Orange County equestrians are protesting spiking rental rates for horse stalls at the OC Fair & Event Center.
They’re also pointing to a 2022 maintenance contract with a street sweeping company that critics have called out as too costly.
Last month, the OC Fair board voted 3-2, with one abstention, to nearly double some people’s monthly stall rental rates to better match expenses.
The vote approved a 45% monthly rate increase by June 15, another 10% by October 1 and another 10% by January 1, 2025.
That means renters who currently pay $644 monthly for a 12-by-12-foot boarding stall for their horse will have to pay $1,130 per month in the new year. However, after passing the increase, fairgrounds staff took another look and decreased that price tag slightly.
[Read: OC Equestrian Center Boarding Rates Set to Nearly Double by Next Year]
After complaints from equestrians, fairgrounds CEO Michele Richards told the public a 12-by-12-foot boarding staff will increase to a total of $979 per month per person — $151 less than the original approval.
Richards said fairgrounds staff met with the contractor and they were able to restructure some costs to bring the rates down.
“After the March board meeting, we started looking at our numbers and some things that changed since the original analysis,” Richards said in a phone interview. “Some costs had gone up. Some costs had come down.”
However, some equestrians still argue the increase is still unaffordable for many locals who house a horse at the OC Equestrian Center or pay monthly for their kids’ riding lessons.
Aileen Anderson, a 57-year-old Irvine resident who boards a horse at the center, said her family and many others could likely be forced out of the Equestrian Center because of the price hike.
“If our trainer that we ride with leaves, we will have to leave,” Anderson said. “I have no choice except to follow a trainer or be with the trainer in order to continue my riding, and that is true for most people.”
Gibran Stout, the founder of OC Vaulting, said she likely won’t be able to continue offering her free classes and lessons at the center under the increased rates.
“I’m probably going to get evicted,” Stout said. “My families are low-income, and I provide my programming for free. My staff is all volunteers. I will not be paying the new increase. I cannot. I don’t have that many club members who pay monthly tuition.”
Many critics attribute the rate hike to the center’s 2022 agreement with contractor Lopez Works, Inc. — who feeds all the horses, cleans stalls and drags arenas in the center. Equestrians claim the center is overpaying for these services, which is why the public now has to pay more to make up for it.
Some residents, like Anderson, were criticizing the contract before the fair board formally approved it. She said when the bid first came in, she immediately knew something was off.
“A number of us — independently and then talked about it — we all ran numbers on that contract and said out of the gate, ‘This doesn’t make sense,’” Anderson said.
She wrote a letter to the board of directors in 2022 arguing that boarding fees would eventually need to increase to make up for the center’s expenses under the Lopez Works contract.
In November 2022, she wrote that the Lopez Works bid does not align with “local industry standard and maintenance cost” for an equestrian center. She projected that monthly board fees would have to increase to $1024 in order to make up the difference.
“That contract is vastly out of whack with where it should be,” said Anderson, who’s also a professor at the University of California, Irvine. “I don’t think any of us would say that we’re not supportive of paying fair wages. Everyone would be, but the contract has to be written to be appropriate to the scope of work and it’s just not.”
Lopez Works President Andre Lopez said he was unable to offer a comment other than mentioning that he’s been in meetings and discussions with OC Fair staff.
Critical equestrians are demanding the fairgrounds staff cancel the contract with Lopez Works and find a new contractor.
But Richards said that’s not being considered.
“The contract was competitively bid according to state contracting rules,” Richards said. “The contractor that bid met all of the qualifications for the bid, and I’m satisfied. Our staff is satisfied that we are being charged fairly for the services that the operator is charging.”
Richards said that if they are able to find more ways to cut down on costs then those savings will be passed on to borders and trainers.
The OC fair board meets next on May 23 at 9:30 a.m.
Angelina Hicks is a Voice of OC Tracy Wood Reporting Fellow. Contact her at ahicks@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @angelinahicks13.
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