Cowboy on horseback lassoes runaway reindeer

What transpired on Thursday morning in Santa Maria is almost too fantastical to believe. It’s the kind of adventure one could expect to find alongside stories of a jolly man in a red suit squeezing down chimneys and talking snowmen. A runaway reindeer scampered through busy Santa Maria streets, fields and residential neighbourhoods until she was at last safely captured by a lasso-wielding cowboy.

Even the cowboy who saved the day, Tepusquet rancher Bob Acquistapace, realizes the story is hard to swallow. “I’m glad that it’s going to be down in print, because otherwise people would not believe me,” he said after the incident, clad in a cowboy hat and boots with spurs. The female reindeer escaped at about 9:20 a.m. on Thursday as she was being loaded into a trailer to be taken from the Hopper Bros. Christmas tree lot at the Santa Maria Fairpark to the Hopper Bros. tree lot in Paso Robles.



Acquistapace, who is married to a Santa Maria Fairpark employee, happened to be at a nearby ranch with his horse. At his wife’s request, Acquistapace tried to catch the reindeer on horseback and was finally able to lasso her about noon with the aid of police at the intersection of Granada and Capitola streets. The reindeer, panting after her ordeal, was tied to a lamppost until she could be placed in a trailer with the other deer.

Acquistapace said the asphalt he rode his horse on was slick, and the horse was sliding around during the pursuit. “It was fun now. At the time, it was scary,” he said, reflecting on the adventure. Acquistapace said he had never seen a reindeer before and was surprised at its speed. “They run a heck of a lot faster than I thought. They flat move,” he added. The 9-year-old deer, who doesn’t have a name that Hopper Bros. owners know of, is doing well and back with the tree lot owners following her wild reindeer chase.