2 weeks Ago
A simmering dispute between two non-profit horse trainers and the OC Fair and Event Center is heading to court. In a lawsuit filed Aug. 21 in Orange County Superior Court, two trainers, Gibran Stout and Lisa Sabo, accused the OC Fair Board of refusing to negotiate new rental deals after unilaterally hiking rates earlier this year and restricting access to areas where equestrians can train and ride their horses.
Fair Board officials have complaints of their own, and on Thursday, Aug. 29 sent notices to Stout, Sabo and ten other horse owners who haven’t signed new leases. “For the protection and safety of our valid renters, and to ensure availability of all facilities to valid renters, we cannot allow you to keep your property, use the facilities, or operate your business at the equestrian center,” wrote Nick Kovacevich, chairman of the OC Fair Board, and Michelle Richards, the organization’s chief executive.
The officials added that tenants have until Sept. 16 to move their horses and other property, or face losing them. In California, seized and unclaimed property often is put up for auction.
The OC Fair Board, which runs the state-owned fairgrounds and connected property, has leased about 100 stables and other horse services to the public for decades. Earlier this year, after declaring a new vision for the management of its equestrian division, the OC Fair Board said it would bump up equestrian rents by more than 50%, with the increases being implemented in three phases. Under the new terms, which started in June, a single-horse stall leases for about $980 a month and a two-horse stall runs about $1,560.
Other fees are charged for using feed and storage rooms. For Stout and Sabo, trainers who have been tenants at the OC Fairgrounds since 2013 and 2017 respectively, higher rents for stables mean they can’t afford to offer free or low-cost riding lessons to local kids who aren’t regularly exposed to horses. Stout noted that public stables in Orange County are scarce and rents are high, and if they want to reach children in Santa Ana, Costa Mesa and other central OC cities, they need to stay at the OC Fairgrounds.
Stout said it’s important to maintain an equestrian community in the county, and that the community should not be limited only to people with enough money to rent private stalls and horse areas. The lawsuit suggests that’s how the Fair Board and horse tenants operated in the past. “For years the OCFEC (OC Fair & Events Center) and the tenants of the OC Equestrian Center operated in harmony and enjoyed a very symbiotic relationship.
” Stout and Sabo also claim the restrictions set by the Fair Board earlier this month are a health threat for their horses. In recent weeks, as tenants and Fair Board officials have haggled over possible changes to the terms of individual leases, Stout and Sabo say they and some other horse owners haven’t been given total access to properly exercise their animals. That, they claim, has resulted in some injuries to the horses.
When pressed on what types of injuries, or how severe, Stout said she would need to talk with her attorney and did not follow up. Fair Board officials have previously denied that they’ve put any horses at risk. They say that while they’ve denied non-paying tenants access to specific exercise arenas, they have given all horse owners access to their animals and to areas where the horses can be walked, cleaned and fed.
Terry Moore, a spokeswoman for OC Fair and Events Center, wrote in an email Friday, Aug. 30, that Stout, Sabo and other tenants who haven’t signed new deals have been given ample time to find new spaces. “They have had months of warnings to pay or vacate and they are now faced with a Sept.
16 deadline to comply.” Stout and Sabo are hoping to meet with officials to talk about possible new terms or edits to the leases that have been offered. They said in previous years horse owners have been able to reach individual terms with the OC Fair Board.
But, with the Sept. 16 deadline looming it’s unclear what legal moves — if any — might come next. “We just want the horses to not be punished until the humans can work out the civil part,” Stout said.
“To continue the public access and the public program and the access to horses in the urban areas of Orange County, that’s what we want,” Stout added. “We want a seat at the table.”.
