What is Rancheros Visitadores, how did it begin, and why has this famously private California riding organization endured for nearly 100 years? In the opening chapter of this three-part oral history, Keith Saarloos sits down with Bill Reynolds, the official historian of Rancheros Visitadores, to document the origins of one of California’s most legendary horseback traditions. The story begins in Santa Barbara during the 1920s, when California was changing rapidly and the old ranching culture of the Central Coast was beginning to disappear. Artist Ed Borein, Elmer Awl, businessman Jack Mitchell, and a small group of ranchers, horsemen, artists, and business leaders shared a deep admiration for horses, the American West, and the traditions of the California vaquero. Their idea was simple: gather interesting men, put them on horseback, ride through the ranches of the Santa Ynez Valley, sleep beneath the stars, share stories around the campfire, and preserve a way of life that was already slipping into history. The earliest gathering took place in 1928. Rancheros Visitadores officially began its annual ride in 1930 and is now approaching its 100th ride in 2030. Bill explains how Old Spanish Days Fiesta in Santa Barbara helped inspire the organization. He also recounts how Jack Mitchell returned from the Bohemian Club believing that the experience would be even better if it were built around horses. Mitchell and the other founders began inviting friends, local landowners, working ranchers, artists, entertainers, and leaders from the business world to participate. From the beginning, authenticity mattered. The founders understood that Rancheros Visitadores could not simply be wealthy men dressing like cowboys for a few days. The organization needed ranching families, working horsemen, and real vaqueros who understood the horses, cattle, equipment, craftsmanship, and responsibilities of California ranch life. Keith and Bill recreate the Santa Ynez Valley of the 1920s: a landscape of open ranches, dirt roads, oak-covered hills, horses, and small communities separated by hours of travel. It was a place where neighboring ranchers depended upon one another to gather cattle, complete brandings, solve problems, and survive. They also explore the history of California’s vaquero culture and what distinguished the vaquero from the cowboys, buckaroos, and cowpunchers of Texas, Arizona, Nevada, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. In California, the availability of grass, water, favorable weather, and time allowed vaqueros to develop an extraordinarily patient and refined relationship with their horses. They braided their own reins, created their own gear, practiced subtle forms of communication, and elevated horsemanship into an art. That culture became the foundation of Rancheros Visitadores. Bill recounts how the earliest riders traveled through the Santa Ynez Valley, gathered at Jack Mitchell’s ranch, brought wagons and coaches, and eventually began riding to Mission Santa Inés to recognize the region’s history and receive a blessing from the padres. Nothing about Rancheros Visitadores happened by accident. Its ceremonies, routes, expectations, and traditions were developed deliberately and carried forward by generations of riders. This is more than the origin story of a private men’s riding club. It is the story of the horses, ranches, artists, working cowboys, business leaders, and California vaqueros who created a tradition capable of lasting for a century. It is also the story of the Santa Ynez Valley—and why the sight of hundreds of horses riding through Solvang each May still connects today’s valley to its Western past. This is Part One of “Inside Rancheros Visitadores: An Oral History with Bill Reynolds.” Originally aired Saturday at 10:00 AM on 105.9 KRAZy Country as part of “Choppin’ It Up with Keith Saarloos,” a program dedicated to preserving the people, places, traditions, and stories of California’s Santa Ynez Valley.
