Residents Protest Plans for Palos Verdes Estates Stable

A hoof-stamping, tail-swishing fight is brewing in Palos Verdes Estates over who will take the reins of the beloved city-owned horse stables.

Since 1926, the city has run a 60-stall facility, tucked into a canyon on the eastern edge of town. There beneath shade trees, the jodphur-wearing, horse-owning crowd has mixed with weekend riders who rent the few public horses for trail jaunts or lessons. Parents can even send children afflicted with horse fever to a city-run riding school in the summer.

Stables are scattered throughout the horsy country of the Palos Verdes Peninsula and throughout Los Angeles County, but most are reserved for people with the money and commitment to own horses.

Now, some Palos Verdes Estates residents fear that their stables soon may be saddled with a similar privatized fate. They are protesting proposed changes they say could limit the public nature of the place.

Last month, a group of horse owners, complaining about crowding and poor maintenance, asked the City Council to turn management of the stables over to them.

The group, which is led by a local landscape businessman, promised to improve the facility by spending $100,000 in private funds to add a third practice ring, do landscaping work and even install a little coffee stand so parents could watch their children ride in style.

But they also talked about eliminating the daily rental rides and the city-run summer camp that serves about 200 youngsters.

The council this week heard public debate about that proposal and several other competing ideas for the stables. A decision is expected as early as next month.

Many boarders say that turning the stables over to a private group is the perfect solution for upkeep and finances.

Though its stalls are occupied and have a waiting list for boarders, the riding center in recent years has made an annual profit of about $24,000--not enough to pay for long-term upkeep.

“We need a place to go in Palos Verdes to enjoy our expensive hobby,” resident Michelle Bryan told council members Tuesday night. Bryan said she has moved her horse out of town because he was receiving substandard care.

But opponents of private management have stampeded City Council meetings and corralled neighbors to sign petitions.

“Many of our children and grandchildren cannot afford to buy homes in PVE. They also cannot afford to own their own horses, but they return to the stable and bring their own children to benefit from the activities they once enjoyed,” said resident Scottie Wuerker. “I want to make sure my grandchildren can still ride there, and once they’ve handed this over to a profit-making corporation, the city is not going to have control.”

Palos Verdes Estates Mayor Chad Turner called the situation “a migraine headache.”

While there are six proposals, most observers agree that two of them are the most likely choices. One calls for the city to keep control of the property, but change the operation somewhat to make it more profitable. The other would keep public ownership but bring in a private operator, headed by landscaper Bob Gaudenti’s company GS Brothers Inc.

Gaudenti originally proposed ending the summer camp and trail rides and cutting lesson hours from 90 a week to 30. But heeding protesters’ concerns, some City Council members said they would require any plan retain those services.

Gaudenti said opponents’ suggestion that he wants to manage the stables to turn a profit is “laughable.”

“This is our hobby, not our business,” Gaudenti said. “We just want to clean the place up, make improvements. Right now, boarders are treated like second-class citizens.”

But some residents say they just don’t believe things will stay the same under different management.

“My concern is that it isn’t going to be nearly as accessible as it has been in the past,” said John Howe, who started coming to the stable this year with his 8-year-old daughter Morgan.

Now, father and daughter each week scramble up on the city’s lesson horses to trot and canter. “I know verbal promises have been made, but once such a facility comes under the control of a private corporation, the reality is that they will be in a position to dictate and control how it is operated,” Howe said.

Like many boarders, John Ollen, who has kept his horses at the stable for the past 20 years, said he doesn’t care who runs the stable, as long as children whose families don’t have horses can learn to ride there.

“The stables are a place of refuge,” he told council members. “They bring back a quieter, more genteel time, and they represent something that is vanishing very quickly in our society.”