The title of your article, “Commission recommends equestrian club, dog classes share park” is misleading. It should be clarified that all five members of the Parks and Recreation Commission, at their last meeting unanimously concluded that the “horses and dogs do not belong in the same areas.”
Trancas Riders and Ropers president Rod Bergen agreed that a dog park could possibly work if it were placed on the section of unused park property that is south of the park’s entry road along Merritt Drive. Implicit in that statement was an understanding that the dog area would be completely enclosed, totally isolated from the horse areas, would have its own entrance and that its parking would in no way interfere with the existing Equestrian Park parking.
Since that meeting, there have been rumors that the commission might consider placing the herding dogs on the lower parking area of the Equestrian Park. This was never brought up during the time that the Commissioners were discussing this agenda item and it goes without saying that it is a very unsatisfactory approach to resolving this issue.
The Malibu Equestrian Park should be maintained as it has been forever, strictly as an equestrian park.
Gabrielle Harris