Rising rents and threat of facility closure worries SoCal’s equestrian community

Recent rent hikes and the potential closure of two public equestrian facilities in Southern California underscore a larger problem of finding boarding facilities for horse owners.

In March, the board of the state run O.C. Fair & Event Center voted to increase rents for boarders and trainers at its equestrian facility. The rent hikes, they said, were needed to close budget deficits and to keep the equestrian facility running. Officials moved to phase in an increase of rentals of 12-by-12 foot stalls from $644 a month to about $1,000 a month by January 2025.

Rent hikes are not the only setback horse owners have to contend with. Earlier this week, Lakewood’s city leaders pushed a decision to shutter the Lakewood Equestrian Center. The center wasn’t profitable, they said, with the city standing to lose around $100,000 annually because of the equestrian center. City leaders have proposed building a revenue generating sports complex with pickleball courts and a skatepark instead.

Macki Hamblin runs her business out of the O.C. Fair & Event Center and has rented stables there for the last two years. She said the increase in boarding fees are unaffordable and that she may have to sell or rehome some of her horses.

If that happens, she said she won't be able to partner with her nonprofit clients to provide equine therapy for at-risk youth and recovering veterans in Costa Mesa, Irvine and Garden Grove. The increase in rent will also mean the end of programs she runs for youth and adults to help them stay active.

“I have one of the smaller programs at the O.C. Fair, but there’s two trainers that have over 20 horses in their program. There is no space for them. There is nowhere to go,” she said. “We are really stuck where we are at. We love the location. We love serving the community.”

Orange County, she said, has five public-run equestrian facilities. In Huntington Beach, the equestrian center has a waitlist for its pipe stalls, while in San Juan Capistrano, horses can only be boarded there if they are being trained by an in-house trainer.

Lack of facilities

There are no equestrian facilities within a 30-minute drive from the O.C. Fairgrounds and most of Hamblin’s clientele are residents from the local community.

“When it comes down to getting down to San Juan Capistrano in the middle of rush hour, you're looking at an hour, that's not going to be feasible for most families,” Hamblin said.

Some of her clients not only fear losing access to her services, which she provides for free, but for the fate of her horses.

“They have a big connection with these horses. It's a lot of bonding. These aren't just a motorcycle that you can sell. They're a living, breathing soul, and a lot of the equine therapy that we do connects with that,” she said.

Equines for mental health support

Taylor Cohen had a hard time finding a facility that would take her mule and her horse together, and was forced to board them an hour-and-a-half away in Redlands. That was until last fall when she was able to board both her animals closer to her home at the Lakewood Equestrian Center.

Cohen is a paramedic and said her mule provides her mental health relief. She's hoping that when the Lakewood City Council reconsiders the closure of its equestrian center in August, they keep the facilities open.

“Eighteen years as a first responder, I've definitely seen the worst of the worst,” she said. “These horses, there's a form of therapy from a horse and a mule that nurtures empathy and responsibility and resilience.”