City Reduces Insurance Requirement : Popular Norco Riding Stable Reopens

A riding stable here, in a city where horses outnumber people 2 to 1, has reopened after the City Council this week agreed to reduce the requirement for liability insurance.

Price’s River Trails Riding Stables, like other groups using city property, had been required to have $1 million in coverage. On Wednesday night, though, a sharply divided City Council voted to lower its requirement to $500,000.

And Thursday, Ralph Price’s customers were back.

“I think (the City Council) had a lot of courage,” Price said Thursday. “I’m thankful to be open. . . .”

After months of searching for insurance, Ralph Price last week finally had found an insurance company that was willing to write a $500,000 liability policy for his stables--half of what he needed before the council action on Wednesday.

A dense bamboo forest hides the trails that wind through the 271-acre River Trails Park where Price leases space for his stables. Riders used to wait in line to rent horses on weekends, but the on-again, off-again closures that the insurance problem prompted have discouraged his regular customers, Price said. “Not too many people realize we’re open.”

Open to Lawsuits

But Councilwoman Naomi Feagan, who with Councilman R. L. (Dick) MacGregor voted against lowering the insurance requirements, said that by allowing Price to operate with only $500,000 insurance, the council was “laying the city wide open” to lawsuits.

“I don’t feel we’re affluent enough to take chances like this,” Feagan said. “One incident could be disastrous. . . . The whole city can suffer for what we do for one particular person or one particular group.”

Feagan supported City Manager Ronald E. Cano’s recommendation to continue requiring $1 million in coverage for equestrian activities, but to lower the requirement to $500,000 for other uses of city facilities.

But Councilman Steve M. Nathan, who voted with the three-member majority, said a higher insurance requirement wouldn’t prevent lawsuits. “To be really safe, we would close the city,” he said.

After the vote, Cano said: “You get a $5-million claim against you; what’s another $500,000?”

The city is grappling with insurance problems of its own. Its annual liability premium more than doubled this year, from $58,222 last year to $131,924, and the amount of coverage was cut by half.

Norco’s policy covers up to $5 million in liability, after the city pays the first $50,000 on any claim.

But most significant for this horse-oriented community, the policy does not cover city liability for equestrian events.

So city officials have been looking at options. The City Council voted unanimously Wednesday to pay a $250 application fee to join a consortium of Inland Empire cities that have formed their own insurance pool.