Horses From College Stable Are Moved to Ojai Ranch : Auction: Handling of animals from Moorpark equine program has been a series of missteps.

Sixteen horses owned by Moorpark College were taken to an Ojai Valley ranch Thursday after college district officials decided that they had botched arrangements to sell the animals.

Trustees of the Ventura County Community College District decided Wednesday to move the animals from their Newbury Park stables--which must be vacated by the end of July--to make sure they are cared for while officials re-advertise a public sale.

It was the latest in a series of missteps since the district decided last year to shut down the Moorpark College equine program.

Early this month, officials discovered that retiring director Don Anderson had informally disposed of many of the publicly owned horses without following state guidelines. On July 5, the trustees ordered an auction and solicited bids.

But because only 12 of the 17 horses advertised were available for inspection by potential buyers and announcements of the sale did not meet state requirements, trustees decided Wednesday to reject all the bids.

Four of the five missing horses had been transported to the Foxfield Riding Academy in Newbury Park under an agreement with Anderson that the district has since rescinded. The fifth horse--a 30-year-old stallion deemed worthless--was donated to a former student who will be allowed to keep it.

In addition, officials have discovered seven more college-owned horses at an Ojai stable, where Anderson had moved them early last month.

Trustees were unaware of those horses until this week, when Jamie Skeeters, the Oxnard police commander who owns Ojai Valley Farms with his wife, Kay, alerted college President James Walker. Skeeters said he wanted to make sure he was legally boarding the animals.

“We’re proud of what we have on our property, and I don’t like the shadow that’s been cast over it,” Skeeters told the college district trustees Wednesday night.

Walker told trustees that Anderson erroneously believed the horses were his personal property, not the college’s. Anderson has since relinquished any claim to the animals, Walker said.

With the seven additional animals, 23 horses will now be for sale when college officials finalize plans for the next public auction. All will be housed at Ojai Valley Farms in the meantime.

But the decision to reject the original bids did not sit well with several would-be buyers who had followed stringent bidding guidelines requiring them to submit payment and show they had suitable facilities.

“Fourteen bidders had acted in good faith to abide by the district’s hasty and unreasonable demands,” said John Eblen, a Newbury Park man who bid on one small pony. “I believe that the district has broken faith with these individuals in rejecting their bids.”

Eblen was not alone.

“My hopes have been raised, and I would really like the opportunity to have my bid accepted,” said Kevin Gasner, an engineer from Oxnard who is moving with his family to a small ranch in Camarillo. “We went through a lot of effort to get our bids in on time.”

But governing board members voted to reject the 14 bids received in the first auction and start the process anew.

“This should be invalidated,” said Trustee Gregory Cole. “We rushed it and other information came to light in the meantime, and the process became unfair.”

District administrators today are drawing up terms of the new auction.

“If we can post (advertisements) as early as Monday, we could have the bids closed as early as two weeks from Monday,” said Comptroller Sue Johnson, who will coordinate the auction.