Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 4, Number 1, 1 January 1987 — Detailing Trials, Tribulations of Paʻu Riding [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]
Detailing Trials, Tribulations of Paʻu Riding
As Seen Through the Work of John and Lita Cook
By Maxine Mrantz Contributing Writer What began with sailors introducing horses to islanders in 1803 has now become theatre, complete with beautiful women on horseback smiling at parade audiences. Pa'u riding, though no more a major recreation of commoner and alii, continues to captivate the spectator, brightening the eyes of kupuna and keiki alike with its colorful horsemanship. The name stems from the early days of horses in Hawaii when women as well as men rode astride. To protect party clothes from the dust and mud of the road, the women covered their clothes with a long garment or pa'u. From protective covering, the garment evolved into elegant attire. Pa'us became the fashions of the day. They were brilliantly colored, made of silks, satins, velvets and some of cotton. The longest pa'u was said to be at least 20 yards and made of cretonne.
Nowadays, it takes more and more money to keep the tradition going. Pa'u riders Lita and John Cook ean testify only too well to the endless fundraising necessary to keep the performances going. T ogether, they formed Hawaii Pa'u Riders and Ohana, a non-profit club dedicated to fine horsemanship and to the ancient arts of Hawaii. Not only do many of the 25 skilled equestrians ride, they dance and compose huia, play guitar, are expert lei makers and pa'u drapers, and in general, excell in the traditional expressions of island culture. As a part of the necessary fundraising, Hawaii Pa'u Riders and Ohana have put on an exhibition of Hawaiian arts and crafts whieh includes teaching and performing the hula, making haku leis and ti-leaf leis, weaving coconut and lauhala products, pa'u draping, parade lio (horse) leis, quilt making for loeal and mainland parades. Mainlanders get to see an exhibition of a genuine Hawaiian show with the club members performing the music and dances. Veterans of the pa'u circuit, John and Lita Cook of Waimanalo have carried Hawaii's aloha across the seas, delighting spectators in the Portland Oregon, annual Rose Festival Grand Floral Parade, the New York National Horse Show and the Veterans Day Parade. Loeally, they have ridden in Aloha Week parades, the July 4 parades in Honolulu and Kailua, and 1984 Hawaii Sisterhood Silver Jubilee Parade. In 1981, traveling with other talented Hawaiians and Governor and Mrs. George R. Ariyoshi, John and Lita and 13 Hawaii Pa'u Riders journeyed to New York City for the Hawaii '82 promotion. It was the first mainland appearance for Hawaii Pa'u Riders and they charmed audiences in a show of Hawaiian horsemanship at the National Horse Show in Madison Square Garden and the Veterans Day Parade on Fifth Avenue. They also rode through New York's Central Park to Fifth Avenue to and from the Clairmont Stable for the Veterans Day Parade, getting a good look at the city streets while performing.
Lita Cook has ridden as island princess in seven parades. She has been an attendant in two Kamehameha Day and Aloha Week Parades. She has performed as private mounted unit pa'u queen in nine mainland and loeal parades. Through it all, she feels the job of princess is the most challenging, since it is the princess who guides, trains and assesses the peformances of individuals and the unit until all operated with the precision and beauty of a fine hula troop. But that's only the tip of the iceberg. The princess is also responsible for maintaining communication between the unit and parade committee. Her decisions include selection of flowers, style of leis, manner of wearing them; she must consult with the other members in her unit being careful not to slight anyone. Her key words are fellowship, goodwill and harmony. While others in the unit must keep to the straight and narrow while riding, the princess alone is not only permitted but expected to ride side to side, sitting her mount in a regal manner, acknowledging the applause with a million dollar smile. Today's parade pa'u rider unit includes a princess (representing one of the eight major islands) three attendants, two escorts and a page. The Cooks work as a team when it comes to putting together a pa'u unit for a parade. Lita has ridden in 29 and John in 35 loeal and mainland parades, both with pa'u units and with private mounted units. Another challenge to any unit is the dressing of the pa'u rider. The pa'u or skirt is a volumnious wraparound and takes mueh skill to drape since the fabric must be secured to the wearer using no pins, fasteners or zippers but only kukui nuts. Today's modern pa'u, 12 yards long and held together with five or six kukui nuts,
looks fo.r all the world like a flowing and elegant couturier creation. The kepolaorblouse, the equivalent of a Spanish poneho, is slipped over the head and fastened with ribbons to secure a woven flower lei. Small wonder, then, 1 ask Lita the question that's been on my mind since the talk of dress began. "Do pa'u riders go to the bathroom and if so, how do they manage the clothes? "They don't go to the bathroom," Lita answers. "They don't eat or drink after a certain hour." Lita and members of the club were taught the art of pa'u draping by Mona Teves and Skip Tomiyama. The expert for Hawaii Pa'u Riders, both head draper and head seamstress is Drena Kauhane, a member of the Ohana. If pa'u riders need to sacrifice comfort on the oecasion of a parade, so do the horses. "But not to the point of abuse," Lita hastens to add. We horse people love our animals and want them to enjoy their parade ride. That's why we urge a wahine who tends to be somewhat generous in both height and weight to please ride a horse that fits you. The height of the horse is measured by hands from the bottom of the ground up. Therefore, we tell our larger ladies to choose a horse from 16 to 17 hands high off the ground. Needless to say, it should also be strong to present a good appearanee during the parade.
