Proposed sports field the latest threat to LAH riding ring
By Lauren McSherry, Town Crier Staff Writer
 Jennifer Basiji rides Buzby, a 10-year-old Morgan gelding, at the public riding ring in Los Altos Hills. |
Buzby won’t be jumping fences any time soon. The blue bandage encircling his right foreleg flashes with each step as owner Jennifer Basiji puts the brown Morgan gelding through his paces.
Basiji has brought the 10-year-old to Los Altos Hills’ public riding ring on this day for some gentle rehabilitation. Buzby’s wrestling match with a plastic bucket in March resulted in a shattered bucket and a severed tendon. It will be another couple of months before the tendon is healed.
Meanwhile, until Buzby can handle the 25-mile trail rides he is accustomed to, weekly visits to the ring help maintain his level of training and fitness.
“This is my resource for riding,” Basiji said of the ring after she has Buzby practiced walking backwards. “You can attain better trail safety if a horse responds well to signals and is supple enough.”
Basiji, a resident of Los Altos Hills for 17 years, is one of many Los Altos Hills Horsemen’s Association members alarmed that the ring could be redeveloped. The group was galvanized in November by a Bullis Charter School application to use the half-acre ring on Purissima Road as a temporary school site. The charter school dropped the request and is looking to purchase property down the street.
But the school’s proposal brought attention to some residents’ contention that the ring, which some say has become somewhat run-down in recent years, is so little used that the land would better serve the community as a sports field. In March, David Rock, president of the Los Altos/Los Altos Hills Little League, proposed building a field on the site - but only if the horsemen’s association would merge with the Westwind Barn non-profit organization and move the ring to the Altamont property.
Harry Bahlman, vice-president of the association and a Westwind Barn board member, said there isn’t enough room on the property for another ring.
Los Altos Hills Mayor Breene Kerr said he is maintaining a “wait-and-see attitude” toward the ring. The ring’s future depends on “whether we’re able to maintain it properly and whether it gets used as much as people say,” he said. He pointed out the town “has committed modest resources” - $5,000 - toward additional maintenance there.
“We’ve got a lot of irons in the fire,” he said of the city council. “We’re going to give this thing a year, and if it doesn’t get used, then we’ll look into alternative uses for the site.”
Bob Stutz, an 84-year-old former president of the horsemen’s association, helped build the original ring in 1976 and organized rebuilding it about 20 years ago. The association paid for construction materials both times, and members volunteered their labor.
“It’s getting to look a little old,” he said. “But it’s still intact because we built it right.”
Stutz remembers the monthly riding competitions the horsemen’s association used to hold for young riders, the walnut trees that once stood in the ring’s center and the runoff from Interstate 280 that used to turn the ring into “a frog pond.”
Alisa Bredo, 28, current president of the horsemen’s association, grew up riding in the monthly competitions that Stutz kept going under his presidency. That experience is a big part of why the association and the ring matter so much to her. Bredo said she thinks the monthly competitions could be revived if the ring’s dirt footing were replaced, making it an all-season ring that winter rains wouldn’t turn muddy.
“We have a summer ring right now,” she said. “In the winter it’s lying dormant.”
Rubber-composite footing, which is essentially ground-up tennis shoes, would be a more expensive, though a more permanent solution, she said. Woodchips are a cheaper option, but they don’t last as long or provide footing as good as the rubber. Finding the money to pay for the improvement would be a challenge.
When the ring was first constructed, two-thirds of the association’s members didn’t live in town, Stutz said. Members came from surrounding communities - Palo Alto, Los Altos and Mountain View - to use it. In the last few decades, Stutz said, he has witnessed a “change of attitude” as Los Altos Hills became more exclusive. He has also watched the town become more developed.
“In those days, there were 12 decent stabling facilities in town, and one by one, as the land became more valuable, they were replaced by houses. The only one left is the one the countess bequeathed us,” he said, referring to town-owned Westwind Barn, which belonged to horse breeder and Hungarian Countess Margit Bessenyey.
Of recent events, he said, “This isn’t the first time (the ring) has been threatened.” He recalled a former city manager proposing to turn the ring into a parking lot for the Little League, which has four baseball fields neighboring the site.
“Fun and games - this town is full of them,” he said. “I’m tired of it.”
After Stutz stepped down from the presidency around 1990 to care for his ailing wife, Mary, the horsemen’s association fell dormant. These days Stutz doesn’t get too involved in town politics. He focuses on maintaining his property, exercising his horses and spending time with his family.
Bredo is the first to admit the ring needs help.
The horsemen’s association has a deal with the town whereby for every $1 the association puts in, the town gives $2. But for years, the association was afraid to ask the town for funds and, not wanting to call attention to the ring, maintained the ring on its own, Bredo said.
“It’s always been on the edge of the chopping block or seemed that way,” she said. “It’s a big job to maintain it yearly. It’s a bigger job to get it out of the slump it’s fallen into.”
Bredo maintains that the ring is well used, but she doubts that there is any way to prove that to the council. Members have discussed having a sign-in log at the ring. However, it would be voluntary and some people might not want to get off their horses to write in it, she said.
Basiji also thinks there is more than enough demand for the ring. She knows of at least 15 people who use the ring regularly and thinks there must be even more whom she does not know.
“There is so often someone in there,” she said. “I can’t think why they would think it isn’t used.”
Basiji agreed with Stutz that the town’s demographics have shifted.
“I think the community is changing in the interest of development,” she said. “The people who were here first think they aren’t being considered anymore.”
Despite the change, Basiji, who continues to ride at the ring and whose daughter grew up riding there, maintains she’s not alone - plenty of back-yard horse owners in town need the ring to exercise their horses or to teach their children how to ride in a safe environment.
The days when there were more horses in Los Altos Hills than people are long gone.
When asked what the horsemen’s association needs to do to ensure the ring’s survival, Stutz said: “I’m not going to guess. You’ve got another generation of adults coming along. If they can get it together, then great.”
