Equestrian Center Receives Another Rent Reprieve

Two Winds Ranch, one of the Conejo Valley’s few low-cost equestrian centers, was granted another reprieve this week after the owner of the troubled business told local officials that a bureaucratic nightmare has left him on the brink of financial ruin.

“I’m in a very frustrated mood. . . . I don’t know whether I’m pitching or catching,” Alvin “Bully” Caddin told the Conejo Open Space Conservation Agency board at its meeting Wednesday night.

Board members were sympathetic to Caddin’s plight and voted unanimously to extend his reduced rent for at least two additional months while a city auditor reviews the financial records of Two Winds, located on the 325-acre Broome Ranch south of West Potrero Road in Newbury Park.

“My main goal is to maintain the equestrian facility and keep it operating,” said board member Andy Fox, a city councilman.

But that may be difficult because Caddin said “it could be any day” when at least part of his business--renting horses, which he has done for more than three decades--folds.

At the heart of Caddin’s present problems is a dispute over an estimated $10,000 in fees the conservation agency said is owed to the county. Payment of the fees, plus possible upgrades to the property, is crucial because the county will not allow Two Winds’ electricity to be turned on unless the money is paid, said Mark Towne, coordinator for the agency.

And without power, Two Winds’ message machine--which is connected to a pay phone--is virtually inoperable, meaning that Caddin can’t take reservations to rent his 35 horses. To top it off, Caddin said he doesn’t want to change his telephone number because GTE refuses to forward calls from a pay phone, Fox said.

Caddin maintains that he shouldn’t have to pay the $10,000 because he is merely the tenant on public land managed by the open space agency, an organization whose members are from the city of Thousand Oaks and Conejo Recreation and Park District.

Councilwoman Linda Parks, who Wednesday took over the board seat previously held by Councilwoman Judy Lazar, agreed. “You wouldn’t expect the person you’re leasing an apartment to to pay for the permit for electricity,” she said.

Caddin’s headaches began in September 1995 when he was forced to move the Two Winds operation from its longtime site across the street to 20 acres of agency-managed land to make way for the massive Dos Vientos Ranch housing development.

The new location was neither wired for electricity nor did it have a septic tank. The open space agency has since received tentative approval from the county to use a temporary waste holding tank, but Caddin said he can’t afford a 24-hour-a-day generator to provide electricity.

Over the next two months, conservation agency staff and a subcommittee made up of Fox and board Chairwoman Rorie Skei will look into Caddin’s finances to determine whether his monthly rent should remain at $1,000.

Caddin’s rent has already been reduced twice: from $3,000 to $1,200 and then to the temporary figure of $1,000 in November. The agency also forgave him $3,825 in unpaid back rent and supplied him with two months of free rent in October 1996. The subcommittee will also examine Caddin’s offer to sell his business to the agency for $498,100.

The board voted last summer to relocate the equestrian center to a permanent site at Olympia Farms, also on Broome Ranch.

When the center is eventually moved to a permanent location, the conservation agency will have open bidding to select an operator and Caddin may be chosen, Fox said. But if he isn’t, the agency’s lease with Caddin requires the board to give him a two-year notice to leave.