They’re Still Riding O.C.’s Happy Trails

Long before Orange County became known for pricey real estate, amusement parks and fancy malls, farms and farm animals were the norm.

Horses were common, and renting one for a trail ride along the Santa Ana River or the undeveloped coastline was as easy as renting bicycles in Huntington Beach today.

But as farmland gave way to planned communities and office parks, horse rentals went the way of orange groves and cattle ranches.

“In the old days, they just put you on a horse and turned you loose,” said Ava Roberts, who began a public trail rides program at the Anaheim Equestrian Center eight months ago.

The center is one of only a few in the county that still rents horses.

The number of community stables, where horse enthusiasts can stable their animals and ride, has dwindled from more than 40 in the 1960s to 15 today with 4,000 horses, according to Alice Sorenson, a member of the county’s Regional Riding and Hiking Trails Advisory Committee. Of the 15, only a few rent horses to the public. They charge between $30 and $60 an hour to city slickers hankering to saddle up.

Horseplay Rentals Inc., at the Huntington Central Park Equestrian Center off Goldenwest Avenue, offers guided trail rides through its 25 acres.

Traffic noise gives way to bird chirps and hoofbeats along the dirt path. Rabbits and the occasional squirrel freeze, then retreat into the brush. The only thing that punctures the serenity is the laughter of children in Central Park next door.

“I liked it,” said a beaming Samantha Mandich, 10, after a recent ride. It took some gentle kicking, she said, but she managed to keep Corky, the pony she was riding, from snatching weeds off the trail and keep moving.

“Now that we know it’s here, I think we might do it again,” said Samantha’s mother, Linda Kelly-Mandich.

Roberts, from the Anaheim Equestrian Center, recalls when riding around the county was a bit less tame.

As a kid, Roberts rented horses from a barn on a cliff above Crystal Cove State Beach, steering them through the sage-scrub and down onto the sand to lope along the tide line. Farther north, others riders fanned out on dirt banks lining the Santa Ana River, jogging and cantering.

“We galloped around a lot,” she said. “It was great.”

There is less galloping today.

“You cannot afford to have anybody come off your horses,” said Robin Bisogno, whose family has run a trail ride and riding school called Country Trails for nearly two decades out of Irvine Regional Park. “It goes without saying in California or the U.S. -- people want to sue no matter what may happen.”

As with all the other escorted public trail rides, Bisogno’s horses stay at a walk.

Liability, along with the growing urbanization, is another reason why public horse rentals have dwindled in the county, observers say. Country Trails, which averages 40 rentals a day on weekends, pays more than $15,000 a year for insurance, Bisogno said.

Many horse enthusiasts agree that public rentals are an important way to keep their lifestyle alive by introducing more people to equestrianism, but they mourn the decreasing number of stables. El Toro Stables, at the closed El Toro Marine base in Irvine, is the latest barn to get its eviction notice -- 300 horses and their owners will have to find new homes by the end of the year.

But horse people are resilient. Karen Mundwiler, 47, of Costa Mesa enjoys taking her American quarter horse Holly on a multi-use trail in urbanized Lake Forest which she shares with mountain bikers and pedestrians. She doesn’t mind stopping to let kids pet Holly.

“Like people want to show off their dogs, I want to get out there with my horse,” she said. “It’s a way for me to show other people that these big, beautiful animals do have a place in our lives today, even though it’s the 21st century.”

And many city dwellers do seem drawn to horses. Roberts’ Anaheim Equestrian Center hosts birthday parties, holiday outings and other special occasions.

One of the more unusual requests Roberts received was to play host to a wedding proposal.

Roberts said she took a young couple for a trail ride along the Santa Ana River. After the ride, as the woman wandered through the grounds, her boyfriend changed into a tuxedo and rode up on a horse, clutching a bouquet and a ring.

When people get on a horse, Roberts said, “they just kind of relax and let their hair down.”