Trails and Tribulation in Horse Country : Lifestyles: A public hearing turns into a noisy argument over Rancho Palos Verdes’ plans for bridle paths through non-equestrian neighborhoods.

Rancho Palos Verdes is having an identity crisis when it comes to horses.

Equestrians in the city want local bridle paths well maintained and extended across the city’s high country to link up with riding trails in neighboring Rolling Hills Estates. Bridle paths add to the Palos Verdes Peninsula’s rural setting and enhance its suburban property values, they argue.

“I can’t imagine not riding, there’s such a joy in it,” said Sheri Hastings, a Rancho Palos Verdes equestrian who fears the city is trying to close trails to horses in some areas. “We want the trails to stay open and always be available to horses,” she said.

Not everyone agrees.

“The idea that horses and horse trails enhance property values is nonsense,” said Ray Mathys, spokesman for the Mesa Palos Verdes Homeowners Assn. Pointing out that horse dung attracts flies, he asserted that equestrian trails are little better than “toxic waste dumps.”

Debate on the issue got stormy during a public hearing Wednesday night before the Recreation and Parks Committee. The meeting, held to review the city’s controversial trails plan, turned into a noisy argument over horse trails through non-equestrian neighborhoods.

Mathys pointed out that the City Council has expressed support for eliminating horse trails in neighborhoods that are not zoned for horses if residents oppose the trails. He said horses have a “negative impact on the lifestyle and quality of life” in his neighborhood.

The association filed an official protest saying it was joining other organizations in the Crest, Crenshaw and Crestridge areas to object “to the repeated efforts on the part of horse enthusiasts to encroach on the non-horse environment in this section of the city.”

Mathys’ comments drew boos, cheers and catcalls from an audience packed with pro-horse and anti-horse forces. In the end, the committee put off making recommendations to the City Council, deciding instead to table the matter for further discussion.

The horse controversy in Rancho Palos Verdes has deep roots. Five years ago, the Palos Verdes Peninsula Horsemen’s Assn. and horse enthusiasts in neighboring Rolling Hills Estates pressured Rancho Palos Verdes for more connecting trails to allow loop rides through both cities.

Rolling Hills Estates is boots-and-saddle country. Most streets are paralleled by white-fenced horse trails, and many back yards have postage stamp-size corrals and mini-barns. Horse trailers sit in the driveways.

Riders like Steve Deming of Rolling Hills Estates, a commercial real estate broker and former president of the horsemen’s association, argue that subdivisions are being built in neighboring Rancho Palos Verdes without horse trails, blocking equestrian routes that have been used for years.

Rancho Palos Verdes, a city of 42,000, surrounds much of the smaller Rolling Hills Estates. Their common boundary loops and snakes over the crest of the peninsula, creating odd jurisdictional cul-de-sacs--and debate about bridle paths.

The most controversial trails in Rolling Hills Estates end at Rancho Palos Verdes subdivisions like Mesa Palos Verdes, where horses are not wanted nor allowed. Horse owners in both cities want to open these dead ends, extending the trails across “the hill” through Rancho Palos Verdes neighborhoods.

Of these routes, the so-called “North-South Cut” causes the most disagreement. The trail parallels Crenshaw Boulevard from Silver Spur Road to Indian Peak Road and then stops.

Rolling Hills Estates wants to extend the trail along Crenshaw to Crestridge, in Rancho Palos Verdes, then have it turn west on Crestridge to Highridge Road. So far, Rancho Palos Verdes officials have opposed the plan.

“I don’t understand this opposition. What’s so terrible about a nice-looking trail that everybody can use, hikers, joggers, equestrians?” said Jacki McGuire, horsewoman and Rolling Hills Estates councilwoman. She called for cooperation between the two cities.

The Coastal Conservation Coalition, a peninsula-wide organization of environmental groups, weighs in on the side of the equestrians.

“We strongly oppose any effort to reduce equestrian use or the effort to limit equestrian trails only to (specific) zones,” Andrew H. Sargent, coalition president, testified Wednesday night.

It is unclear how much weight such sentiment will carry with Rancho Palos Verdes officials. Although Rancho Palos Verdes has some ardent horseback riders, the city has never had the same horse-country ambience as neighboring Rolling Hills Estates, or the more exclusive Rolling Hills.

Only half a dozen Rancho Palos Verdes subdivisions are zoned for horses. The city has few bridle paths, none of which are regularly maintained. Already in a financial crisis, city officials say there is not enough local government money to extend or maintain trails of any kind.

Even if there were, it is uncertain whether Mayor John C. McTaggart would want to forge equestrian links with Rolling Hills Estates. He recalls when that city approved a subdivision called “The Ranch,” where horses are allowed. It abuts a Rancho Palos Verdes neighborhood that is not zoned for horses.

“I was infuriated when they (Rolling Hills Estates) put The Ranch in a non-horse area,” McTaggart said. “They were very inconsiderate . . . they approved it over our council’s objections,” he said.