2012 Honorary Vaquero Danny Lopez
The Santa Barbara Fiesta Stock Horse Show and Rodeo is proud to welcome Danny Lopez as our 2012 Honorary Vaquero. Danny lives in Ojai, California and comes from a very long family of horsemen. Danny was practically born riding. His father, Ernest Lopez, was a top-notch horse trainer and Danny watched his every move. His family were all reinsmen when California still belonged to Mexico. In the late 40’s, the Lopez family lived on a feedlot in Newhall, California, where Danny’s father worked as a wrangler and horse trainer for Newhall Land and Farming.
Danny started actually showing horses when he was 6 years old. Though young, Danny had already developed considerable skill as a horseman. Perhaps some of it innate, but he also watched his father carefully and listened to him. At the age of 14, Danny’s father passed away and he ended up going back to school part time and kept up horse training for the Chase Brothers Dairy in the afternoons after school. After serving a tour of duty with the U.S. Army in Berlin in the fifties, Danny came home and ended up taking a full time job at the Las Palmas Chili Factory in Ventura. He also managed to pick up a few horses to train on the side. He hauled horses to weekend events and beat most of the trainers at shows in Santa Barbara and Los Angeles. Friends constantly kept after him to start training horses full time, so he did. By 1965, he had 3-4 quarter horses and one Appaloosa stallion named Ditto Sid. In 1967, he won the Appaloosa World Reining title.
In addition to claiming 35 ApHC World, National, and year-end high point performance championships, he has also trained and showed horses for some of Hollywood’s brightest stars including actors, actresses, writers and Academy Award producers of movie and television.
Many of Danny’s accomplishments in the horse world include, first World Champion Reining Horse in 1967, Santa Barbara Fiesta Team Penning Champion in 1976, Appaloosa Horse Club’s Trainer of the year in 1995, and in 2003 he received the highest honor in Appaloosa history by being inducted to both the State of California, and the International breed registries Hall of Fame in addition to being inducted into the Appaloosa Horse Club Hall of Fame.
At the age of 74, Danny Lopez, who at this time is semi-retired entered, and placed eighth out of 32 competitors on his favorite mount, Badger Lee, a 12 year old Appaloosa stallion at the Craig Cameron’s Extreme Cowboy Raced held at the Equine Affair in Pomona, California.
Please join us in honoring Danny Lopez as our 2012 Fiesta Honorary Vaquero!
