OUR LAGUNA: Out of uniform and onto horseback

When Danell Adams Danell Adams mounts up for the 2009 Patriots’ Day Parade, she will be riding on streets she patrolled and past the Police Department where she served the people of Laguna for 35 years.

Adams retired in 2008 with the rank of captain. She raises Peruvian Paso horses on her ranch in Fallbrook.

“I am one of a surprising number of retired Laguna Beach police officers who are involved in horses,” Adams said.

Former Police Chief Neil Purcell’s wife, Michelle, breeds horses on their ranch in Montana. Jim White, also formerly with the department, and his wife, Lauren, have a couple of horses at their Idaho home. Doris Higgins, who will forever be Sgt. Weaver to me, retired to Norco, with husband, Herb, where they are members of the Norco Horseman’s Assn. — and she appeared at a city council meeting to request that police officers be trained regarding speeding vehicles and equestrian safety. Incidentally, Higgins became a grandmother last year.

“Alyssa Bush [no longer with the department] was very much into horses and she wrote a proposal for a horse patrol in Laguna,” Adams said.

Not all of the horse-lovers are gone.

“Debbie Kelso has gotten into jumping [on horseback] and Joy Falk is very experienced with horses,” Adams said.

Kelso is a detective and Falk is the senior Animal Control officer, who trained horses before joining the department and owns a horse. Both worked with Adams as she rose through the police ranks in her hometown.

While a student at Cal State Long Beach, Adams was tapped for beach patrol. The following years she became a reserve officer and in 1975, a full-time sworn officer. She wasn’t the first woman in the department. Higgins worked in dispatch and Colleen Ambrose was the detective for juveniles. But Adams was the first female officer to patrol the streets.

Higgins was promoted to sergeant before Adams, but Adams chalked up other firsts: first female motorcycle officer in California, and perhaps the country, and the first female command officer in Laguna.

“I have always loved horses and retirement offered me the time to become a student of these beautiful animals and participating in a myriad of equestrian events,” Adams said. “I have won a few championships, several reserve championships and a host of first place finishes in both Peruvian shows and open shows.”

Adams hopes to qualify a team for the 2010 Rose Parade. She had an entry in the 2008 parade.

“It is not easy to get in,” Adams said. “The application process is lengthy and both horses and riders are carefully scrutinized.”

Adams said Peruvian Paso horses are described as the Cadillac of horses because of their smooth gait. Her aunt, Angie Delozier, was instrumental in bring the breed to the United States from Peru in the 1960s and Adams named her ranch, Piloto’s Shadow, in honor of her aunt’s stallion.

“Piloto is still considered one of the best foundation horses in the breed,” Adams said.

Adams plans to visit Peru this spring to tour some of the big ranches and see the National Show, which features the best of the best of the breed.

Neil Purcell did not always love horses — but his wife did.

“I bought my first horse when Neil was away at a police convention,” said Michelle Purcell, who has her own claim to fame in Laguna.

The former Laguna Beach Arts Commissioner and artist once drafted her husband and City Manager Ken Frank to rescue discarded holiday palettes from the old city dump in Laguna Canyon and restored them.

She was already raising horses on their ranch in Montana when he retired in 1997.

“I never thought I could get Neil into horses, but I got some miniatures and once he found he could handle them, he moved onto the bigger horses,” she said,

She breeds Gypsy Vanners at their Big Sky property and competes in shows.

“We cut back on shows last year when our prize brood mare [Lucky Lass] died, leaving us to care for her 4 1/2 month old foal [Gypsy Kickking Bird, called Birdie],” Michelle said.

However two summers ago, Neil made his show debut, taking a first prize in the trail class, competing against four professional trainers and 11 other horses, a feat of which he is extremely proud.

“I really surprised myself,” Neil Purcell said. “Three of the trainers thought I was a ringer.”

The Purcell horses were first bred by Gypsies in the United Kingdom to pull their caravans — hence the name.

“Michelle brought the first three to Montana in 2003,” Neil Purcell said. “When other horse people first looked at them, they called them ‘frou frou.’ And they are beautiful.”

The breed, which Purcell prefers to call just Gypsy horses, has long flowing manes and fluffy hair on their legs, called feathers.

“One stallion had a mane so long he stepped on it and it had to be trimmed,” Purcell said.

The Purcells have the only stallion in Montana from Scotland: Sarsti Gri, also known as “Pretty Boy Floyd,” which was gelded.

“He was 10, had a lot of get [progeny] and was very competitive and I had had a hip replacement,” Michelle Purcell said. “Now he is like puppy dog and I feel very confident riding him.”

“Moose,” the name bestowed on the Purcells’ 3-year-old stallion, is very laid back, she said.

“But you have to keep in mind that horses are wild animals and Michelle has taught me that you can never, ever let your guard down,” Purcell said. “And they don’t ever, ever forget being mistreated.

“We had one horse that we boarded until we found out he was being abused. Michelle can do anything with him, but he doesn’t like men and I have to watch myself at all times around him.”

Neil Purcell’s conversion to horseman amazes him.

“I never in my wildest dream thought I would be able to share her love of horses, and in fact, I still get more enjoyment watching her at a show than riding myself,” he said.

He notes with pride his wife’s expertise in mounted shooting competitions.

“You have to be coordinated and a damn good shot,” he said.

The riders go through an obstacle course with balloons set on posts every 20 feet.

“You should have seen the looks her horse got,” Neil Purcell said. “But Gypsies can do anything a quarter horse can do.”

The guns are not revolvers and must be cocked after each shot.

“The first time Michelle competed, she hit eight out 10 balloons,” Purcell boasted.

To learn more about the Gyspy horses, visit www.montanavanners.com, which will bring up a lot of links to the Purcells’ enterprise.

Like his former boss, Jim White was guided by his wife.

White grew up in Laguna — in fact went to school with Adams and attended the 40th anniversary of the Laguna Beach High School class of 1967. He rose to lieutenant in the city police department, quit, came back, was hired as a patrol officer and quickly promoted to sergeant.

White left again to go to work in the Orange County District Attorney’s office, then as Downey Savings director of security. About three years ago after his mother, Virginia White, died, Jim and Lauren moved to Idaho.

The Whites have a couple of horses, which they ride for pleasure, one of them a gentled mustang, with which he has a love/hate relationship. And he has strapped on a gun again.

“I started working part time in the Boise County Sheriff’s Department and it snowballed into a full-time gig,” he said. “I am one of 12 deputies, a ‘Jack of all Trades,’ because of my experience. I manage the jail, serve papers and do some training.”

They live near Idaho City, population 500, in Boise County, where the city of Boise is not located and to which Lauren commutes to her job in a 24-hour veterinary emergency hospital.

“This is Lauren’s dream,” White said.

OUR LAGUNA is a regular feature of the Laguna Beach Coastline Pilot. Contributions are welcomed. Write to Barbara Diamond, P.O. Box 248, Laguna Beach, 92652; hand-deliver to Suite 22 in the Lumberyard, 384 Forest Ave.; call (949) 494-4321; fax (949) 494-8979 or e-mail coastlinepilot@latimes.com