It's hot at El Campeon Farms, even for early August. A hard wind accompanies the heat, blowing through the Conejo Valley, where this horse ranch sits in Southern California. Abby Followwill is saddled on a horse named Vince. His golden-brown coat and blond mane stand out against the saturated blue sky and dusty corral where Followwill is training with him.
Credit: Joe Proudman/UC Davis
She is tall and lithe, with matching blond hair tucked into her helmet. Vince looks small under her, and though he is young, Santa Cruz Island horses tend to run small. They’re also known to be easy-going and carry a hardiness, all formed by generations of living on the rugged island, one of the Channel Islands off the California coast.
In one hand, Followwill cradles a lariat and whips the loop above her head, aiming for a cow-skinned sawhorse. Vince looks, but he doesn’t flinch as the rope hooks the plastic horns attached to the wooden legs.
“That was exactly what I was looking for with Vince, for him to just be totally comfortable with me doing a job,” Followwill said. “It’s just about finding that harmony between myself and Vince.”
Harmony is what Santa Cruz Island horses have been looking for since being removed from the Channel Islands in the early 2000s. The horses had been there for more than a century, living relics from the time of the conquistadors, evolving to become as unique as the island itself. But after years of surviving in isolation on the island, the breed is teetering on the brink of extinction here on the mainland.
Credit: Karin Higgins/UC Davis
Their unique history and characteristics have led to an effort to save the breed. Amy McLean, a researcher at the University of California, Davis, is working with Lou Gonda of El Campeon Farms to find the right way to do that.
“It’s truly a piece of California history we’re trying to preserve,” McLean said. “If we lose these genetics, we lose these horses, we lose that history and a part of our heritage.”
Fifteen horses came off the island, leaving the breed with an incredibly small gene pool. Estimates have the breed at 60 horses now, but they’re spread across the country with herds in Florida, Northern California and at El Campeon Farms in Thousand Oaks, California, where 20 now live. McLean is working not only to save the breed, but also improve it.
For the full, multimedia presentation of the story, please visit the UC Davis story here.
