Dancing horses return to Kenwood after escaping October wildfires

Sylvia Zerbini, a longtime star attraction with the famed Cavalia equestrian performing troupe, calls her Florida horse training farm Grande Liberte.

To her, working with horses is about freedom - for her, but also for them. Her “liberty” style of horse training requires no harnesses and no bridles. She can guide her horses through their performances with a wave of her hand.

That technique came in very handy last October. Zerbini had brought a dozen of her horses to the Belos Cavalos equestrian center in Kenwood, in preparation for a weekend of performances there, when wildfires broke out in Sonoma County.

“We were told we had to evacuate,” Zerbini said. “There were such high winds that our tent - our portable stabling - had blown down. Thank God I do liberty training, so I was able to get all 12 stallions gathered and then load them on our semi. We have big, 15-head horse trailer van.”

The horses, some of them wounded by debris from the fire, were first trucked to Woodside, where they spent several days recovering and resting, and then were taken back to Florida.

After a long postponement, Zerbini and her horses have returned for two performances of her “Dancing in the Light” equestrian show this weekend at Belos Cavalos. Saturday night’s performance is sold out, but there are a few tickets left for the Sunday matinee.

The show also will feature other horse acts, as well as aerialists from Cavalia, who also perform with Cirque du Soleil, Zerbini said.

Zerbini, 50, grew up in France as a circus performer, starting as a dancer and aerial acrobat and then performing with horses.

“I learned at a very young age that horses have a silent language, and it’s up to us to understand what they’re telling us,” Zerbini said.

After 10 years with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum Bailey Circus and another six with Cavalia, Zerbini now travels with her own horses to perform and train all over the United States and in Canada.

You can reach Staff Writer Dan Taylor at 707-521-5243 or dan.taylor@pressdemocrat.com.