Pico Rivera Hopes Last Six Horses at Park Stable Will Soon Hit the Trail

Most of the horses kept at Pico Rivera’s Bicentennial Park have found new homes, two weeks after an eviction deadline that pitted the city against a group of defiant horse owners.

As of last week, six horses remained at the park’s stables, four of them abandoned by their owners, said Bob Spencer, a city spokesman. At one time, more than 200 horses were kept at the stables.

“We’re still hopeful that the remaining boarders will be leaving shortly,” Spencer said.

The abandoned horses will be turned over to the state, which will sell them at an auction if the owners can’t be located. The city will probably sell the equipment and many of the movable buildings, Spencer said.

The horses’ departure appears to end a conflict that pitted horse owners against the financially strapped city.

In March, Pico Rivera officials set a June 30 deadline for closing the stables near the junction of the 60 and 605 freeways.

City officials have long said they wanted to do something with the 60-acre park -- which includes the Pico Rivera Sports Arena -- that would produce more revenue.

They cited the cost of running the stables and the low rent of $1,000 a month charged to the stable operator, Ventura Productions.

Boarders organized to fight the eviction, complaining that the city was losing money because the operator wasn’t being charged enough.

About 100 horse owners vowed not to leave the stables. Their resistance lasted a few days past the June 30 deadline. Slowly, though, they found other accommodations for their animals.

One horse died while being moved.

“It was distressing for all of us, as is the fact that four people have abandoned their horses,” Spencer said. “I find that extremely distressing.”

The ordeal left several boarders bitter.

“As a horse owner, I am appalled at the negligence, the bad management, the lack of honor that Pico Rivera officials have,” said Patricia Salazar, who bought a horse for her daughter last year and boarded it at the stables. If managed right, she said, the stables could have made money for the city.

“Nothing they do is managed properly,” said Salazar, who is temporarily keeping her horse at a friend’s house. “They’re using innocent people as scapegoats.”

The city has no specific plans for the property, further upsetting boarders.

Spencer said the city wants to consider various proposals to develop the entire site, including the land occupied by the sports arena and an abandoned campground.

“People are putting forward many ideas of what they’d like to see there,” Spencer said, but there have been “no formal proposals.”