Beleaguered Stables Circle the Wagons in San Juan

Seated near a dusty corral with a hound dog panting at his side, stable owner Rocky Aguilar tipped back his cowboy hat and glumly contemplated his future without horses.

Aguilar, 63, has boarded horses in San Juan Capistrano since 1958. Before that, he said, he operated boarding stables in San Gabriel, Azusa, Glendora and Chino--until development forced him out each time.

Now, progress has caught up with Aguilar again. Because the city plans to extend San Juan Creek Road past Rocky’s Stables, the property owner has ordered Aguilar’s and two other stables off the land so improvements can be made.

Aguilar has until mid-August to clear out. Buck Morse Thoroughbred Farms and Sal’s Good-Time Stables have to get out even earlier. The three stables board a total of about 150 horses.

After being run out of so many cities, Aguilar said he doesn’t figure to get back in the horse business anytime soon.

Backs Against the Sea

“I told the city here a few years ago that our backs are up against the sea with our horses,” Aguilar said this week. “I think this is just the beginning of the end for horses here.”

Although property owner Patricia Hoffman has indicated she will seek city approval to reopen the 25-acre tract as an equestrian center, the closure of these other three stables reflects a trend throughout Orange County.

Ever since the Orange County land rush began during the 1960s, horse lovers have seen their boarding stables gradually pushed out of the heavily populated northern and central county areas and concentrated in the southern part of the county.

But even once-pastoral south county is no longer a sanctuary. The result: Stables are in such short supply in Orange County that the remaining two dozen or so have waiting lists--some as long as eight months.

“There’s definitely a shortage, no question about it,” said Pam Gimple, manager of the equestrian center at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa, which boards nearly 300 horses. “They’re closing down so fast it’s hard to keep up.”

Half of Stables Lost

Although no central figures are available, Jill Marie-Jones, editor of Horse Illustrated magazine in Irvine, estimated “probably we’ve lost more than half the stables” in the past 15 years.

Marie-Jones said the decline is particularly evident in the northern and central parts of the county, where stables and riding trails once dotted the countryside around Santa Ana, Costa Mesa, Orange and Huntington Beach.

There are few places to board a horse today in those areas except the Orange County Fairgrounds and Huntington Central Park, a private facility on city of Huntington Beach property, Marie-Jones said.

In south county, a popular stable on the coast below Corona del Mar closed about four years ago. To help meet the demand after that closure, county officials last year tried to find a site on which to build an equestrian center.

The search narrowed to the unincorporated Santa Ana Heights area, one of the few communities in Orange County where zoning allows horses, but in May, 1987, the Board of Supervisors rejected the site as unsuitable.

With development now closing in on San Juan Capistrano, the county’s last remaining equestrian stronghold, the 14 boarding stables there are starting to feel the pressure. Already, Marie-Jones said, several others that used to be along Ortega Highway have succumbed to development.

“Time to leave, get out of Dodge,” muttered Sal Llamas, 53, owner of Sal’s Stables as he packed up belongings this week. Llamas, who has boarded horses for 10 years on the Hoffman property, said he would be moving his operation to Riverside County.

The encroachment of development creates two problems: Land values increase until it becomes economically unwise to use the land for boarding horses, and new neighbors don’t always like the presence of flies and the smell of manure.

In Fullerton, for instance, two homeowners on Claire Avenue are scheduled to go to Superior Court on July 7 to try to force the nearby Lucky Copper stables to move.

Horse stables generally wind up knuckling under to such opposition, according to Ilse Byrnes, a member of the State Recreational Trails Committee and chairwoman of the city Equestrian Commission in San Juan Capistrano.

“People involved in horses are not a vocal group,” Byrnes said. “They find themselves pushed out.”

Some horse owners are being forced to move their horses to such faraway locations as Riverside County, Gimple said.

“If you live here (in Orange County) and work for a living, you don’t want to drive an hour to see your horse at night,” Gimple said.

Horse owners who can find stable space pay an increasingly steep price. The Orange County Fairgrounds, for instance, charges a boarding fee of $260 per month. That compares to $185 per month when that equestrian center opened seven years ago.

Some horse owners are responding by selling one or more of their horses.

“There are more horses on the market than I have ever seen,” said Brenda Aguilar, Rocky Aguilar’s wife.

Marie-Jones said the increased cost of owning a horse is discouraging all but the most wealthy people. And they tend to own horses primarily for show competition, she said.

It used to be, she said, that horses were kept for pleasure riding. But the costs and the loss of riding trails has all but made it impossible for the average family to enjoy pleasure riding in Orange County, Marie-Jones said.

“And it’s unfortunate,” she said, “because I frankly don’t think there’s a bigger thrill for a kid than riding a horse.”

Rocky Aguilar and Sal Llamas don’t blame Hoffman for her decision to improve the property. Nor do their customers, who have been told by Hoffman that their horses may stay on the land in temporary stables for a while.

Some, like longtime Rocky’s customer Eilie Bergeson, 75, have put themselves on waiting lists at other San Juan stables.

“If people want to have horses, they’ll find a place to board ‘em,” said Bergeson, of San Clemente.

Hoffman’s daughter, Joyce Hoffman, said her family eventually hopes to build an equestrian center capable of boarding 200 horses on the property. Although they could make more money by doing something else with the land, Joyce Hoffman said they prefer the horse business for sentimental reasons.

“This is a unique part of San Juan,” she said. “We’re located adjacent to San Juan Creek and this has always been planned as an open-space, equestrian type of area.”

The city of San Juan Capistrano, with its Equestrian Commission, encourages the equestrian life style. The city operates its own 100-stall stable and has set up a 20-mile network of horse trails. The city also sponsors horsemanship classes for the public.

With this kind of commitment, city officials don’t envision a San Juan Capistrano without horses. Despite gloomy predictions by people such as Aguilar, Byrnes maintains that better times are in store.

“I think with awareness by people of how good it is to be around horses, I don’t think stables will keep declining,” Byrnes said. “People think it’s neat to have the horse around and wonderful to look at.”