LOS ANGELES — A row of trombone slides jutted upward, the brass gleaming in the sunlight of a hot, three-hour USC Trojan Marching Band practice in August.
Everyone seemed pleased with the football season preparations – all but one exceptionally groomed and trained Andalusian horse. Weight frantically shifted from one front hoof to another, as if the animal might flee from those glistening instruments at any moment.
This isn’t just any horse. It’s Traveler XI, and two years of trust-building has led to this final phase of training.
“They have to know that we’re not going to ever let them get hurt,” Joanne Asman, who trains USC’s Traveler horses, said. “And if they know that, they’ll do anything.”
USC is celebrating 65 years of Traveler – who is one of fewer than two dozen live animal mascots in college sports. Traveler XI is the latest horse in his mascot lineage, and he’s slated to make his debut at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum this football season.
“He’s really sweet,” said Dana Kanstul, who rides Traveler. “Once he trusts you, he’s very solid. But it took some time and kind of creating a pet out of him for him to trust you. Like, ‘Hey, it’s going to be OK. I’m not gonna put you in a bad situation.’”
Horses are genetically engineered to detect threats with their near-panoramic vision and acutely tuned ears. They’re prey animals who physically show fear when they feel the need to run from something they perceive as dangerous.
Trust is the key to brushing away a horse’s anxiety and teaching it that not all loud noises or bright objects are a threat.
Long before Traveler is galloping for touchdown celebrations and helping light the torch atop the Peristyle in front of 60,000 fans at the Coliseum, he’s in a quiet stall with Asman.
“I’ll take a chair and just sit in the stall for hours and let them come over to me and realize I’m not gonna chase them or do anything,” she said.
Asman worked in the medical field for 25 years and has owned horses since she was 18. She trained her horses well enough to be used in beach photography and as props for Playboy Magazine shoots.
She’s now been the keeper of USC’s beloved mascot for 24 years, and three Traveler horses are presently under her care: Traveler IX, Traveler X and Traveler XI.
An endowment from the Tilley family – longtime USC enthusiasts – covers Asman’s stipend and any expenses associated with the horses, even after they “retire” to a less demanding schedule of parties, meet-and-greets and riding lessons with children.
“He’s happy being a show horse with little kids on him,” Asman said of Traveler IX.
Training a Traveler not only requires trust; it also takes a lot of creativity. Asman and her assistants have conjured up countless ways to condition horses for the loud and unpredictable environment of a USC football game.
They take them to visit elementary schools, where hundreds of kids will pet and adore them, and to grocery store parking lots where strangers approac. Asman waves flags and bangs pans together. Kanstul will ride them through water and on trails where wild animals leap in and out of the brush.
Unprecedented challenges present themselves once in a while, like the Stanford Tree.
Asman was told that Stanford’s mascot was particularly good at getting under Traveler’s skin. Horses don’t easily forget their fears, so she resorted to some unusual training techniques.
“I built myself a Stanford Tree and I put horse cookies all over it,” Asman said. “And every year, whichever horse is going to do it, they get to eat cookies off the Tree. When the Tree comes up in the tunnel to antagonize them, you just let go of the rein and he follows him.
“The Tree doesn’t bother us anymore in the tunnel.”
The adoration Traveler receives makes it all worth it. Fans name their pets after Traveler, and generations of Trojans faithful seek out photos. Traveler VII and Traveler VIII won over Salma Hayek after appearing in the 2006 movie “Bandidas” with her.
Football players give Traveler’s nose a pat before games, and Asman says one player from the current team has to pet the horse every time he goes in or out of the tunnel. There’s even a rumor that O.J. Simpson chose to play at USC when he saw Traveler during a televised game.
“I think most people like animals, in general,” Kanstul said. “(They like) to see a live mascot out in a unique situation where it’s not a guarantee; it’s not a person in an outfit that is going to do the same performance.”
Kanstul is Traveler’s first female rider and has been the full-time rider for seven years. Before that, she rode Traveler VII at horse shows in the early phases of his training and became part of the lore of the school from where she and her parents earned graduate degrees.
She wears a tunic, leather breast piece, leg guards and custom-made sandals that have the same soles as riding boots on game day.
At Trojan Marching Band practice, however, she wore jeans, a red polo shirt and riding helmet and was calmly slipping Traveler peppermint candies when unusual sights – like a raised trombone – made him uneasy.
Traveler XI, like those before him, will do more than just learn to recognize the marching band and the routines that come along with game day. He’ll come alive when “Conquest” plays and become the performer he was raised to be.
