Cindy Allen Lapp wears many hats in the horse world. A helmet for dressage and eventing, a cowboy hat for cutting horse work, and a business hat when she’s operating the Yucca Valley Equestrian Center. Even with all those options, she finds volunteering one of the most rewarding roles she’s taken on in a long life with horses.
She started volunteering when she took up eventing four years ago. She’d enjoyed working cattle with her cutting-bred and trained Quarter Horses for many years. Cindy met her late husband, Steve, through the sport and they shared a passion for it, for horses and for the lifestyle horses come with.
When the cow-owning friend moved away, Cindy sought another exhilarating discipline. “I needed my excitement fix!”
Another friend, Laura Jaeger, suggested eventing. “I said, ‘OK,’ And I did my first event one month after my 65th birthday!” Cindy shares. If you event, you also volunteer – especially as a friend of Laura, a member of Galway’s Volunteer Organizing Committee.
In 2025, Cindy logged 17 days helping at Galway Downs to rank third on the year’s Power Volunteers list. “I just really like giving back,” she says. “The camaraderie, the meeting people and hanging out with them.” She often competes and volunteers at the same event, which makes for fun, full and fulfilling days.
Cindy is a Coordinator favorite because she loves to scribe for dressage judges – especially at the higher levels. Scribing can be a hard post to fill. Some people feel they don’t know enough or may be intimidated by sitting next to a judge and attempting to record comments that are critical to the horse/rider pair’s experience and development.
Not Cindy.
“Scribing is my favorite because I get to listen to the judges and learn.” She’s also a Coordinator’s dream because, “I’ll do whatever I’m asked to do.”
Starter Champion
As a competitor, the veteran equestrian had a stellar year in the Starter division with Ruby Pearl. The 5-year-old Quarter Horse is Cindy’s “COVID baby.” She and a friend purchased four weanlings in August of 2020, in the middle of COVID, “as something to keep us busy,” Cindy laughs in explanation.
The 15-hand gray mare was bred for cutting work but quickly demonstrated her potential for eventing. During one of Ruby’s early turn-outs at Cindy’s facility, “She took one lap around the arena, stopped to say, ‘Hey, how’re you doing?’ then sailed over the 4’ fence out of the arena.”
Cindy’s friend Laura was there to see it and said, “Well, I think you have your new eventing horse!” Laura’s own longtime eventing partner had jumped over the same fence – almost 20 years prior – so the friends considered it a good omen.
Cindy has always put a dressage “handle” on her cutting horses. When she lost her dressage mare in the fall of 2024, Ruby stepped into the sandbox with that nice training foundation. “Then we started teaching her to jump and she’s fabulous.”
The pair were Starter Reserve Champions at the USEA’s American Eventing Championships at Galway Downs in August, and Senior Starter champs at The Eventing Championships at Galway Downs in the fall. Plus, they topped the division for USEA Region VI and X last year. Cindy attended her first US Eventing Association Annual Meeting in New Orleans in December to collect National Reserve Champion honors for 2025.
This year, Ruby will focus on cutting and western dressage, where’s she’s also a budding star. “She won everything for me in eventing,” explains Cindy. “She’s the little horse that just keeps giving.” At 15 hands, she may be a bit small to excel at the next level of eventing – Beginner Novice.
Cindy’s next eventer shouldn’t have any size-related challenges. Ellie May is a 16.3-hand Off-The-Track Thoroughbred who arrived at Yucca Valley Equestrian Center last fall. Watching her jump on the lunge line, Cindy says the 6-year-old gray mare needs fences with decent height to require any clearance effort. “They say the jumps won’t look so big when I’m on her, but we’ll see!”
She and Ellie Mae plan for a dressage show outing in April, then the Horse Trials in May as their Galway debut.
A Stable Life
Cindy grew up in the Los Angeles area’s Whitter, got hooked on horses after watching the film National Velvet and competed on the Arabian horse circuit for several years. “You do everything on Arabs,” she explains. With that start, pursuing multiple disciplines came naturally – to Cindy, at least.
“Sometimes I’m riding in the dressage court with jeans and cowboy boots, and sometimes I’m out there in a western saddle and breeches and tall boots. People shake their heads at me!”
In search of a place where horses wouldn’t get “zoned out,” Cindy bought the Yucca Valley Equestrian Center in 1979. “The area had three stoplights when we moved here and now it has 17.” After she was settled in the area, establishment of Joshua Tree National Monument ensured further protections for the equestrian lifestyle in the area.
The Equestrian Center property was a private ranch originally and Cindy developed it into a 35-horse boarding and training facility. For many years, she had several horses in training and gave 30 lessons a week. “At this point in time, I’m trying not to do so much,” she shares. Being freer to volunteer is a big upside. For the American Eventing Championships, for example, Cindy arrived at Galway Downs the Wednesday of the week before competition started.
Here’s hoping 2026 will see Cindy volunteering and competing at Galway Downs even more!
