Equestrian holdouts, horses barred from O.C. fairgrounds arenas amid contract dispute
More than a month after notices were posted at the O.C. fairgrounds’ Equestrian Center — giving tenants who hadn’t signed onto new contract terms 30 days to reconsider or vacate — padlocks went up Thursday, blocking arenas and open spaces.
Some horse boarders, trainers and riders who keep equines at the 7.5-acre Costa Mesa center were shocked to learn their horses would be physically restricted to barns and paved walkways at the site.
“[Horses] need to be able to move,” said equestrian Macki Hamblin, who’s rented six stalls at the facility for the past two years. “Taking away their turnout time or riding, they’re not able to get their exercise.”
A contingent of outlier tenants, after encountering the padlocks, showed up with horses and protest signs to demonstrate outside a special reception being held at the fairgrounds for area dignitaries and local officials.
Despite equestrians’ shock and dismay, OC Fair & Event Center Chief Executive Michele Richards warned in a July 27 letter common areas would be blocked to those tenants who’d failed to submit to a new six-month contract outlining rental fee increases and other mandates by a June 15 deadline.
“Only occupants with a valid rental agreement will be permitted to use the arenas, round pens, turnouts and hot walkers,” the letter reads. “Feeding of horses and cleaning of stalls will continue and will not be interrupted.”
Hamblin is among 20 tenants who submitted a signed contract by the deadline but included several edits she claimed were necessary to ensure the safety of her animals. The red-lined contracts, and rent checks that failed to include the recent fee hikes, were rejected by OCFEC.
Richards confirmed Friday another 16 tenants have valid contracts and badge access to the common areas for at least 10 horses, while another 50 animals kept by outlier tenants do not.
Many boarders — including those who, like Hamblin, provide horses, training and program support to nonprofits that work with low-income students, veterans and individuals with special needs — say the increased rents will price them out of the facility.
Others take umbrage with the fact that fairground officials, who took over operations of the facility from a third-party vendor in 2023, entered a costly contract with Laguna Hills-based street-sweeping company Lopez Works, Inc. for maintenance and cleaning of the grounds.
Those with a long history of keeping horses at the site, who can recall past efforts to close the Equestrian Center to accommodate a parking lot, fear increasingly untenable conditions will lead to the center’s closure.
A $229-million facilities master plan for the Costa Mesa fairgrounds, approved in Jan. 2023 by OCFEC’s Board of Trustees, included no proposals for improving the current facility.
Instead, the document outlined a plan for a public-facing community equine center that will offer therapeutic programs, hands-on demonstrations, training and regional horse shows, in addition to private horse boarding and lessons, under the new moniker the Ranch.
Local equestrians stood outside Costa Mesa City Hall Thursday to protest Equestrian Center rent hikes and urge fairgrounds officials to include them in future plans for the Ranch.
Although board members have publicly expressed a desire to bring stakeholders to the table in the visioning process for the Ranch, so far only hastily scheduled one-on-one, closed-door sessions with Richards have been offered to tenants.
Hamblin said that beyond the fee hikes, the main sticking point among Thursday’s protesters is that no good-faith offer has been made by officials to discuss new contract terms, ways to save money or to include stakeholder input on what future programs at the Ranch might look like.
“We’ve been asking for a seat at the table and asking to have a conversation,” said Hamblin, who had a one-on-one meeting with Richards in May she described as unproductive. “At board meetings, we get to talk and they get to talk, but there’s really no interaction.
“I’m hopeful we can have a dialogue and have everyone get back on the same page.”
As for barring horses from exercise areas, Orange County Supervisor and former Costa Mesa Mayor Katrina Foley in a release Thursday called the move unfair to boarders and their horses.
“Fair staff must reverse this decision and open the arena for exercising horses and resume discussions with tenants after the conclusion of the OC Fair,” Foley said. “Right now, we must focus on helping the horses while the humans negotiate their disputes.”
Hamblin agrees.
“Part of me doesn’t quite understand resorting to leveraging people’s animals for negotiations,” she said Friday. “That does not make sense to the animal lover in me. They didn’t do anything — why are they being punished?”
Although no steps to physically evict uncontracted tenants and their horses have been taken, Richards confirmed Friday the district was “considering all options available to it.”
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