Horse lovers fight for center

Many local horse owners and trainers say they wouldn’t have anywhere to go if the equestrian center at the Orange County Fairgrounds were to shut down.

The 7.5-acre, ranch-style complex with a dirt floor and brown barns that stable about 160 horses serves as a training ground for enthusiasts mostly from Newport Beach, Costa Mesa and Irvine, but it could be on its way out if the fair board decides that the land would be better used as a parking lot for the growing number of fair visitors.

Fair officials say that transforming the equestrian center into parking for an additional 2,000 people would cost $2 million, as opposed to $53 million to build a multilevel parking structure in place of one of their existing lots.

Some riders dispute the notion that the fair needs to keep expanding, though, and think that paving over one of the area’s last bastions of quiet, country culture would run contrary to the fair’s mission of exposing an increasingly urban community to its livestock and farming roots.

“It’s OK not to be able to take more land for a parking lot. It’s OK to wait to raise the money to build a parking structure. It’s not a problem: They’re making it a problem,” said Sharon Gerstenzang, who rides at the center about three times a week.

But the fair is only growing to meet the demand brought about by the increase in the county population, according to Chief Executive Steve Beazley, and the country-style character of the fair may need to change to meet the desires of a larger and more diverse audience.

“As long as the county is growing, there are more constituents and people that we can invite to the fair,” Beazley said.

Lauren Spear lives in Yorba Linda, and she comes to Costa Mesa, where her horse is kept, four or five times a week to practice riding and jumping. Before she started going to the equestrian center, Spear had to load her horse in a trailer and drive it from Yorba Linda each time she wanted to train.

“Yorba Linda has closed many of their facilities, and this is the best place for the training I want to do,” Spear said.

As Orange County has developed at a rapid pace, more and more riding and stabling areas have disappeared. The nearest ones to Costa Mesa of comparable size are on the northern end of Huntington Beach and in South County, and riders say they prefer the atmosphere at the fairgrounds.

“This one is more homey. It’s very friendly, and it’s not so big and impersonal,” said Beth Kelley, who rides about three times a week.

On most days riders saddle up and make their way around the center’s handful of tracks, jumping white wooden gates and fences.

Rick Hanson, whose family owns and runs the equestrian center, said it wasn’t too surprising to hear the fair board is looking at taking back the land that it leases to the center.

“It was just a matter of time before they realized that they needed the parking, they needed the storage or whatever because they don’t have those things off-site anymore,” Hanson said. “That’s why our family has seen this coming for a long time. I just hope we can find an alternate site, and we are committed to at least trying.”

Hanson said fair officials have promised that if they took his land, they would use their contacts with the county and state to help him find another place. But horse aficionados familiar with the area say there aren’t many flat, open areas close enough to keep the present clientele.

The center provides full-time employment for a number of trainers, and many of them are worried that they won’t be able to find other jobs if it closes.

“There is no other place near here. I would lose my clientele,” said trainer Robyn Stiegler, who stables 25 horses at the fairgrounds and draws most of her customers from Newport Beach, Irvine and Costa Mesa.

Stiegler is already trying to find a way into the Huntington Beach center, but they aren’t looking for more trainers with her specialties, she said.

While the equestrian lifestyle is valuable, the fair needs to weigh the amount of people who are taking advantage of the center against the amount of people who might benefit from other uses that could be made of the flat, open space, Beazley said.

The board of directors will decide whether to initiate a study to that effect at its next meeting at the fairgrounds at 10 a.m. Thursday.

ALAN BLANK may be reached at (714) 966-4623 or at [email protected].