Curbs on Bingo Imperil Riding Therapy Project

A Simi Valley group that teaches horseback riding to handicapped children and adults says it is facing a financial crisis because of a Simi Valley City Council decision to limit bingo games.

At first blush, it might seem that equestrian therapy and the game of bingo don’t have much in common. But bingo proceeds fund the ranch’s operation.

The Institute of Equestrian Therapy runs a two-acre ranch in Chatsworth where handicapped riders, many of whom arrive on crutches or in wheelchairs, can gain confidence simply by mounting a horse for the first time.

“That’s special,” said program director Gloria Hamblin on Thursday. “It’s a real self-esteem booster.”

But according to Hamblin, the program is threatened because of a Simi Valley law that only allows an organization to hold one bingo game a week.

Hamblin--who runs the ranch along with Jacques Fouchaux, the director and a former cavalry rider in the French army--says the crisis could be resolved through a modest change to two games a week.

Today at 5:45 p.m., a news conference is scheduled at 4241 Valley Fair in Simi Valley, where the bingo games are held, in an effort to rally support for the institute’s program. Volunteers who work at the ranch and some of their handicapped students are expected to attend.

Meanwhile, Simi Valley officials insist that they are not mean-spirited Scrooges.

Still, they say that if they allow the institute to have an extra bingo game a week, they will have to be evenhanded with other local groups who also hold bingo games in town.

“It’s tough when you have to start picking one charity over another,” Simi Valley Mayor Greg Stratton said.

Stratton said Thursday, however, that local lawmakers “understand the problem of all of these charities.”

So next month, he said, he and his four council colleagues will take another look at the law.

Hamblin, 40, said the institute’s program was founded by herself and Fouchaux in 1974 with borrowed horses and borrowed land. She said that finally, in 1985, proceeds from twice-a-week bingo operations allowed them to buy the two-acre ranch in Chatsworth, which was in foreclosure at the time.

Now, she said, the institute has six horses and four ponies and provides about 2,500 lessons a year to the handicapped. Some riders pay something, up to $15 a lesson, but “80% of the riders don’t pay,” she said.

That was fine until February, 1989, when the Simi Valley City Council voted to reduce the number of bingo games that permit holders could run from two to one a week. Brian Gabler, the assistant to the city manager, said lawmakers had a number of concerns.

For instance, he said, council members were apprehensive over how and where bingo funds were being used.

One issue, he said, was “were proceeds leaving the city for other uses?” Lawmakers were also concerned about the percentage of funds actually being used for charitable purposes, he said.

The new law was “grandfathered”--at the request of the institute, Gabler said--so it would not take effect until June, 1990.

Currently, he said, there are nine organizations in Simi Valley--including churches, an alcohol-recovery program, a senior citizens group and a boys and girls club--that raise funds through bingo games.

Gabler said about 200 people attend the institute’s six hours of bingo games on Friday night in a building on Valley Fair. According to city records, the games took in $141,000 in May and June, and paid out $112,000 in prizes. Overhead was $28,000, he said.

“One bingo game basically pays the expenses,” Hamblin said. She said the institute needs a second game each week at the same site to fund the riding program.

A worse problem exists at another bingo game that the institute started six months ago in Granada Hills in the San Fernando Valley. It loses money weekly, she said.

Meanwhile, she said, the ranch’s bills are outpacing its income.

“I had a horse die last week with $600 in medical fees and I have only $120 in the ranch’s bank to cover it,” Hamblin said.

Hamblin said the institute has scheduled a fund-raiser for Sept. 12 at the Iverson Movie Ranch in Chatsworth. Between 4 and 10 p.m., a barbecue and Western-style dancing are scheduled.