O.C. fairgrounds’ Equestrian Center could close in March if new operator can’t be found
For more than a decade, the Orange County fairgrounds Equestrian Center has been a sanctuary for Carolyn Beaver, who rediscovered a long-held passion for horseback riding while taking lessons there.
“I started taking lessons once a week. I had forgotten how much fun it is and how much I love it,” said the Corona del Mar resident, who used to ride and show horses. “Then once a week turned into twice a week. And once I retired in 2016, I started riding more.”
In addition to offering riding lessons, the Corona del Mar resident also pays to board a horse at the Costa Mesa facility — a 19-year-old chestnut named Don Juan. Beaver also serves on the board of the nonprofit Changing Strides, which operates riding programs and camps for at-risk youth.
The center, which has operated for the last 45 years within a stone’s throw of the highly trafficked main fairgrounds, is not much, but it suits equestrians like Beaver just fine.
“It’s not exactly a lovely facility, but it’s an adequate facility,” she said Tuesday. “It’s efficient, and it provides access for me.”
But all that could soon change. Officials with the Orange County Fair & Event Center are contemplating the fate of the 7.5-acre parcel which, despite being situated on state-owned land, generates revenue mostly through the private trainers who run programs and offer lessons there.
Board members recently agreed to issue a request for proposals seeking an operator who is willing to not only run the center but to undertake some of the needed capital upgrades.
In a meeting earlier this month, they walked through aspects of the request, which will be issued in early December in hopes a potential bidder might be approved by March 2024.
If that does not happen, the center could be forced to close by March 31. It’s a hard pill to swallow for Beaver.
“If it closes, where does everybody go?” she asked. “Where do the kids go?”
Since 2013 OCFEC, operating as California’s 32nd District Agricultural Assn., had outsourced operation of the Equestrian Center to San Juan Capistrano-based Equestrian Services II, whose staff cleaned and maintained the facility and fed its equine inhabitants.
The company paid the OC Fair & Event Center 10% of gross receipts or $3,000 per month, whichever was higher. Last year, that generated roughly $137,000 in net proceeds, according to figures provided by OCFEC Chief Executive Michele Richards.
But in 2021, as the facility aged out, requiring capital upgrades that would far exceed the terms of the Equestrian Services II contract, fairground officials decided on a new course of action. They would allow the company to continue operating the center through 2022 and then take over the reins themselves.
“The board decided at that time we would take over operations in 2023, so we could really get our arms around what it is really costing to run this place,” Richards said Monday. “We had suspected internally, perhaps what the district was earning was not enough to cover the true expenses of that operation.”
Fairground officials have placed all aspects of the site’s care and keeping into one centralized budget, including previously untallied items such as utilities usage and deferred maintenance, and are projecting steep losses by year’s end.
Approximately $2.7 million was earmarked this year to run the Equestrian Center, but only $1.4 million in revenue is projected.
After working through different scenarios, taking on some duties in house, raising fees and contracting with Laguna Hills-based Lopez Works, Inc. to provide up to $1.8 million in cleaning, maintenance and feeding each year, officials are still looking at an annual loss of $227,805.
And that doesn’t include the needed capital improvements, estimates of which range from $2 million to $20 million.
Although the OC Fair & Event Center Board in February approved the first installment of what will be a $229-million effort to implement a slate of improvements and renovations — including an $86.6 million “AgriPlex” — no plan for continuing Equestrian Center lessons and programs is mentioned.
Richards said operating as a state agricultural association, OCFEC is not authorized to spend money to benefit private enterprises. She pointed to the site’s Centennial Farm and Heroes Hall as two operations that can be paid for because they provide a benefit to the greater taxpaying public.
“The people of the state of California are subsidizing those businesses because the state is not profiting from it,” she said of the center. “The only way you can ride a horse at that Equestrian Center is if you board it there or you’re taking a lesson from one of the private trainers — those are private businesses.”
Aileen Anderson, who takes lessons at the Equestrian Center with husband Brian Cummings and daughter Camryn and boards 5-year-old retired thoroughbred Lily there, disagrees.
“I’m hearing this bandied around quite a bit. But that’s not true,” the Irvine resident said Wednesday, pointing to more than 2,000 waivers signed by people who participate in lessons and programs from August 2021 to this August.
“People from outside can’t learn to ride unless there are trainers there — it’s a safety thing. It’s a dangerous sport.”
Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley, whose 5th Supervisorial District includes the fairgrounds, said she sees the center more like a park than a private enterprise.
“If I had my way, we would have more programs there for the public. They would have shows and events and competitions,” she said Tuesday.
“It’s one of those things we need to protect, and sometimes that means investing in it instead of relying on a private individual to manage and maintain it,” Foley continued. “[The county] doesn’t have jurisdiction over state property. However, I am happy to bring the resources of my office to the facility. But it’s one of those things where I have to be invited.”
All the latest on Orange County from Orange County.
Get our free TimesOC newsletter.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Daily Pilot.
