Unique City-owned Property a Hub for Horses and History

After problems with former owners, Canyonside Equestrian Center close to getting new permanent operator

By David Garrick

[Editor’s note: This article is reprinted from the January 7, 2024 San Diego Union-Tribune. Most of the older dates are wrong, easy to happen with the complicated history of the acquisition of Peñasquitos Canyon Preserve. But it’s not important to the thrust of the story, which is that control of Horseman’s Park is changing once again, hopefully for the better. The story glosses over the initial acquisition of the center. When the city acquired the bulk of what we now call the Preserve, Horseman’s Park was not part of the deal according to the owner, the developer, Peñasquitos, Inc. In fact, after 9 years of an almost rent-free lease, the equestrian center was given an eviction notice in March 1979. A big political fight to save the center was led by some of the equestrians such as Barbara Gerri, the then manager of the property. The fight was successful and Horseman’s Park was saved as part of the Preserve September 19, 1979. Some of my background came from the Sunday, Sept. 23, 1979 Mira Mesa edition of the community paper, the Sentinel. This and many other papers were donated to us by Nancy Yates, an early leader of the fight to save “The Peñasquitos.” — Mike Kelly]

Relatively few people know about it, even though it’s city-owned and began operating 27 years ago. The setting is so rustic and old-fashioned that hikers who stumble into it may think they’ve been transported back in time.

It’s Canyonside Equestrian Center, a beloved 16-acre horse boarding facility the city owns on the eastern edge of San Diego’s Los Peñasquitos Canyon Preserve. But last winter, the equestrian center’s future was left in question when city officials declined to renew their agreement with its operators and evicted them, citing mismanagement so egregious that some users moved their horses to other facilities.

“It was like a junkyard,” said Gail Young, a Solana Beach resident who has boarded horses at Canyonside for 18 years. Young took over operations on an interim basis last February. City officials say things have stabilized since and that they’re close to naming a new permanent operator.

Canyonside is viewed by many users as the ideal place to board a horse — it’s cheaper than private facilities, and it’s next to some of the region’s best horse trails. “Not only is it affordable for families, but right there on the other side of those bushes is miles of trail,” Young said last week while mounted on her horse, Boo.

The setting is also truly remarkable, with 100 old-fashioned horse corrals, red tack sheds sprinkled across the property, a dressage arena and a working round pen. If not for some Mira Mesa tract homes visible on the ridge above, it could be mistaken for a scene from the 1850s.

“People come out and say, ‘I never knew this was here,’” Young said. “We had to put up that big red sign telling hikers they couldn’t use our parking lot.”

A year ago, some were concerned it might all go away. “We had started to receive a lot of complaints about how the property was being managed and operated,” said Lucy Contreras, the city’s deputy director of real estate.

After investigating, city officials determined the operators had not been meeting the requirements in their contract, particularly regarding the health and safety of the animals on site.

“They weren’t happy, and they had indicated they wanted to fight back,” said Contreras, who said the problems had been ongoing for roughly two years. “But at the end of the day, they did leave.”

A lawyer for the former operators did not return a call for comment.

The local housing crisis seems to make every piece of open land in the city a candidate for new development these days, but the equestrian center isn’t such an option. The site is designated permanent open space as part of the 4,000-acre Los Peñasquitos Canyon Preserve, a series of former cattle ranches and farms that the county and city bought from private owners in 1974.

Even if it weren’t protected, Young said the area’s notorious vulnerability to flooding would make residential development a nonstarter. “They couldn’t put affordable housing in unless they supplied each person with a rowboat,” she said.

The equestrian center is not a moneymaker, and it doesn’t get the attention of other city- owned recreation assets like Mission Bay Park, Balboa Park, the Torrey Pines gliderport, city golf courses, museums and beaches. But city officials say it’s still a priority.

“A lot of the folks have been boarding there for 20-plus years, and they’re local to the Black Mountain area,” said Nick Baldwin, program coordinator in the city’s Department of Real Estate and Airport Management. “So it’s more geographically convenient and a more affordable option compared to private operators, who see it as more of a revenue-generating opportunity than a community service.”

The city has been collecting only $2,500 a month in rent, plus a share of overall revenue. City officials haven’t disclosed what the rent will be in the new contract.

Young said many users are relieved that things have stabilized, which has restored the equestrian center’s unusual camaraderie. “More than any ranch I know, this is a family ranch,” she said.

The shift to a new operator comes as city officials have gotten close to raising enough money to begin restoring two historic structures on the property, an adobe house built in 1910 by rancher Charles Mohnike and a hay barn. Both structures are registered on the National Register of Historic Places.

The structures are part of the area’s colorful history. According to city documents, in 1910 Mohnike bought 9,300 acres of the former Rancho Santa Maria de Los Peñasquitos, the first private land grant in San Diego County.

For the next 40 years, through multiple owners, the entire preserve was a key part of Southern California’s last era of cattle ranching.

Then developer Irving Kahn bought 14,000 acres of land that included the reserve in 1962. He was planning a golf course surrounded by luxury homes, but was eventually persuaded to sell much of the land to the city and county for a nature preserve in 1974.

Just before that, in 1972, a horse boarding and training facility called Horseman’s Park was established on the same site where the equestrian center now operates. The city took control of the land in 1982 and established the equestrian center as a city-owned facility in 1996.

The county opened a similar publicly-owned equestrian center in Lakeside in December. San Diego Councilmember Marni von Wilpert, whose district includes the equestrian center, said she is grateful to city officials and Young for stabilizing things. Von Wilpert said she’s also upbeat about the future. “It is important that this request for proposals attract a team that is willing to continue the amazing work that has gone on at the equestrian center for years, and I look forward to welcoming and working with the future lessee,” she said.

david.garrick@sduniontribune.com