Arturo Bandini“Mr. Arturo Bandini, of the Pasadena Hunt, owns the finest pack in the vicinity.... The meet is generally upon Orange Grove Avenue, or some spot contiguous to the Arroyo. And before the dew is off the grass, and while the scent is fresh, the musical notes of Mr. Bandini’s horn may be heard, followed by the fitful baying of the hounds; and then horsemen and women come from all directions—parties from the Raymond and other hotels, and from Los Angeles and San Gabriel, swelling the hunt....”

So writes Charles Frederick Holder, in his 1889 book, All About Pasadena and its Vicinity; It’s Climate, Missions, Trails and Canyons, Fruits, Flowers and Game. Holder tells us that the sport holding the most fascination to visitors is hunting the wild-cat with hounds—the cats in this area sometimes weighing in at fifty pounds. One can't help but wonder if Mr. Bandini and his hounds were even known to those east-coast founding fathers that were pioneering our own sport of organized mounted foxhunting in the late 1800s.