Holding Their Horses

After a trailer came to take the horses away, school officials realized that the little farm at Trabuco Elementary School houses a lot more than gentle pigs, hissing geese, chewing goats and a rabble of chickens.

It’s also home to the Trabuco Canyon community’s sense of itself as a rural paradise, where folks do things differently than in the rest of fast-paced Orange County.

Given that environment, changes at the 122-year-old elementary school’s farm were not initially welcomed as Saddleback Unified School District officials hoped they would be. Instead, they were greeted with the same fury as the transportation engineers who talked of knocking down a canopy of trees to widen a road, and the county officials who hoped to expand the nearby Joplin Youth Camp.

And though it appears the fight has now been happily resolved--with parents working with the school district to keep the farm--community activists say it once again underscores the vigilance necessary to maintain a rural enclave in the face of ever-encroaching suburbanization.

Any changes in the community create a perception that “they are trying to change our way of life. Right away, you put up a wall. Attack mode,” said parent Jim Schict, whose daughter, Jamie, is a second-grader at the school.

Resistance has evolved as one of the community’s traits. A remote collection of about 240 homes nestled against the Cleveland National Forest, Trabuco Canyon has long been a tightly knit community. But as tile-roofed subdivisions such as Coto de Caza and Rancho Santa Margarita have crept closer, residents have banded together to try to stave off development in the canyon.

So in the aisles at the general store, and over coffee at the genteel women’s club, the community leaped into action when news spread about the horses.

They have since raised money and supplies to fix up the farm, which has fallen into disrepair because of winter rains and the loss of a devoted caretaker.

And they have formalized a list of demands:

They want the return of three horses, which were taken away last month to cleaner, more accessible homes at a farm at Mission Viejo High School.

And they want district officials to promise never to close their beloved farm.

But most of all, they want their hard-won bit of nature preserved forever.

All the hoof-stamping and tail-swishing from residents took Principal Kathy Clark by surprise--especially because she said the district never had any intention of shutting down the farm.

It has become one of the crown jewels in the district’s outdoor education program.

Buses from schools across the district pull into the unpaved parking lot every day so children can see farm animals up close. Cartons of eggs from school chickens are sent forth across the district to be hatched as science projects. And a garden of native plants will be added in a few weeks.

On Saturday, district officials and parents converged on the school to try to amend some of the neglect from recent months, an effort that was cut short by rain.

“It was wet, cold and a lot of fun,” said canyon resident Jim Walters, 56, who joined the crew of two dozen volunteers. “Most schools tend to be focal points for communities, but this one blends particularly well.”

Walters, whose daughter Jennifer attended the school 20 years ago, said he felt compelled to help because the farm is an important component of the canyon’s rustic feel.

“It was such a neat experience for my kid,” Walters said. “It is an opportunity for everyone in the Saddleback region to experience a rural setting.”

Parents and school officials rescheduled the cleanup day for April 21. Parents also are lobbying district officials to hire someone to resume care of the farm.

The trouble on the farm began last month, when a trailer pulled up unexpectedly at the school and took away the horses.

Clark said the move to Mission Viejo benefits both the program and the animals. Enrollment in Trabuco Elementary’s after-school Manes and Tales riding program had declined so much that the animals were not earning their keep. If enough children sign up for a summer riding program, the horses may return, she said.

But parents say the horses were donated to the school and belong in the community.

Rumors--which the principal insists are false--flew that the horses were removed after complaints from parents in the nearby Painted Trails housing development that a trash bin containing horse droppings was too close to the lunch area.

Parents feared this was part of a larger project to eradicate the farm and suburbanize the quaint campus dotted with red clapboard buildings.

“When you start getting complaints from suburbia, school officials start listening to things,” Schict said. “What we’re afraid of basically is the school turning out like . . . sterile, cement buildings.”

The principal said the horses’ departure had nothing to do with complaints. And the trash bin was moved after many people--including teachers--questioned the wisdom of children eating lunch next to mounds of horse manure.

Clark added that she is committed to maintaining the rural nature of the school, which has 150 students.

Modernization is inevitable, she said. New classrooms may be built in accordance with new building standards, and computers and a standardized curriculum will come to the campus. But the animals will stay.

“We’re not trying to change anyone’s way of life, honestly,” the principal said.

After weeks of angry meetings, it appears that parents have accepted the principal’s word.

But they have also vowed to remain vigilant.

“We all moved out here because of the little school,” said Stuart Stephens, whose son Jesse is in first grade at Trabuco. “It represents giving the kids something besides the city to learn from. We’re not trying to go backward . . . but we’ll fight for it. We always fight for it.”