A New Adventure & A Road Well Traveled
A CREDENTIALED HISTORY OF A LIFETIME IN HORSES by Kathy Hobstetter
and give you the short version of a long life list of accomplishments, along with names you will recognize. She is fairly quiet with a sharp wit sense of humor and loyal to her
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long time friends to a fault. It is not her style to talk about herself or to go out of her way to be sure people know her history. iJump Sports set about doing that job and along the way got to smile and reminisce about some of the history. Born in Belleview, Washington, Sandy graduated school and went to
work right away in Portland, Oregon for Don and Joan Curtain. The riding job was just what she wanted at that time and she immersed herself in horses and showing and the horse industry Curtain’s for a time. Pacific Horse Center, (Potomac Horse Center) outside of Sacramento, California, then owned by Jessica Bradley, was the next stopping place for her, riding and teaching for Leon Butts. The school for people interested in a career in horses was in full swing and the dormitories were full. Jeremy Beals was training there at the time and then Rudy Leone arrived on the scene to set up business at that location. Sandy moved to her sister’s in Manhattan Beach (L.A.) and took
a fun job at Judy’s Clothing in Century City. Being involved in the buying part of the clothing industry was fun and exciting but the horses still had her heart at that time. Then she received an unexpected call from Rancho Santa Fe Riding
Club that offered her the head trainer position. “I had a friend in Rancho Santa Fe that I was staying a weekend with and we stopped by the club together just to visit. One week later they called and asked if I could come there.” After a couple of years, she called Hap Hansen to ask him to join
her at “The Club”. Jim and Pat Iverson became clients at the time and loved the sport of buying and selling, a partnership was formed. Jim and Pat were owners, Sandy was the trainer and Hap was the rider/ trainer in charge of showing the El Dorado 29 stable of horses among
he long and winding road of our careers can be interesting, sometimes turns and changes end up being the best thing that happens to us but they seem accidental at the time. Ask Sandy Aston, Bonsall, California and she will be happy to smile, sit back
others. During that time Sandy and Jenny Iverson traveled east for several months to successfully show on that coast to show with Timmy Kees. Just after Sandy returned from her east coast trip, George Morris
called!!! “Come to Hunterdon and help the clients so I can travel to Europe more, I need someone like you!” And off she went east for another short stint in the fast paced East Coast show scene, all the while California was still “home”. Hightailing it back soon to Rancho Santa Fe, she opened Sandy
Aston Stables at the Rancho Santa Fe Riding Club which was Pasa Tiempo at the time, and her first call was to Will Simpson to have him ride Olisco for the Lennon Family. Three top horses at the time were in her barn….Quick Star (Will Simpson rode and Sandy eventually sold to Meredith Michaels), Olisco (Will also rode and sold to Ronnie Beard’s client for Michael Matz to ride) and Thalor (sold to Bernie Traurig to ride), all with the Iverson’s as owners. She then hired Robert Ridland to ride Hill Street for client Coby
Thompson. Pinion Farms in New Mexico had just re-organized and Robert himself wanted to come home to the west coast so he did just that at Sandy’s for a short time before moving to Showpark to open his own training business and promoting horse shows. Wanting to focus on riding and training jumpers, Sandy moved next
door to Carol Smith-Shannon’s
facility...and she made the call this time to Richard Spooner to ride and showed South Shore and other jumpers for her (he had Robinson at the time). Then Mandy Porter came home from her stint in Europe and took up the reins when Richard wanted to spend more time competing in Europe. South Shore was sold to China Blue Farms for Mary Tyng. The next call to Sandy was from Joan Irvine-Smith requesting
Sandy’s input and expertise, so she took on that position while still maintaining her own business “down south”. It was at that point that she fell in love with the Bonsall-Fallbrook
area and moved there, Carol soon sold her property and Sandy was on the lookout for what would be next. Now it was Jenny McLaughlin’s turn to call with an offer for Sandy.
Jenny had just bought the beautiful Edlebrock facility and Sandy joyfully traded her drive north to Joan’s for a closer position at Jenny’s
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