Less room to trot

Lolita Harper

COSTA MESA -- Dressed in her sparkly pink T-shirt and brown riding

pants Colline Jolly, 7, prepared for her weekly riding lesson Friday,

blissfully unaware that her horse’s world was about to change.

She went about her regular routine of tacking and saddling her horse,

oblivious to a decision made the day before to cut the equestrian center

at the Orange County fairgrounds in half.

But on the sidelines, parents of other riders at Fox Point Farm in the

existing equestrian center were discussing the future.

The Board of Directors of the Orange County Fair & Exposition Center

approved Thursday preliminary plans to cut the size of the equestrian

center from 240 stalls and five arenas, to 180 stalls and three arenas.

Fair board officials said the move was made to free up parking on the

160-acre site. Horse enthusiasts were pleased by the decision considering

that previous plans included moving the entire equestrian center to a

satellite location at the former El Toro Marine Base.

“That’s ridiculous,” said Yvette Jolly, Colline’s mom, when other

parents told her of the plans.

But she was thankful that part of the center would remain in Costa

Mesa. If the site were at El Toro, her children would no longer be able

to take riding lessons because of the distance, said Jolly, a Newport

Beach resident.

“I love the closeness of this place,” Jolly said.

Supporters of the equestrian center made the same argument to the

board of directors Thursday, finally convincing them to keep at least

part of the center at the Costa Mesa location.

“I came here thinking I was going to [support the option to remove the

center entirely.] But after hearing the needs of the people here today, I

hear a need to keep the Equestrian Center here,” said board member Jim

Barich at Thursday’s meeting.

No trainers or boarders will be displaced by the cutbacks as the

current center is running under capacity.

But horse trainer Kathy Hobstetter said the equestrian center has had

a moratorium on accepting new horses for boarding, which was placed on

them by fairground management.

“We haven’t been given the chance to prove how successful we can be,”

Hobstetter said.

While riders will still be able to board horses and take lessons at

the fairgrounds, it is only a partial victory, said Wayne Blauvelt, who’s

daughter rides at Fox Point Farm.

Blauvelt said he doesn’t understand why the fair board needed to look

off the site to create an expanded equestrian center.

“They’ve got a great facility here. I don’t know why they’re cutting

it instead of making it bigger,” Blauvelt said.

Board President Curt Pringle said they will continue to pursue the El

Toro option to create a larger facility with trails and more open space

that more people can enjoy.

The new equestrian site would be called The Ranch. Although it would

be about 15 miles from the main campus, it would still be considered a

part of the fairgrounds with all the revenue streams still coming to the

same place, said fairgrounds general manager Becky Bailey-Findley.

Board members will discuss the master plan at the Nov. 15 meeting.

-- Lolita Harper covers Costa Mesa. She may be reached at (949)

574-4275 or by e-mail at o7 [email protected] .