In 1925, the Los Angeles Breakfast Club was founded (as simply The Breakfast Club) by a group of staunch horsemen who took their morning canters along the bridle trails of Griffith Park every Friday morning.
When they'd had their fill of clip and clop, they'd park their horses at the Griffith Park Riding Academy and breakfast at a horseshoe-shaped table under the shade of eucalyptus trees across the street.
The Riding Academy is gone, but Griffith Park is still open for equestrian activity, for those who prefer to saddle up rather than strapping on their hiking shoes. And The Breakfast Club is still meeting weekly—now on Wednesdays—on that same parcel of land, along a stretch of the Los Angeles River now known as Riverside Drive. (Although they did move around a bit before they could return there in 1965.)
I've been a member of the Los Angeles Breakfast Club since 2017—and for over nine years, my only equine experience with the club has been sitting on a sawhorse named Ham for my initiation.
That changed last Wednesday, when horses returned to the Shrine of Friendship—and those who'd gathered for an indoor breakfast moved the festivities outside to honor two horses of the City of Los Angeles Park Rangers - Mounted Unit.
LA Senior Park Ranger Sergeant Sean Kleckner gave a presentation, as the club's weekly speakers do, and then we all returned to the outdoors, as the 1920s Ham-and-Eggers did, to initiate two of the club's newest honorary members—Archie and Moose.
They even got special member buttons, with illustrations of horses at the opening of the traditional horseshoe.
Archie is an American Quarter Horse, born in 2013—which makes him the youngest of the mounted unit.
He enjoyed nibbling on my hair when I was snapping selfies.
Moose, a Rhinelander breed, is the only "lady horse" of the team—and a tall one at that, measuring 17.3 hands (or about 5' 8").
She also seemed to enjoy soft pets on the side of her neck...
...but she can get hangry if you don't fork over the snacks quickly enough.
Fortunately, several breakfast attendees won raffle chances to feed Moose and Archie, which placated them long enough for the rest of us to take lots of photos.
A hundred years ago, Breakfast Clubbers didn't just ride horses before their morning meals. They included them in their morning rituals—like when Sid Grauman was initiated into the club on horseback.
In 1933, the Breakfast Club paid tribute to Blackie the fire horse upon his retirement, thinking he was the last of his kind (but actually there were a couple of others left).
Other steeds honored at breakfast included movie horses, war horses, and more. (There's a whole section on real-life horses in our upcoming book.)
So, it was a return to form for the LABC, which has continued its tradition of adding honorary members from entertainment, politics, and the animal kingdom to its roster. That effort ramped up a bit last year for its year-long centennial celebration, but it doesn't really appear to be slowing down, as the club continues to grow.
Photo by Sheri Coh
Now we can work on bringing chickens, pigs, cows, and frogs back to the club. (Yes, all of those things happened in the past, for various reasons.) Or at least baby goats or therapy llamas.
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