Will Rogers Would Be Proud

Will Rogers once said, “Even if you’re on the right track, you get run over if you just sit there.” You get the feeling the Jubilee this past weekend had exactly the right tone and spirit that Will Rogers State Historic Park deserves: it’s back on the right track. In old photos of the Will Rogers ranch, there was always a horse in the shot. Rogers’ favorite animal was the horse, and his favorite horse was called Soapsuds. In the past few years, even the boarding of horses at the Park has been suspended. It’s been a sad absence. Saturday was different. There were 45-minute horseback rides, pony rides, horses doing tricks and even a farrier demonstrating the art of blacksmithing. At the riding arena, which is the dirt oval above the green lawn, special stands had been set up for the large crowd of spectators to view the various acts. Will Rogers impersonator Robert Basgall rode into the arena, welcomed the crowd and acted as emcee for the program. Ambassador to State Parks June Lockhart arrived riding in a horse-drawn wagon. “Our dream is that this place will become as beloved by you as it was by his family 75 years ago,” Lockhart said. “Next year the restoration of the ranch house will be complete and we’ll have a dedication then.” “We’re proud of what the state is doing here,” Will Rogers’ grandson Chuck Rogers said. “Grandpa would’ve wanted to see people use the park and enjoy it.” After introductions, Patty Mayer of Culver City, dressed in a black jacket, top hat and white gloves, rode into the arena on her 1,650-pound Dutch Warmblood horse, Exakt. She explained and demonstrated to the crowd the steps, the skips, the canter and the trot the horse is required to do for Olympic dressage. The skill of Exakt, the U.S. Freestyle Champ, became more evident once Mayer invited five children out into the arena to mimic the horse’s steps, including skipping two, flying change, and skipping two. Striding out like he was at the OK Corral was gun spinner Joey Dillon, dressed in a black cowboy outfit, his spurs jangling. He demonstrated the gun technique that the greats used in all the Western movies and television shows, including forward spins and backward spins with both right and left hands. Dillon explained that he learned to twirl play guns while watching Westerns with his dad. As a child, Dillon wanted to learn a particularly difficult skill, which involves throwing the gun from behind over the shoulder as it twirled. The problem was the possibility of hitting his head with the gun. “The neighbors were probably amused watching the small boy on the front lawn, dressed in flip-flops, shorts, with a helmet on his head, throwing a gun over his shoulder,” Dillon said. Riding a horse and stopping in front of the crowd, Ramon Becerra jumped off, gave an order, and the horse lay down. One spectator in a surprised voice said, “The horse did that just like a dog.” Becerra then called for his other horse to come into the arena. When that horse was next to him, he mounted it, then had it step carefully over the first horse, so there was a horse above the one lying on the ground. Eventually, he had both horses lie on the ground as he did roping tricks while standing on them. Felix Lopez of Whittier, who is considered one of the best ropers in the world, awed the crowd with his demonstration. He teaches team members of the Broken Horn Ropers, which is a culturally diverse and multi-generational group. They’ve been featured in the Rose Parade as well as other venues throughout Southern California. “Skills that are common on ranches throughout the middle of the United States are a novelty to city kids,” said Tom Mahar, the official roper for Will Rogers State Park. “There are two kinds of roping, there’s cattle roping and then there’s trick roping.” He explained that the rope is stiff, and keeping the loop in a circle is based on centrifugal force. As he easily moved the rope back and forth on either side, doing a “butterfly,” he said, “The rope gets kinks, so you’re basically getting the kink out; it goes back in and you get it out.” Practice steers had been set up on the lawn below the arena, and members of the Broken Horn Roping club were giving tips and showing people how to lasso the steers. In one case, a dad was trying to lasso his son. Mahar saw a 1921 Will Rogers movie, “The Roping Fool,” at the ranch house 25 years ago, and was so inspired that he took up roping. “Tricks take a long time to learn,” he said, smiling, and added, “Forever. To learn the butterfly or merry-go-round, just one trick, can take from six weeks to six months of practicing.” Visitors to the park got to admire the skill of numerous other roping artists, including Pat Puckett Riata, Cattle Cutting All-Stars and the Dave Thornbury Trick Roping Show. “Wish they had money to do this more often,” Mahar said. “They should have this every weekend.” He looked around at the large crowd on the lawn listening to the Drew Davis Band sing “All Right Now.” Across the lane, farrier Jon Childs demonstrated how blacksmiths heat metal and shape shoes over hot coals. He explained that modern-day blacksmiths use propane now instead of coal to heat the metal. Horses need to be reshod every six to eight weeks. Childs explained that farriers remove and replace the shoes on horses, blacksmiths make the shoes. Will Rogers impersonator Basgall, after emceeing the program at the riding arena, walked among the crowd, answering questions and playing the perfect host at his adopted home. He was a Fox television and kids club host in the San Jose area, when the Western Stage Repertory Company told him a year ahead of time that they’d like him to play Will Rogers in “Will Rogers Follies.” When he asked why they were asking him a year ahead of time, they explained, “You need to learn how to rope.” “It became addictive,” Basgall said. “I started roping seven days a week, seven hours a day. I lost 25 pounds learning to rope.” He explained that more than playing the part of Will Rogers, it’s learning the philosophy. “Everyone who’s done the role’it’s changed them and how they see life.” He said the beauty of Will Rogers was that his humor would cause a person in the audience sitting next to the other person to say, “You know he’s right about that.” As if to make Basgall’s point, he steers you to Rogers’ quote: “There’s no trick to being a humorist when you have the whole government working for you.” Basgall, after being smitten with the beauty of Will Rogers’ life and philosophy, started his own company, Wild West Performers. When he was contacted to work the Jubilee, he was ecstatic. “This was my goal: to come here and walk through these doors,” he said. “Then I could die today happy.” He donated his fee for the Jubilee back to the park, as well as the fee for some of the performers he had brought. As the nearly perfect day came to a close, Walter Gray with California State Parks, reflected, “It was a very mellow event, a perfect family audience,” he said. “It mirrors the kind of programs we’d like to see on a regular basis.”