Any professional pa'u unit must have had at least eight to 10 practice sessions for the group to work well as a unit. Since a practice session is at least two hours and the cost of renting horses ranges from $12 to $15 per hour, simple arithmetic will confirm that pa'u riding comes high for those who don't own horses. The rental of a parade horse alone is over $250. According to Lita, at least a week is needed to eomplete the leis for both riders and horses, although the design concept begins several months earlier. "A lei pattern needs to be thought up but sometimes we want to change things, so we start our design with making small bouquets. Leis should be made with the flowers of the island you represent. However, they don't only have to be made of flowers. Natural seeds, koa curls, uki grass, shells and things like sea grape are perfectly acceptable." They do have to show up in the parade and this ean cause problems, especially if the clothes of the unit are too close in color to the flowers. In one parade, John Cook had a problem with green ferns against the green kepolas of the women . T raditionally , the ferns frame tlpe outside of the lei. John solved the problem by shifting the ferns to the center and the flowers to the outside. In that way, the bright colors of the flowers showed well against the green of the kepolas. A detail but most important to the overall presentation of the pa'u parade unit. There are other details — more and more of them as parade day draws nearer.
On parade morning, the park is a mad house. Grooming, saddling, and decking the horses start before sunup. The night before parade day John sleeps in the park with those escorts and friends who will help get the horses ready, and who, that afternoon, have helped John haul three horses, two trailers and various and sundry equipment, horse feed and grooming tools, saddles, etc. There is no sun when they start at 5 a.m. and they groom by a park light. At 6a.m., the park willstart filling
up with horses, trailers and people. By 7 a.m., all of the escorts must be ready to mount and all of the pooperscooper brigade ready to elean up after the units. I asked John how the horses handle the excitement and he shakes his head. "Horses ean be fine at home but too mueh distraction or too sudden noise and a rider ean be in trouble. It comes down to experience and eommon sense. Any horseperson knows that you don't put horse units behind a band or flags,or girls twirling batons or a eop on a motorcycle. "I remember one parade in whieh the princes rode an albino horse. Now, an albino ean be a tempermental animal, and that particular albino was. It reared up and the princess got hurt. And there was the time a motorcycle eop rode in back of my horse. He wasn't thinking — and would you believe it — gunned the bike so of course the horse reared. I almost lost control but managed to grab-the horse's mane and I hung on until the horse calmed down." "You see!" Lita laughs. "Little things like that keepus
on our toes. Lita and John met not in the saddle but on roller skates at what used to be Rainbow Roller Land on Keeaumoku Street. After several dates of dancing ehaeha with John on skates, Lita decided to let John teach her to ride a horse. She began learning in April of '77 and riding in earnest in 1978. When she rides as island princess, John rides as her escort. He chooses her horse, insisting it be spirited so that her superb riding ability ean be shown to advantage. "A good rider can't look good without a spirited animal." He hastens to add that the rider must be experienced or she could get hurt. "I won't let anyone who is not a good rider on a spirited horse. Otherwise, I'd feel responsible for any accident she could have." He isn't worried about Lita holding her own. "Oh, my wife's good," he says. "That's why I piek spirited horses for her. So people ean see how good she is." So is he. So good, in fact, that it shows — even before he rides. When Freckles Teves was holding trials for riders to ride in the 1952 Kamehameha Day parade near Town & Country Stables in Kapiolani Park, John applied. No sooner were his feet in the stirrups than Teves said, "Get down. I know a rider when I see one." John shows me a picture of Lita as pa'u princess riding for Kauai in the 1978Aloha Week parade. Jack Lord is in the picture, standingbeside her, holdingonto the lei of Sandy, the palomino Arabian horse she rode. It was her first parade. "Well, she looked so beautiful. . .nowonderhewant-
ed a picture with her," says John. "He fell in love with the horse," says Lita. John says: "The movie van was parked in AlaMoana Park and Jack Lord got off the van and he looked. You know all the islands were lined up but he picked the island of Kauai. Went straight for my wife." Lita interjects: "He eame up to me and said, 'Is this your horse? Can I take a picture with you?' " "I was busy watching the unit so I didn'thearthe eonversation," John is telling me. "I was making sure the other riders were okay. Then I saw Jack Lord speaking to Lita. She really looked beautiful." "It was the horse," says Lita. "He fell in love with the horse." Lita is modest about her talent. Like most skills, pa'u riding isn't perfected overnight. Her first parade horse, Lucky, made her look good but she complained that he had a "hard mouth." When I asked her to explain what she meant by a hard mouth, she said that a hard mouth was hard to pull, hard to hold and hard on your hands. "After a while, your hands begin to hurt. You have to hold, hold, hold. Then, pull, pull, pull. That's a hard mouth." Lita put an applieahon in for pa'u unit in the 1978 Kamehameha Day Parade. Ipolani Vaughn was chosen Niihau princess and Lita was classified as an alternate. At first she was disappointed but looking back, she considers it a blessing in disguise. "I learned a lot about lei making from Ipolani Vaughn. Leis are a major part of the pa'u riding tradition. The most challenging is a horse lei. It ean be anywhere from 58 to 60 inches long and from 12 to 20 inches wide. And eaeh 60 ineh horse lei may take 125 individually tied bouquets of flowers. That's one method of doing it; there are others. But I remember I made three of those leis , measuring 100 inches long and five inches wide. We joined dendrobian orchids and bozo or what we called bachelors buttons. We added sea grape and white baby breath; it was quite a job." Lita's love affair with riding began with her first horse, Lucky, and has continued ever since. She's probably the youngest looking grandmother in Star of the Sea's
Lita Lowea Carrillo Cook and John M. Cook