Where Did All the Horses Go? Background on Alameda County and the Horse Industry

The importance of the horse industry in the Bay Area cannot be disputed. Yet, recent studies have affirmed the industry has been in decline for decades and is being is displaced by poorly planned urban sprawl and the actions of self-empowered agencies. Alameda County Equestrians and Friends has been formed to educate and mobilize those who wish to see the return of the culture of the horse.

Over 20 years ago, the equestrian community of Alameda County recognized an abrupt shift of regulations with the growth of cities. Urban sprawl was converting horse ranches to much needed single-family homes, while the surrounding ranch and farmlands faced zoning restrictions that prevented sustainable agriculture.

Horse ranches were caught in the middle, resulting in a decline of facilities and horses. The culture, infrastructure, and businesses that were necessary to support the services provided by the horse industry and other agriculture were being ripped to pieces.
Local horse industry leaders recognized the problem and solutions. The newly formed Agricultural Advisory Committee defined the impacts, and suggested solutions. They collaborated with conservation organizations, county workers from every department, the business community, and horse industry stakeholders to draft the Equine Conditional Use Permit Streamlining Project. The recommendations of that report were supported by county workers, and adopted by the Board of Supervisors in March 2004. Unfortunately, the programs called for were not implemented, they were then forgotten, and after nearly 20 years the same patterns of abuse to the horse industry began to recur.

Recently, horse ranch owners have been threatened with claims they are industrial polluters subject to $10,000/day fines and imprisonment. Rather than thriving as it has in Sonoma, Temecula, Norco, Oakdale and other areas, the local horse industry in Alameda County has been pushed toward the abyss.

Concurrent with declining horse numbers, our county employees that had experience and a stronger understanding of agriculture retired. New officials considered agricultural operations to be “commercial” or “recreational” subject to stringent urban regulations. Our agricultural heritage was destroyed as our ranch and farm-lands, with their culture, were defined to be an obscure concept called “open space” where land was to be “saved for agriculture” but not be used for agriculture that included horse ranches.

Since then, farming has nearly disappeared from the county, a five -generation heritage of wine production has suffered and been described as being “on the precipice of a cliff”, rangeland is transitioning to weeds, and affordable housing for good people in the farm to fork food industry is not available.

The heritage of the horse that defined Livermore, Pleasanton, Castro Valley, the Dublin Crossroads, the history of European exploration, and the adaptiveness of the Ohlone tribes is being wiped away. Twenty years ago the heritage of the Vaquero was attacked, recently the heritage of the Cowboy has come under attack. Each of these stories deserve to be told. Alameda County Equestrians and Friends would like to preserve those stories, share them, and use them as templates to rebuild our equestrian lifestyle.