|
Kate Capshaw ("Indiana Jones and Temple of Doom,"
"The
Love Letter," etc.) rides.
Far more relevant to trail riding, if not
endurance,
is that Capshaw and her husband Steven
Spielberg
put up $25,000,000 to save the last horse boarding
establishment in
Burbank that borders the huge
Griffith Park at
the eastern end of the Santa Monica
Mountains in LA.
There used to be a lot of boarding/rental stables
in Burbank along the concrete bed of the Los
Angeles
River. It was a run-down industrial district
and
the land was comparatively cheap.
As late as the 1970's, you could go down
there
and rent a horse, ride over this
rickety
white wooden bridge across the LA
riverbed
and be in the miles and miles of
wonderful
Santa Monica Mtn foothill bridle trails that
ran
throughout Griffith Park.
The rental barns were folding steadily
throughout
the '70s while I attended UCLA. You'd
hear
about the auctions of stock and
equipment.
Sometime after I left LA, the "Los Angeles
Equestrian
Center" was founded along this same strip of
land
in Burbank. I don't know much
about
it, only that shows were held there and
stars
like Shatner would fund "bring
disadvantaged
kids to meet the horses" events at the
center.
I don't know whether the access into the
Griffith
Park trails were maintained.
A few months ago I saw a crawly on CNN
to
the effect that Capshaw and Spielberg
had
paid $25 million to save the LA
Equestrian
Center. I
don't know any more than that.
Now if we could only get a high-visibility
star
to help back endurance and trails
preservation,
either as a spokesperson or
financially.
I STILL think AERC should get in touch with
Disney
and try to work out some kind of
combined
promotion for the release of
_Hidalgo_.
Linda B. Merims
Massachusetts, USA
| 