In 1945, a group of friends and neighbors thought they had been invited to the Rancho Santa Fe Golf Club to celebrate the birthday of Hollywood Director John Robertson.
They soon learned they had been duped. Robertson, a Rancho Santa Fe resident since 1928 and a riding club enthusiast, had a plan.
Robertson said that after dinner, he called for attention by rapping against a water glass. “I just want to ask you one question. Do you want a riding club?” Connie Clotfelter wrote in her 1985 book “Echoes of Rancho Santa Fe.”
It was unanimous. Hands and voices all indicated a willingness to work together, she said.
The Rancho Riding Club began on a shoestring in 1945. The first meetings were held at the golf club, where the barbecue pit was put to good use. The group also had breakfasts and moonlight rides, Robertson recalled in an interview for Clotfelter’s book.
“They had no money,“ said Bill Milligan riding club manager for the past 14 years. “They had potlucks and dinners to raise money.”
The fund-raisers attracted so many people that organizers began to look into finding a permanent home for the club. In 1946, the riding club acquired 10 acres on Rambla Del Las Flores from the Santa Fe Irrigation District. Club members cleared and prepared the land, Clotgelter said.
“They did it themselves. They cut down eucalyptus trees and dragged them over to make fences and jumps,” Milligan said.
At the time, no one ever though the membership of the club would reach more than 40 or 50, but by 1957, members numbered at least 100.
Now the club has 110 horses and 150 members, Milligan said.
A field was built in 1947, allowing polo matches and horse shows to be held at the club.
“Robertson was at the club daily and often found several young riders cutting loose on their horses, attempting to copy what they’d seen on Westerns,” Clotgelter wrote. “He would read the riot act to these roping, jumping young things so often that he thought it would be a good idea to have a resident trainer at the stables. Someone who would not only train the horses, but might give lessons in fundamentals of horsemanship,”
Jess McMillian’s death in 1956, Bob and Louise Rice took over the position and gave riding lessons to children , he said.
The byword of the club has always been “family.” Members bring their children to all club gatherings. Under the club was formed, Clotfelter wrote.
After his death at age 86, an obituary on Nov. 15, 1964 in the Rancho Santa Fe Times, said that Robertson was sure that if children grew up with horses and were taught to respect and properly care for them , their lives would be fuller and happier.
Patty McCormac is a freelance writer from Vista
Originally published in The San Diego Union-Tribune, Sunday August 22, 2004
