Ilona Toth of San Jose looks forward to riding Dancer, the Arabian mare of her friend Frank Bakonyi, as part of the Hussar regiment in the Los Gatos Christmas Parade. In the past, Hussars were men only.
Photograph by Kathy De La Torre
Horse Sense
Equine enthusiasts bring Hungarian tradition to America--just in time for the Christmas parade
By Shari Kaplan
When Frenc "Frank" Bakonyi, a native of Szeged, Hungary, left his homeland in 1970, and came to the United States, he was searching for a missing branch in his family tree. "I wanted to meet the man who was my father," he says of the man who left the family long before. Bakonyi had little money and even less skill at English, and didn't know when he would visit Hungary again.
Peter Vadasz left Budapest, Hungary, in 1965 for very different reasons--he was a political refugee. "I wanted to get away from communism. I didn't want to live my whole life saluting the comrades," he says. He, too, came to the United States to start down the rocky road to a new life, not knowing what he would find here, or when, or if he would return.
Today, Bakonyi lives in downtown Los Gatos and Vadasz lives in the Santa Cruz Mountains. They both have comfortable homes, jobs, families, friends--and horses. It was their love of horses that caused their paths to cross in the Los Gatos Horsemen's Association. The group of Bay Area equine enthusiasts get together for such activities as trail and beach rides, obstacle courses, camping trips and parade appearances, including the annual Los Gatos Children's Holiday Parade that takes place on Dec. 2, this year. LGHA members also hold meetings to discuss issues concerning horses and equestrians.
Bakonyi and Vadasz's LGHA-formed friendship and shared cultural background led them, along with fellow horseman and mountain resident Roy Bigge, to travel to Hungary in the spring of 1999. There they took part in an annual festival that celebrates high points in Hungarian history with parades, re-enactments and other activities.
Holiday Parade: Information about the annual Los Gatos Children's Christmas and Holiday Parade.
It was here that Bakonyi saw a Hussar regiment for the first time, and was instantly impressed. "It was a sight to behold!" he exclaims. The flamboyant group was outfitted just like Hungary's original Hussars of the past, an elite class of cavalrymen who rode horses into the country's many battles and skirmishes, and paved the way for the success of the foot soldiers who followed.
"Hussars cut off the supply lines and basically harassed the enemy so they could never rest. In Europe, Hungarians, up until World War II, were the best-known horse people of the world. Hussars could take on armies 10 times their own size," Bakonyi says, explaining that Hussars rode light, swift horses; were not weighted down by heavy armor; and were highly skilled tactically.
"It was an expected standard in all the royal courts of Europe to have a Hungarian horse and horseman," he adds.
Photograph by Kathy De La Torre
Galloping through their paces are, left to right, Frank Bakonyi of Los Gatos, Ilona Toth of San Jose, Peter Vadasz of Los Gatos and Sue Cristallo, who owns the mountain property on which they are practicing.
During the same trip, Bakonyi, Vadasz and Bigge met Laszlo Kovacs, a professional tailor who designs costumes for Budapest's most prestigious theater, the Mardach, as well as for individuals. One thing led to another, and soon the men where thinking about having Kovacs make them some Hussar garb, which they could wear in the states and form a historical regiment of their own.
"Once we saw these Hussars and their costumes, we were really impressed and asked them more about it. We thought we could form our own Hussars here" Vadasz says. And so they did with the LGHA sub-group they call the First California Hussar Regiment.
"We always go in the Christmas Parade, anyway, so we thought we would go as Hussars this year. The idea is to try to have fun and involve people who like to ride and dress up. We hope to generate more interest in the horsemen's group, too."
LGHA member Pat McRoberts of Saratoga predicts the Hussars will definitely rouse people's curiosity. Although she will not be marching with the Hussars in this year's parade, she has participated in previous parades in which LGHA members donned a variety of costumes.
"I think the Hussars are a great international effort. Horses bring people together; they're a great conversation starter," she says. "The Hungarians in our group have educated us about a lot of things. They add a lot of liveliness to the Horsemen's Association!"
Since their trip, the men have recruited a handful of other LGHA members: Bigge's wife, Jo, Bakonyi's friend Ilona Toth--owner of Ilona's beauty salon in downtown Saratoga, John and Heather Rosika and Suzanne Cristallo, whose Santa Cruz Mountains ranch property is a popular venue for LGHA meetings and horse events.
Photograph by Kathy De La Torre
Frank Bakonyi tries to get his horse, Vitez, acquainted with the American flag he will carry in the Los Gatos Christmas Parade. Vitez was nervous at first, but soon grew more accustomed to the flag.
They even arranged for Kovacs to fly to California several weeks ago, so he could measure the local Hussars and sew their custom-made costumes. Although in past centuries, women did not serve in the cavalry, they do in this regiment.
"Frank loves being a Hussar," Cristallo says of Bakonyi, who loves the dashing costumes and swashbuckling image of the Hussars. She adds that he has been known to jokingly lament: "I was born a century too late!"
Vadasz also loves stepping back into history when he steps into the stirrups of his running quarter horse, Sebastian--originally a Sweet 16 birthday gift for his daughter that she eventually outgrew.
"I always wanted a horse, but in Hungary we were rather poor and couldn't afford it. Also, I lived in downtown Budapest and there wasn't any room," he says. "In fact, I'd never even seen anyone riding a horse in Hungary, aside from in the movies. But I always fantasized about having a horse."
In the First California Hussar Regiment, the men and women had to choose someone to serve as their "colonel." Bakonyi was the natural choice, Vadasz says, as he was the ringleader from day one. Vadasz is a lieutenant colonel, Bigge is a major and the rest of the entourage are privates.
Laszlo Kovacs has worked as a professional tailor in his native Hungary for 27 years. He came to the United States for the first time several weeks ago to outfit members of the Los Gatos Horsemen's Association as Hussars, as he does here for Los Gatan Roy Bigge.
Photograph by Dai Sugano
The differences in Hussar rank are clearly stated by their uniforms: along with stripes on their collars, officers have five rows of brass buttons and thick gold braiding on their jackets, while enlisted men (and women, in this case) have only three.
"The impressive-looking decorations are also very practical," Bakonyi explains. "The primary weapons of the Hussars are swords. The uniforms were designed to protect the rider from slashing sword cuts."
As a bawdy aside, he adds that the enlisted men's less fancy uniforms did offer one advantage over that of their superiors. When the dashing Hussars of the past stopped in towns on their way to another assignment, peasant women were sometimes known to give soldiers more than just a verbal welcome.
"If you had to get dressed in a hurry or in the dark, it was a lot harder to get all those buttons buttoned if you were an officer," he says, snickering.
But Bakonyi turns serious when he reflects on why he loves horses so much, whether portraying a proud Hussar marching in the Los Gatos Christmas Parade, or simply going for a ride with his four-footed best friend along a trail in the mountains.
"Horses can read your desires better than any human being. You have to put a lot of time and love into establishing a relationship with your horse," he says. "If you understand how horses think, feel and work, you can make magic with them."
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Saratoga, California Since 1955
