In Rancho Santa Fe, we are usually free from the problems that plague lesser communities (welfare, homelessness, poverty, etc.). However, for some reason we have — unnecessarily — taken on more than our fair share of first world/high-class problems. Think of the time we wasted on considering a gypsy-style farmer’s market in the middle of town, even though we’ve had Chino’s since 1969. It’s hard to believe that some people didn’t think we should have started the 21st century with the fiber optics infrastructure owned by the Association. And who could forget the massive in-fighting we did over the proposed $16,000,000 swimming pool when everybody already had a backyard swimming pool? More recently, we’ve even had to import our burglars from South America — is this because we can’t source any locally (will tariffs finally put an end to all that)?
So I can’t help but wonder here we go again when I hear how some people think we should consider doing anything with our wonderful Osuna Ranch, except upgrade it to world-class level.
I wouldn’t vote for any candidate in the up-coming election for the HOA BOD unless they were absolutely committed to keeping Osuna, and only upgrading it.
Equestrian Legacy
Rancho Santa Fe is so unique in the world, that we sometimes miss what is right in front of our eyes. One of the measures of a community is how do the people compete with others (including what are their sports). We don’t have street gangs, beauty contests, urine-scented bingo halls, a skateboard park or a blacktop half-basketball-court with no net hanging off the hoop because it keeps getting stolen and the city can’t afford to keep replacing it. Instead, our HOA owns a top-ranked golf course, and our surrounded-by-trees Tennis Club has got to be the most beautiful anywhere. (A good friend of mine who is a competitive tennis player out of Santa Ynez loves playing in tournaments at the RSFTC). The kids have their own Community Center next to the school for their after-school activities as well as the most lavishly maintained sports fields anywhere, replete with real bathrooms. We have 60 miles of horse trails, and two beautiful equestrian centers. I can’t imagine we can do anything else to upgrade our golf and tennis clubs, but I think we should pay more attention (and devote more resources) to our horses, because we seem to have a way to go to get these facilities up to the level of the golf and tennis clubs. Our community’s equestrian legacy is a very important part of our competitive/sporting atmosphere of success.
Generations ago, the introduction of mechanization superannuated work-horses out to pasture and then off to the glue factories. Since then, horses have been mostly under the purview of the upper classes. A 1967 magazine advertisement for the Lincoln Continental sedan depicted a girl on horseback at a stable, right next to the obviously expensive new car. The ad read “The Continental life may include riding lessons for your daughter….” Nobody who read that ad needed an explanation. With the expense of keeping horses, it’s no wonder polo is called The Sport of Kings. To keep the prestige of our community in the stratosphere, I wonder why we would consider diminishing our devotion to the equine community.
Opportunities Galore
At a recent HOA meeting, someone pointed out that the number of equestrian facilities is in decline in the area, and that is true. La Jolla Farms got its name because of the horse ranches they once had. The horse facilities were shut down years ago and the property the stables were on was developed into condominiums. The Trails section of Rancho Bernardo was so named because they originally had RSF-style horse trails meandering throughout their top neighborhood that were connected to a private stable. The 2007 fire obliterated what was left of the declining trails and the stables were eventually developed into a subdivision of houses. Some people might remember the stables in East Del Mar (up El Camino Real not far from Mary’s Tack Shop) where guests could rent horses by the hour. (It was easy to identify the owner when he left his property — he drove around in old pink Cadillacs). We know that ranch shut down and was replaced by another housing tract.
Doesn’t it seem like we have opportunities galore to make Rancho Santa Fe the premiere equestrian enclave not only in the area but also in the world? Yes, we have some outsiders quartering their horses at Osuna, but that is for our benefit, not theirs. Non-Covenant residents aren’t allowed to ride on our trails so these people are just paying the freight for Osuna until Covenant residents eventually want one of their stalls. Would installing an equi-sizer be the first step to luring more Association members to stable their horses at Osuna?
No Slicing-And-Dicing
You could put everything I know about horses in your eye and you wouldn’t blink. Because of that I will defer to the horse community as well as the Osuna Committee to make decisions as to the details of what comes next for Osuna. However, on the grand scale, I absolutely do not think we should consider slicing-and-dicing or selling or donating or anything that would diminish what we are fortunate enough to already have there. I wouldn’t be surprised if we were the only HOA in the world that owns a historical monument. We certainly do not need any money a sale could produce. We paid off — early — the loan we took out for the fiber optics. The money for the clubhouse renovation is already accrued, and we were just given the Ewing Preserve, so I have to wonder to what would the few million dollars we would glean from a sale go.
Are we going to have another round of neighbor vs. neighbor over this? If anybody seriously thinks we should do anything but upgrade the facilities, why don’t they attend an Osuna Committee meeting and see what the plans the committee has for Osuna? We should instead be joining together to challenge the never-ending failures of the Santa Fe Irrigation District and even opposing Silvergate, the gargantuan old-folks home being proposed on Calzada del Bosque. Questioning whether or not we should do something drastic with Osuna is a high-class problem we don’t need to take on. I think that world-famous motorist Rodney King put it best when he said: “Can we all get along?”
I wouldn’t vote for any candidate in the up-coming election for the HOA BOD unless they were absolutely committed to keeping Osuna, and only upgrading it. Anybody else?
Rory Kendall has lived in the Covenant since 1963