Owners Hope for a Stable Business in Horse Camp

From a business standpoint, Gayle Paperno admits that starting a children’s horse camp was not the shrewdest financial decision she has ever made.

“We’re not going to be millionaires,” Paperno said.

Few people encouraged Paperno and partner Zsuzsu Illes when they started their Horse Camp four years ago. Paperno says most friends and family thought they were crazy--and in fact still do.

A horse camp, after all, requires a great deal of land and a large number of horses that need to be cared for and fed. Liability insurance makes up about 50% of the cost of doing business, Paperno said.

But this year, Paperno and Illes are opening in a new location. They have signed a four-year lease at a Granada Hills ranch they have dubbed the Family Equestrian Connection.

The Horse Camp will be major component of their business at the ranch--along with boarding and year-round riding lessons. In 1997, their first year, the pair hosted 15 campers. This year they expect to have about 100 campers, each paying $400 for a two-week session.

They’ve made the numbers work by getting into the board-and-care game, taking over a three-acre ranch that landowner Sherry Steinberg had planned to shut down.

“At the exact time we were looking, she wanted to give up the boarding business,” Paperno said.

But the businesswomen convinced Steinberg the site was perfect for their camp.

“She liked the idea of kids being here,” Paperno said.

The Family Equestrian Connection will board horses for a monthly fee, but the owners must allow the horses to be used for lessons and the summer camp program. The arrangement is perfect for busy families who don’t have time to visit their horses every day. Under the system devised by Paperno and Illes, the horses are worked out nearly ever day of the week.

Paperno and Illes come from different backgrounds. Paperno spent 15 years working as a camp director for the Los Angeles Recreation and Parks Department before quitting to start the Horse Camp. Illes spent her pre-Horse Camp career giving private lessons, specializing in classically oriented riding. Paperno said she and Illes are the perfect team to run a horse camp.

“We fill a niche that I don’t believe is filled by anyone else,” Paperno said. “We decided there was a market for it. My goal is to put something out there that’s not there.”

Adam Horwitz, executive director of Sierra Canyon Day Camp in Chatsworth, said Paperno and Illes are brave to take on the challenge. Horwitz said his family business cut equestrian programs several years ago because of concerns about liability and safety.

Today, Sierra Canyon rents ponies for younger campers to ride but does not offer riding lessons. The campers have to wear helmets and are led around on the pony by an adult.

“We got out of it. I don’t know how people do it. Liability and overhead are big costs,” Horwitz said.

But he said Paperno may be right about filling a niche.

“Parents are looking for camps, and there is not a lot of competition out there,” Horwitz said. “I think it’s a great thing they are doing.”

Larry Klein, owner of Camp Keystone in Agoura Hills, agreed that the cost of offering horseback riding is high. But he sees it as an essential part of the mix at his camp.

“To be competitive, you have to have horseback riding,” said Klein, who leases up to 20 horses every summer.

Marge Driscoll of the Calabasas-based American Camping Assn. said few camps focus exclusively on equestrian activities. In fact, the association does not accredit camps that include just one activity.

“Our camps tend to do a number of things. There have to be three or more activities that children pursue in depth,” Driscoll said.

The Horse Camp is not yet accredited, but Paperno said she will pursue sanctioning this summer. Although her camp focuses on horseback riding, she said they are also offering non-equestrian activities such as arts and crafts, hiking and cookouts.

As a longtime camp professional, Paperno said it is important to her to get the seal of approval from the camping association. In about five years, Paperno and Illes hope to launch a sleepover equestrian camp, although they would likely need to find an additional site to get that off the ground.

The Fox Fields Riding School in Thousand Oaks has run a summer sleepover camp for girls 9 to 15 for 34 years, said camp administrator Jenna White.

The camp offers five two-week sessions at a cost of $1,100.

“The girls who come here really love horses,” White said. “They ride every day, except one day they get to go the beach.”

Andy Wexler, owner of Pali Camps, has experience dealing with horseback riding at both day and sleepover camps. The Pali Camp in Pacific Palisades includes an excursion to a ranch in Topanga called Mill Creek.

Pali Camp includes about 165 activities, and campers typically travel to locations outside the main camp to participate. Wexler said it would cost too much to run his own equestrian center.

“For a day camp, it doesn’t make financial sense to have horses,” Wexler said.

But at sleepover camps, Wexler said horseback riding programs do work.

Pali offers a sleepover camp at Lake Arrowhead, with four hours of horseback riding a day. A two-week session costs $1,950. He estimates it costs about $40,000 a year to run the program--including renting the horses and hiring staff.

“It’s not cheap. It’s a moneymaking business, but you’re not going to get rich on it,” Wexler said.

Although the cost of liability insurance is high, Wexler noted that it’s even more expensive for the scuba-diving and skateboarding camps he offers at the same site.

At the Horse Camp in Granada Hills, Paperno said one two-week session is designed to give young campers the know-how to take care of their own horse.

“The kids learn to ride in a riding program. They learn grooming and how to take care of a horse. By the end, they know what they need to know to own a horse,” Paperno said.

Paperno said she and Illes took the risk to start an equestrian camp in part to “prove a point.”

“You don’t have to be wealthy to ride a horse,” Paperno said. “The middle-income person maybe can’t afford to own a horse, but you can afford to ride a horse.”