FAMILY SHOWCASE
Winrock Farm, a lovely facility in Fountain Valley, California when owner Leslie Ortley got out of the business. That was the start of an amazingly successful career at the
top of our show ring for Rusty. Riot Free, Ground Spirit, Top Comedian, Dream Machine, Fantastico, are all horses that carved the direction of good hunters. Adding to that several top jumpers, Air Canada, Rise and Shine, Toy Soldier, Dear Brutus, Grey Ghost, Kilkenny, Black Mail where traveling both coasts he captured one top prize after another for the next couple of decades. When development took over the Fountain Valley area,
Rusty’s home base sort of traveled around and relocated a little. Yorba Linda, Malibu, Malibu Canyon, Calabasas were all properties he developed and built training facilities on. “I really guess I am a frustrated contractor,” he starts the
discussion in a serious manner. “It’s just about impossible for me to look at a piece of property and not see possibilities of barns and rings there. With this last property in Camarillo, what looked like a piece of dirt on an impossible hillside to other people, looked like a great training center to me, it just had to be carved out and built.”
Kandi and C-Scooter
they spend so much time together and we sure did!” “One of the times I remember most is dad sending all of
us up the mountain together with a cement truck to pour the towers for a chair lift. We all got into the project but as kids will do, we rolled the truck into a ravine. Dad was a bit frantic about it and his first question was, ‘Are all of you ok??’ When he had established we were all right he set about making sure it didn’t happen again,” she ends with a laugh. “Dad has one of those minds and determinations that never
stops,” she says with an adoring smile. “He is now 97 years old and has just finished designing and building the very first all electric ATV that goes just about anywhere. It’s a really fun ATV and you don’t have to worry about carrying gasoline up a mountain. As long as you have a plug in you are good to go!” Traveling out of the mountains to show, her years in the
Amateur Owner ring proved extremely successful as did sup- porting and owning several top open horses. Ice Palace, Tune to Cruise, Careful 019 (Kandi was Rookie of the year 2000), Froccs, Power Lady come to mind first. GREY FOX FARM Rusty as a frustrated contractor would come in handy years
Kandi and DuGateau
KANDI Kandi McCoy was born in Mammoth, California to entre-
preneur parents Dave and Roma. With four brothers (Gary, Dennis, Carl and Randy) along with her sister Penny, Kandi’s life was on Mammoth Mountain from the beginning. Her par- ents founded and built the Mammoth Mountain Ski Area and continued to own and operate it till 1992. “Mom’s job was to raise six kids and support dad,” says
Kandi, “which she did a beautiful job of I might add! Life was busy and all six of us kids were a part of the working team that built the ski area. We had fun; we worked hard and had some really fun times. Six kids can get into a lot of stuff when
later. He and Kandi had married in 1999 and wanted a place in the greater Los Angeles area without being in the middle of the metro part. “When I saw the piece of property that would eventually become Grey Fox Farm, I immediately liked it,” said Rusty. “You can see the ocean and the Channel Islands from there and we figured we could build our forever home. The house had burned down and it was five acres of pure hill- side but I could see a great private facility there so we began the work.” “We renovated the house completely and graded the land
into layers,” he continued. “The top layer is the house, barn and working area with things like the Eurosizer. Unless we are riding, everything to do with the horses is just a few steps from the house and easy to get to. In the barn we laid every- thing out to be functional, efficient and easy to keep clean. I just hate barns being dirty or uncared for and luckily so does Kandi.”
GREY FOX FARM BREEDING PROGRAM DuGateau, a Selle Francais stallion, was bought from
McLain Ward for Kandi to show and people began asking about breeding their mares to him. Kandi had been breeding a few horses for several years and Rusty was a bit tired of going
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Photo © Flying Horse Photography
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