Horse Statue Fountain at the Rabobank Arena in...

In the past :

Once upon a time, Bakersfield California had a large auditorium called the Civic Auditorium. It was where most of the major shows and events were held in the Bakersfield area because it would hold the most people.

As the years passed by, the Civic Auditorium became called the Bakersfield Centennial Garden and was no longer called an "auditorium" by anyone except those of us who had lived in Bakersfield for a long time. This was partly because they added on to the size of it and made it much bigger.

Then one fine day, in the not-so-distant past, a group of Dutch bankers who owned a bank called Rabobank came to Bakersfield and offered the city leaders giant pots of money to change the name of the Bakersfield Centennial Garden to the Rabobank Arena Theater and Convention Center. The city leaders took the buckets of money and changed the name to Rabobank Arena which no one could pronouce for a long long time.

The Bakersfield history lesson is over and now on to current events:

Here is what Wikipedia says about the Rabobank Arena :

"Rabobank Arena is a 10,000-seat multi-purpose arena with luxury suites in Bakersfield, California, USA. Located downtown at the corner of Truxtun Avenue and N Street, it was built in 1998, and was formerly known as Bakersfield Centennial Garden, that was named by a local resident, Brian Landis. It is home to the Bakersfield Condors ECHL ice hockey team, California State University, Bakersfield Roadrunners Men's NCAA Division I basketball, and the Bakersfield Jam NBA Development League team. The city-owned arena sold naming rights to the local branch of the Dutch cooperative bank Rabobank in 2005, which also sponsors cycling and field hockey teams. Under the terms of the lease, Rabobank has exclusive naming rights for seven years with an option to extend it to ten years at a rate of $1 million per year. The arena will revert back to the name Centennial Garden unless a new sponsor is found or Rabobank signs a new deal at the end of the agreement."

You can learn more about the Rabobank Arena Theater Center at their website

http://www.rabobankarena.com/

Why am I talking about the Rabobank Arena?

The Rabobank Arena is just up the street from where we live and this is where our "photo essay" takes place!

When they turned the Bakersfield Centennial Garden or rather, the Rabobank Arena into a large convention center, they put up a huge fountain in the front of it. It has giant cement statues of horses in front of a pile of rocks with water cascading down it. I've always wanted to get pictures of it and finally, my darling adult daughter did it for me a couple of weeks ago!

As you drive down Truxtun Ave., you get a great view of the horse statue / fountain.

Different views of the fountain and horses show more details.

My middle grandson got into the picture, he's 6 years old. The signs say to stay out of the fountain and off of the horse statues. :-( I suppose it's for the best....

I don't know for a fact that the horses are made out of concrete or a concrete cement mix but that's what it looks like. I wonder why they would choose concrete? Price? Durability? That's just something that I wonder about especially since it makes the horses not quite as "refined" or "delicately made" as a different medium would have.

I really like the horse statues and I would love to have this fountain in our backyard! I wouldn't even need the mound of rocks, just the horses would be fine with me!