Vignette > Buttercup

1951 Scene

The death of an old horse named Buttercup (aka Kayla) marked the end of an era in which horses grazed in the Pixie Trail area of Homestead Valley.  She succumbed during a 36-hour storm that blew in Sunday night, December 10, 1995. It produced 14 inches of rain with winds up to 90 miles per hour. Her body was about 30 ft. down the hill below Pixie Trail, her legs pointing up the hill.  She had likely been blown down and unable to get up. In the 1950’s there was a horse ring at the west end of Pixie Trail and a stable for rental horses at the east end on Edgewood Ave. run by Peggy Adams. Her students would ride on Pixie Trail to the horse ring for instructions and competitions. The trails and horse ring were on Eric Krag’s Rancho del Topé. He granted public access, and allowed horses to graze there. The number of horses in Peggy’s stable declined in the 1970s. In 1975, the Homestead Valley Land Trust purchased Rancho del Topé for open space.  The purchase agreement specified that remaining horses could continue to graze on the land until they died. Buttercup lived for 20 more years.