The Rose Parade, A Hell of a View

by Michael Damianos

What would make a career horseman give up his New Year’s holiday, park all night on the 210 Freeway in Pasadena, and walk eight-plus miles in the rain? The answer is simple: the Rose Parade.

This last New Year’s day I was tasked by three valued clients to haul their horses 100 miles, join a group of dedicated Arabian horse enthusiasts, stay up all night to prepare their horses for the most famous parade in the world, walk with them along the parade route, put their horses up at the end of the parade and haul those horses 100 miles back home.  Does it sound exhausting? Yes! Would I do it again? Yes!  There are two reasons for my motivation.

Michael walking along the parade route with his ladies.

First reason is promotional. Arabian horses made a profound impact on history. Their ability to create a common bond for people of different continents makes them a diplomatic rockstar. Their charm and unmatched charisma is captivating. No other venue exposes the Arabian horse to as many people in one day as the Pasadena Rose Parade. 750,000 people attend the parade in person and over 50 million people worldwide watch it on television. 

The second reason is more philosophical. Trainers start out thinking our profession is about the horse. This idea is at best half correct. In reality, our profession is about people that wish and even aspire to do what we do with horses. I maintain that when all the layers are peeled away, a horse trainer is, at the core, a dream merchant. People bring us their horses because they have a goal to achieve a dream they have with horses or a particular horse. Those dreams range from just being able to ride a horse to winning national championships. I have found somewhere in the middle is an attainable goal of riding in the Rose Parade. The rush of adrenaline and that exhilaration ones feels when they turn at camera corner on Colorado Boulevard is priceless. Maya Angelou said, "Parades remind us of the importance of celebration in our lives.” What better way celebrate than living a dream with the most intuitive, noble, sensitive, beautiful and mesmerizing creature on earth, the Arabian horse.

I often refer to my clients as “the ladies of MDPH” (Michael Damianos Performance Horses) and this year three charter members chose to ride with the Arabian Horse Association group in the Rose Parade; Tes Wolf, Muna Busailah, and Katie Russell. All three have unique spaces in my head and all three have left an indelible footprint on the landscape of MDPH.

Tes has been a client for over thirty years. For at least 20 of those years she lived walking distance from the barn I was at most of my career. We share an appreciation for history, architecture, and good food. She has owned a number of horses and I can definitely say three of them were great ones. She is one of the most resilient people I have ever known and I have no doubt she would survive a nuclear holocaust. She rode “Yellowstoan+//“, a national champion Trail horse. Age: 23.

Muna has been a client for 24 years. She has been present at many of my greatest moments in the show ring as evident by how many win pictures of mine she is in. Her support throughout the years has been invaluable and game changing. She has been a lucky charm. Truly a brainiac, Muna has had an extraordinary professional career and the other MDPH clients simply adore her. She has owned two horses that have been career builders for me. She rode Pardonn My French+++//, a national champion in Trail and Western Pleasure. Age: 20.

I feel like I have known Katie as long as the other two, but she has only been a Lady of MDPH for little over 3 years.  She is one of the most successful amateur riders in the history of our sport and I am honored she now spends time with us. Her smile can light up a room or arena and her aura is euphoric. She called me one day asking about a horse named Chunky Chick+// I once trained. I told her to buy the horse and let me help her. She trusted me and bought the horse. That October that mare won a national championship, and two reserves. She rode Chunky Chick+// in this year’s parade. Age: 8.

Our marshal and the driving force of the Arabian Horse Rose Parade Group is Nancy Harvey. She did an incredible job of keeping the whole unit on task and focused. We departed the Los Angeles Equestrian Center around 8:00 the evening of December 31 and drove to “the pit," a section of the 210 Freeway in Pasadena closed on the evening of 12/31 for equine parking. Most of the unit slept in either their trucks or in a recreational vehicle until it was time to get the horses ready. Sadly sleep was difficult as there was heavy rains most of the night. At approximately 4:00 am, my right-hand, Rebekah Savard, and I started getting the three horses ready, and the ladies mounted up around 6:00 am under an overpass to avoid getting drenched. The entire 18-horse unit assisted by a team of walkers including Rebekah and I headed up a freeway onramp and onto the streets of Pasadena to get to the equine waiting area where we eventually were fed into the parade. The parade begins on Orange Grove boulevard and makes a hard right onto the famed Colorado boulevard, and finally makes a left onto Sierra Madre boulevard. At the end of the parade there was still a lengthy walk to where the horse trailers are waiting for us.

The streets of Pasadena in the early morning hours before the Rose Parade.

The eighteen horses held up magnificently despite the weather, distance, marching bands, bright floats the size of dinosaurs, fireworks, noisemakers, confetti, balloons, etc. All of them were a worthy reflection of the spirit and constitution associated with the Arabian horse. Rebekah and I handled that endless walk with nothing more than a few blisters. None of the elements or challenges compromised the grace, elegance, joy, beauty, and glow of my three ladies. I thought they were the belles of the ball and was proud of all of them and their horses. 

We untacked and loaded the horses and were home by 3:00 pm that afternoon. I’m sure I was exhausted as evidenced by my parking job when I got home. I missed the driveway a little and left some tire tracks on my wife’s lawn. The lawn was the only casualty of the whole escapade.

I can give you a myriad of legitimate, logical, and noble reasons why the Rose Parade is important and worth our best efforts to make an excellent presentation for the Arabian Horse. The toil, time, expense is a small price to pay to showcase the Arabian Horse. No one can argue any of that,  but for this cowboy there was, in reality, just three reasons; Tes, Muna and Katie because I am a dream merchant. Professional horsemen have endless aspects to our job but the wise horsemen recognize the most primal one is selling a dream. Sometimes the road has a lot of bumps and potholes like this year’s torrential downpours, but when it goes well the ending can be all sunshine. These lyrics from the Eric Church song, "Hell of a View” spells it out well:

This ain’t for everybody

Toes hanging off the ledge

Like we got nothin to lose

Ain’t always heaven, baby

This livin’ on the edge

You holdin’ me holdin’ you

It’s a hell of a view.

Whether a client reflects on the Nationals, Scottsdale, Regionals or the Rose Parade if they can close their eyes and play back those memories and say, “It’s a hell of view” then I did my job.