Los Gatos Weekly-Times file artwork

In Los Gatos' early days, horses played an important role in agriculture as well as public transit.

Picture from the Past

Early Los Gatans used horses for work, transportation, fun

By John S. Baggerly

It's the working horse who comes into focus this week after Nadine and George Caperton last week supplied a photograph of Los Gatos' old Gymkhana grounds, where fancy equitation reigned. Vince Garrod of Garrod Stables in Saratoga recalls that Gymkhana events included barrel races in which riders made three runs around the arena, dismounting frequently to crawl through a barrel, remounting and galloping to the next barrel and repeating the exercise against a time clock.

Above, two horses pull a harrow, which breaks soil and prepares the fields for planting. This particular harrow was guaranteed to do double the work of any other harrow and to do it better, the caption states. Along with his hollow-toothed harrow, Los Gatos blacksmith George Seanor of Los Gatos offered horseshoeing, plow work, painting and wagon repair.

In the same era, W.H. Lundy offered a livery and feed stable; this writer will venture that he was located near Lundy Lane, which bears his name and runs northward from W. Main Street, just west of the Highway 17 overpass, and progresses behind St. Luke's Episcopal Church property.

Lundy advertised being located one block northeast of the railroad depot, which today forms part of the Town Plaza park flanked by W. Main Street and N. Santa Cruz Avenue. Lundy offered single and double horse teams "in readiness at all times."

Speaking of liveries, in far-off New York City around this time, a classy shop came up with a clever slogan: "Everything for the rider but the horse and everything for the horse but the rider." The owners were a rich young couple who traveled extensively in Europe while their livery was seen in the New York City parks and in surrounding counties.

Back to Los Gatos. Local entrepreneur D.J. Talbot ran an eclectic business encompassing furniture, wallpaper and undertaking. It was common early in this century for undertakers to offer furniture, particularly chairs, for sale or rent, as chairs were a necessity for funeral services.

Much to the comfort of local horses, one W.E. Livemore offered Brown's wagon-tongue support, a patented spring that made the horse's ride more comfortable in his trailer. That was good news for the equines that now and again came to Los Gatos to augment its horsepower--perhaps at one time those at the Coleman House were among them. The Coleman House, Los Gatos' "grandest hotel ever," at the northeast corner of E. Main and Pleasant streets, was serviced by a horse and carriage that met all incoming Los Gatos trains. Also during the early part of the century, Los Gatos had three "rent a saddlehorse or horse-drawn carriage" spots in the downtown area.

Among the local year-round show-horse people were J. Walter Crider and his eventual wife, Flo, who entered their "Silver Mounted Pair" almost weekly throughout the state. They almost always returned home Mondays with ribbons.

After Jimmy Crider closed his department store on W. Main Street, where the Opera House antique shops and banquet facility stand today, he ran the store for a few months while it liquidated. He and Flo boarded their horses at the Garrod Ranch in Saratoga, and Garrod confirms that the Silver Mounted Pair showed at least twice a month.

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