Stable Helps Ease Legal Drudgery for Joan Irvine Smith

As a girl, Joan Irvine Smith rode horses over the rolling rangelands of the Irvine Ranch that was then her grandfather’s place.

At 52, the granddaughter of the founder of the Irvine Co., Orange County’s mammoth land development firm, once more is riding horseback in the county--but this time at a stable she operates as a business on acreage outside the Irvine Ranch in San Juan Capistrano.

Smith, described as “kind of horse crazy” by her former husband, Morton (Cappy) Smith, with whom she operates a thoroughbred breeding farm in Virginia, said she bought the Orange County stable called the Oaks partly as a diversion from the drudgery involved in her current legal dispute over the value of her 11% ownership interest in the Irvine Co.

Since 1977, when she became embroiled in a series of complex lawsuits with officials of the Irvine Co., Smith has chosen not to leave Orange County even for a day to visit her Virginia farm. She spends her time vigilantly attending a variety of government meetings and writing correspondence involving company-related issues.

Misses Her Horses

But all the while she said she has sorely missed her horses. In the fall of 1984, while driving down Ortega Highway to another meeting of water boards, Smith said she spotted a rather dilapidated stable on the roadside. “I said, . . . I could really shape it up,” she recalled. So last spring she bought the 12-acre stable and arranged to lease a few additional acres for her new enterprise. Under Smith’s close direction, workmen renovated the barns, installed a new irrigation system, planted bright coral-hued flowers, and artfully trimmed the spreading oak trees. They also prepared a cottage where prospective horse buyers can stay the night if they wish. And they spruced up the show rings where horses can compete for trophies that will prove their mettle and increase their sales value.

The Oaks, with stable accommodations for 108 horses, takes in boarders but also has about 48 jumpers and hunters in training under horseman Jimmy Kohn. About a dozen of the horses in training are owned by Smith. “I am buying and selling show horses, same as I do back East,” Smith said. “It sure as hell is no hobby,” she added.

Plans Horse Show

Deeming the stable finally to be “almost shipshape,” Smith just before Christmas hosted a riding clinic there under the tutelage of George H. Morris, a top riding coach and former member of the U.S. Equestrian Team. She promises to hold a horse show next spring.

Arriving at the clinic in a chauffeured black Mercedes, Smith, who bought her first thoroughbred show horse when she was 15, said that show horse competition has “just come into fashion on the West Coast in the last 10 years.” The biggest boon to the sport, she said, derived from the Olympic Games last year, when the United States won gold medals at the horse events conducted at Santa Anita.

As a reflection of the greater public enthusiasm, she said, the price paid for top show thoroughbreds has soared from about $100,000 15 years ago to “as much as $1 million” today.

Eyes ’88 Olympics

Smith said she has her sights set on having a horse qualify for the 1988 Olympics competition. She has hired rider Joie Gatlin--named rookie of the year in 1984 by the American Grand Prix Assn.--and believes that four of her horses under Kohn’s training, although early in their development, are of potential Olympic quality.

“Everybody wants to do it (get on the Olympic team) but we are going to do it,” agreed Kohn.

Whenever Smith’s court dispute over the value of her Irvine Co. stock is resolved--she won’t predict even the year it might end--she said she hopes to have more money free to invest in her horse business. She said she wants to keep more of the best horses she breeds in Virginia to race or show for herself. “I have always had to sell off the good stuff,” she said. “Financially I couldn’t afford to keep it because so much money is eaten up in lawsuits.”