down from the Santa Ynez Valley to show off their hand-crafted tack and gear, Rickard said.
“They’d bring down their silver saddles and exhibit their Western artwork, which was a real hallmark of the time,” he said.
Rickard’s grandfather made one of those silver saddles, which Dennis himself rode atop in previous parades.
Nowadays, that old feeling is kept alive by the prodigy of the originators who still ride atop highly decorated animals, many of whom are pulling carriages.
Rickard said more than 25 of the old horse-pulled vehicles – normally kept at the Carriage Museum on Castillo Street or at the facility’s warehouse in Santa Ynez – will be participating in today’s parade, including one that was formerly owned by his great grandmother.
“They mostly date back to the Early California period, the beginning of the last century, when that was the best way to get around town,” he said.
Today’s parade covers a myriad of breeds, led by a team of black Friesans (the ones in the “Zorro” movies) who also ride in the Tournament of Roses every year. The parade’s Head of the Marshals, Cas Stimson, a Pasadena native, secured their participation last year. It turns out his dad was in charge of that float in the Rose Parade and he used his family connections to bring them to Santa Barbara last year, where they were an instant hit.
Rare white Camarillos and Belgians are among some of the more unusual breeds that will also be on display today.
It takes a special horse, and a special rider, to pull the carriages, Stimson said.
“You really have to know how to handle the horses, and it gets exponentially more difficult the more rows there are,” he said. Today’s parade will feature at least one team of six, which required importing riders from as far away as Idaho and Arizona. Many of the riders will also be competing in the rodeo over the weekend.
Other entries include several large floats that carry anybody from politicians and other local dignitaries to dance ensembles, or just regular citizens who got together to sponsor the entry.
“My favorite is a bunch of neighbors on Garden Street on the upper east side who get together every year to do this,” Stimson said.
Two marching bands, including Santa Barbara High School’s, will also participate.
For Stimson, watching the parade is a cure-all for anyone who thinks they don’t love Fiesta.
“It just embodies the whole spirit of Fiesta,” he said. “There’s nothing like it anywhere else. The energy is amazing. The excitement on everyone’s face when the horses go by is incredible. It’s a real rush.”