Race Against the Rain Is an Equine Emergency : Storms: Mud-filled pens at an Anaheim stable are endangering horses used in a riding program for handicapped children.

On a typical Saturday, volunteers at the Rancho del Rio Stables spend the day with handicapped youngsters, teaching them to ride and care for horses as a form of therapy for their physical disabilities.

But Saturday, the continuing rain caused the cancellation of all classes and volunteers found themselves struggling to remove 18 horses from a mixture of rain and mud that seemed like quicksand.

“We are up to our knees--and the horses’ knees--in mud,” said Julie Nerney, a volunteer at the American Riding Club for the Handicapped, based at the stable. “The horses are just mired in the mud. It’s a real mess.”

On Saturday, volunteers were drenched despite knee-high rubber boots and rain slickers as they shoveled mud and muck from around the horses’ hoofs so the animals could leave their saturated stables. Workers then tried to shovel most of the mud from sheltered areas and replace it with sand and crushed gravel to give the horses solid footing.

But club Executive Director Frosty Kaiser said the nonprofit group was running out of time and resources. Kaiser said she is pleading with construction companies for donations of sand and gravel, as well as a helping hand or use of a tractor at the facility situated east of the Orange Freeway between Ball Road and Katella Avenue.

“We’re real desperate for sand and people who will give a hand shoveling,” said Tom Bradley of Garden Grove, head wrangler and volunteer at the club. “We just can’t afford (to purchase) any more sand.”

During the early morning Saturday, some of the horses were standing in the midst of pelting rain because they couldn’t pull themselves out of the mud and seek shelter under tin roofs, Kaiser said. The animals, most of which weigh about 1,400 pounds, struggled to pull their back hoofs free only to find their front hoofs sinking into the mud.

The club horses make public appearances during the Rose Parade and are used for training by members of the Orange County Special Olympics Equestrian Team, Kaiser said.

Kaiser said she worries that the horses could develop hoof infections from standing in deep mud. Some of the horses were already experiencing swelling in their lower legs Saturday.

“We’re worried about our horses getting sick because many of them are old,” Kaiser said.

Kaiser said she feared such flooding after the club was moved in 1991 to a new portion of the stable area, located on lower ground, to make room for the city’s new sports arena.

Kaiser said she is still grateful to have the stable area for her club, which at one point faced eviction to clear the way for the arena.

The club area is also near the Santa Ana River, which has swollen with the rains.

“I don’t even want to think about what will happen if the river overflows,” Kaiser said. “We’d be washed out.”

Bradley said the animals provide a special form of therapy for disabled children who often live in pain due to their disabilities.

“We have kids who never smile or respond, and you put them on the back of a horse and their faces light up,” Bradley said. “It’s like the horses know they’re doing a special job too. They’re extremely gentle.”

* WILD WEATHER: Storm causes flooding and one fatality in county. A1