SANTA YNEZ — Rolling hills, bright blue skies and lavish equestrian estates. Visitors to the city of Santa Ynez are treated to these sites and more when they enter the picturesque Santa Ynez Valley, home to one of the most beautiful horsetowns in California.

Located 140 miles from Los Angeles, 300 miles from San Francisco, and only 30 miles from the Pacific Ocean, Santa Ynez is a paradise for horses. With plenty of room for pastures, lots of trails for riding, and an Old West atmosphere, Santa Ynez is the town of choice for many equestrians.

How It Started
As with many of the horsetowns in the Golden State, Santa Ynez’s beginnings go back to the founding of a mission. Mission Santa Inés was the 19th mission established by the Spanish Franciscan missionaries who colonized Alta California. When they came to the Santa Ynez Valley in 1798, they found a thriving band of Chumash Indians, who were living close to the land. The mission was established in 1804, and many of the Chumash were converted to Catholicism. They maintained the mission’s horses, mules, cattle, sheep, goats and pigs, as well as crops of wheat, corn and beans.

Aljassimya Farm
AljassimyaFarm.com
The Santa Ynez Valley in California has seen the some of the most serious and dedicated Arabian breeders of the last hundred years set up in its’ spectacular valleys and mellow climate. These natural advantages are hard to overlook in seeking a place of perfection for horse breeding, but so is the rich Arabian history, which provides a wealth of knowledge, both old and new. Knowing they inhabit a center of excellence with an unusual density of Arabian horses, Californian breeders have cooperated to form the Santa Ynez Valley Arabian Horse Association which has set up several unique initiatives in the last few years, dedicated to bringing the wonderful nature of the Arabian horse to the public.

OJAI — When director Frank Capra chose Ojai as the location for Shangri-La in the 1937 film “Lost Horizons,” it was no accident. Capra and many others before and since have recognized Ojai is one of the most divine places in California.

As with many places of great beauty, Ojai is home to horses. The equine community in Ojai is alive and well, despite a dogged economic comeback, and boasts trainers of many disciplines and horses of many breeds.