FORT COLLINS — Trying to corral independent-minded horse owners and stable operators with proposed new rules has not been easy, say Larimer County regulators. In fact, some horse operations in the county — as many as 70 — have galloped along with no government oversight at all and haven’t seen any reason to change.
But as housing developments creep into what used to be only pasture, the county says new regulations are needed to tamp down the complaints that come when housing and horse-training and -boarding operations collide.
“Most people just said, ‘Leave us alone. We don’t want bureaucracy, and we don’t want government in our lives,’ ” said LuAnn Goodyear, a horse boarder and trainer whose 30-acre spread lies 15 miles north of Fort Collins.
Goodyear ran one of the enterprises that operated without county oversight. To be in compliance, her operation and others with more than four horses faced an expensive review — sometimes costing more than $2,300 — that often takes more than a year to complete.
“Once you hit five horses, that started a full- blown review. There was no middle ground,” said Goodyear. “So many didn’t bother coming into compliance.”
Goodyear’s situation is not unusual, said Linda Hoffman, who is helping to craft new county horse-business regulations that she hopes are more fair and will help preserve green pastures as the county becomes more urbanized.
“It was common for horse businesses to set up shop and go about their business and hope they didn’t get caught,” said Hoffman, director of the county’s planning and building- services division.
The new rules, she said, will protect air and water quality and cut down on complaints from neighbors about dust and noise. It also helps that operations are properly permitted when they are put on the market for sale, Hoffman said.
By nearly every estimate, Lari mer County has one of the highest horse populations in the state. More than 8,000 horses and ponies reside in the county, according to the Colorado Horse Council. Colorado’s horse industry accounts for about $956 million in business annually, the council says.
But with each year, the dust and odor that horse operations generate cause more complaints from neighbors in new housing developments.
“One woman who has had the same operation for years was riding a trail near her home when a woman from the new nearby subdivision came up to her and said she couldn’t ride there anymore because the subdivision owned the trail now,” said Barry Feldman, who owns a small stable north of Fort Collins.
Feldman and Goodyear are among a group of stable owners, boarders and others working with the county to frame the new regulations. Feldman — who boards up to 20 horses — said he wanted to make sure the new rules wouldn’t snuff out smaller operations such as his.
“There is a real fear out there that these new regulations would be too onerous,” Feldman said.
Thus far, however, the draft rules seem fair, Feldman said.
The proposals call for a tiered system that assigns points depending on the size of the operation, the number of horses and riding events it hosts.
Smaller stables would probably be able to skip a more complicated and costly special review. If problems arise, the stables would work with a planner to solve them.
“If a neighbor has any questions or concerns, they can call the planning department, and we get the two parties together to see if we can work out any problems,” Hoffman said.
Larger, more intensive operations would probably face the more expensive and comprehensive review, she said.
The county planning commission will take up the proposed regulations later this month.
Critics say the scalable system will require too many employees to enforce and bring even more bureaucracy.
Karin Livingston, a stable owner who writes the Hoofprints blog, said the new regulations will drive horse operators to friendlier environments.
“A black cloud looms over Larimer County — in as yet undefined enforcement and millions in lost revenue — for proposed horse-boarding regulations,” Livingston recently wrote. “Our neighbor to the east, stable-friendly Weld County, must be salivating over the ‘cash horses’ we’re about to send their way.”
Monte Whaley: 720-929-0907 or mwhaley@denverpost.com
