Sitting in the orange seats up in the Bolado Park grandstands, it’s hard to imagine what it takes to put together the three-ring circus that is called the San Benito County Fair Horse Show. Horses are going every which way with multiple classes running at the same time.
But looking across the arena, one might notice a starchy guy in pressed jeans sitting on a tractor taking it all in. That would be Daryl Lund and although he claims he’s ”just a volunteer,” he is critical to what makes a day jam-packed with events run smoothly.
Lund is, by nature, a perfectionist. So when it comes to his purview, he wants the soil tuned-up between a certain amount of runs and the gates set just right. Are the cattle are settled and calm? Are there any little kids short-a-parent and needing help?
Like many volunteers, Daryl Lund got lured into this by just helping out in a pinch. “You know, if it was a minor little job like a pipe had broke or something, I came by and I just dug it up or whatever,” he says. Lund’s background is in plumbing, but fortunately for Bolado Park, he lives nearby and he’s handy with heavy equipment.
The truth is, there may not be anyone better suited for the position than Lund.
Aside from his technical skills, Lund’s most valuable training for this important yet unpaid position started when he was just another little kid bobbing around an arena on a horse’s back. Lund joined the show scene as a junior rider and in no time was competing in reined cow horse events. When asked what year he started showing he just says, “Well, I hate to tell you this but there’s a picture of me showing a bridle horse in the kid’s class at Salinas in the museum from 1963.” To save you the math exercise, that was 52 years ago.
The year 1963 was just the dawning of Lund’s horse show career and from that point, he gathered the longest string of awards and buckles and championships anyone could keep track of. He won just about everything to be won at Bolado. Several times. Although he started on the California Central Coast, he ended up hauling his horses all over the western United States to Texas, Arizona, Colorado, Utah and Nevada.
Lund has ridden in more arenas and seen more fairgrounds and horse show venues than he can count. He knows what he’s doing when it comes to the show scene.
Like many county fairs, Bolado Park‘s horse events are run mostly with free labor and they have since Dulce Bolado gifted the land to the community. Somewhere along the line, money got short and things just limped along. Repairs were made when it got just beyond critical.
Lund says he started getting concerned about Bolado Park keeping up with the times years ago, but could not convince the powers-that-be it was time for some upgrades. “People have a hard time with change,” is Lund’s dry observation. Paired up with the newly formed Heritage Foundation, Lund saw a window of opportunity.
As far back as he can remember, the dirt or “footing” at Bolado Park has been a problem. “It’s been terrible since they drove the first stake in the ground! I’d heard about it the entire time I rode in it — even in the early seventies. It was just always bad,” says Lund.
“You know, a couple of the old-timers used to come by and talk about it. Bill Medeiros, you’d see him around the country watching the stock horse show. He knew how things were run and how bad things were and George Rose Sr. Those guys knew. But they could not get it you know, changed” Lund explains.
Lund competed on the hard ground at Bolado Park for years but it wasn’t until he was sitting on his tractor as a volunteer that it got downright intolerable. “I help at the other events and a couple of years ago my deal was at the kids’ rodeo; ‘Junior Rodeo’ they call it. They needed a tractor driver, so I jumped on the tractor,” he says. “Well, the ground became so compacted outside the track.” That’s when Lund realized the risk to the horse or the rider was getting too high. “If a kid fell off, you know, laughing and joking with his friends or a horse shying, they were going to get hurt.”
That started to get to Lund and this time he decided he could not to let it go. Lund believed that if the facility could be upgraded, riders would come. He just needed some help convincing the 33rd Agricultural District that operates the park. “I went around and talked to some barrel racers and I talked to some jumping horse people and I talked to the ropers and I kinda went around and tried to ask everybody what they thought if the ground was fixed,” he says.
What he found after a lot of talking was that the support was there. People were ready for change.
In 2014, Lund had the funding from the Heritage Committee and the support from the 33rd District. Stan Pura, a member of the San Benito County Fair Board of Directors and owner of Mission Ranches, was right there with him. “But Stan, he helped push it. And we talked to enough people and asked enough questions to make it happen,’” Lund says.
So with the financial support from the Heritage Foundation, high-level technology and equipment from Mission Ranches and materials from Don Chapin Company, the project was ready to roll. “On the second day I looked around and said, ‘Lotta work going on here for no beer and no barbeque!,’” Lund joked. No, there was no a big crew or free meals, but between Pura and Lund, the job was done. With community backing and a couple days of hard work, the pair had largely solved what for decades seemed like an unsolvable problem.
The arena upgrade is only one of many improvements moving forward at Bolado Park Fairgrounds. Lund is part of the Vision Committee, which works directly with the Heritage Foundation, a nonprofit group that has been fundraising for Bolado Park to improve the facility. Lund said he is enthusiastic about work being done in the barn areas and the recent facelift on the Pavilion. He mentions Rebecca Wolf, another volunteer who has put her heart and soul into the improvement of the Bolado Park Event Center. “Rebecca Wolf has a great vision of what it should be,“ he says.
Lund is on the Fair Horse Show Committee and is chairman of the Stock Horse Division. ”We do other things; fix the well, work on the pig washer, improve drainage. There are a things that have been left undone,” he explains.
When the last horse has gone and the trailers head home, perfectionist Lund is still looking for ways to improve the fair experience for everyone.
“By the time I turn my lights off that night, I’ll have written down the problems that occurred and what I’m going to do about it before next year. Because, why wait?” Lund says. He finds that listening to competitors is a great way of getting new ideas and solving repeated problems. “And that week after the fair they’ll say ‘I didn’t’t like this or I liked that’,” Lund says, and he’s taking notes.
After all the years of shows, the backfield works like a well-oiled machine. “All my volunteers for the fair call me up before the fair and ask me, ‘What are we doing?’” Lund says with pride. “Anita Gabriel, the announcer, calls back every year. Dara Tobias is the scribe for the judge, and it all goes good. They do what they do.” Lund says, confident in his volunteer crew.
As the fair season ends, compliments for the improved arena and fairgrounds were plentiful. The recognition from competitors went to Lund because the role Lund has played was evident.
“Daryl Lund did a magnificent job,” said Susan Modic, winner of this year’s Hackamore Class. “He reconfigured the arena and the track, giving us a safe and excellent place to show our horses. Really, it was brilliant thinking on Daryl’s part and for once there was absolutely nothing for anyone to complain about,’ she said. “He really made it a higher level horse show.”
Julie Carrero, a friend of Lund’s, said noticed a lot of appreciation for the upgrades he had done at the fair.
“I heard a lot of people comment on how much better it was,” she says. ” A lot of riders liked the way he changed around the arena. He could run more than one class at a time. It was great.”
Paicines horse trainer, Ramona Koch says the arena is “the best it’s ever been.”
Lund says the “best reaction I got was from the high school rodeo the first week we ever used it,” Lund said. He got some recognition from the teen riders competing that weekend and that was enough for him. ”The kids remembered me as the tractor guy,” he says with satisfaction.
For Lund, the personal reward comes with knowing that the younger, less-experienced riders and their horses are safer. But the practical and professional improvements made by this determined “tractor guy” is bound to be remembered by riders of all ages for a long time.
By the way, the call for volunteers is already being made for the 2016 San Benito County Fair. Click here for more details: Volunteers wanted and needed, part-time, on your schedule!
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