Concerns<\/p>\n
Over the years certain issues have become on-going concerns, despite extensive
\ndiscussion of the membership and the best efforts by the Board of Directors to achieve
\nconsensus as to acceptable solutions.<\/p>\n
Upon admission as as member of OHA each new member is required to submit a
\nveterinarian’s certificate as to the health of the new horse and evidence of inoculation
\nfor protection against the diseases prevalent among horses. Since the OHA pastures are home to a herd, and parasites are herd problems, treatment of only some animals is of
\nlittle value. Upon recommendation of the Chair of the Parasitology Department at
\nUniversity of California, at Davis, the OHA Board in September 1981 approved twice a year
\nveterinary clinics, the first to be held at the pasture in the late fall and the second in
\nearly spring. All horses are expected to to be brought by their owners to these events. In
\nthe late 1980’s, after the herd was combined and moved on regular schedule from pasture to
\npasture, two more wormings were added in the summer and winter concurrent with pasture
\nmoves to bring the minimum schedule for worming horses to four times a year. Over the
\nyears adherence to this health maintenance program has kept the OHA herd in excellent
\nhealth.<\/p>\n
A recurrent item in Board minutes over many years has been concern about inattention to
\nhorses. While Board policies provide for disposing of abandoned animals, this need has
\nonly occurred once in OHA history. However, throughout the years there have been some
\nmembers who have lost interest in riding and in their animals to a great degree.These
\nindividuals for reasons unknown, have been unable to face the decision to sell their
\nhorses, or give them away, but have instead left them in the pasture without much care or
\nattention. While this practice has not been pervasive, it continues to be perplexing
\nissue. The OHA promotes horsemanship and recreational horseback riding, but not long term
\n`parking’. Fortunately sponsorship of animals has helped to alleviate this particular
\nproblem somewhat.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Perhaps the most contentious activity at the pasture has been the matter of group
\nwinter feeding and supplemental feeding by individual members of their horses.<\/p>\n
The EBMUD as a matter of general policy determines the grazing capacity of its pastures
\nannually, by condition of the pasture and anticipated growth of forage, as the result of
\nannual rainfall. Within the total Animal Unit Months (AUM’s) assigned by EBMUD, the OHA
\nBoard determines the number of horses allowable. This number may be augmented somewhat by
\nsupplemental feeding. Reports on supplemental feeding must be submitted by the Secretary
\nof OHA to EBMUD monthly.<\/p>\n
Since the pasture cannot sustain the herd during the winter, beginning in September,
\nsupplemental group feeding begins. Hay is purchased in late summer and stored in the red
\nbarn, pond enclosure barn, and on pallets adjacent to the lower pasture. In this way, in
\nnormal rainfall years, and except for the drought years of 1976-1978 when the number of
\nhorses was actually reduced temporarily, and for a number of years afterwards, an average
\nof 38 horses have been pastured.<\/p>\n
A contentious problem arose over whether members should be allowed to use association
\nhay without extra charge when their horses have been voluntarily removed during group
\nfeeding, and particularly the quantity of hay used. Upon survey by the Board it was found
\nthat hay was being used at an alarming rate, causing extra hay to be purchased for group
\nfeeding late in the winter at high prices. The matter was resolved by permitting a member
\none flake of hay daily for a horse removed from group feeding. In recent years extra hay
\nhas been purchased for resale to individuals for personal use.The matter of accountability
\nfor personal hay use subject to reimbursement remains an unresolved problem, although the
\nrule limiting usage to whole bales only has improved the situation.<\/p>\n
With the pasture located in such an isolated area relatively close to so many
\nneighboring towns, loitering and vandalism have been a concern, and sometimes a problem,
\nsince the early days. Because of the pasture’s relative isolation members and their
\nproperty have always been vulnerable. At one time a trailers’ wheels were stolen, and the
\ntrailer was pushed down an embankment. After the landslides that caused the closure of El
\nToyonal in the pasture area in the winter of 1983, the area became a weekend party area
\nfor dozens and sometimes hundreds of local teenagers, who would bring up large amounts of
\nbeer to El Toyonal parties. At times these teenagers would atttempt to ride the horses
\nthat were most accessable, and threaten pasture members who happened upon the scene. After
\na number of years locked gates were installed that prevented large number of cars from
\nparking on El Toyonal, and the problem was thus eliminated. More recently cars have been
\nburglarized, and occasionally would-be sharpshooters have made use of pasture areas and El
\nToyonal itself for target practice. And there has been the occasional strange stranger
\nwith which to deal. Members are advised to be ever alert to the presence of strangers, to
\nlock their cars, and to avoid going to the pasture at night.<\/p>\n
Over time, the practices of group feeding and the habits of the animals and members had
\nresulted in certain areas becoming consistently overgrazed. In addition to the area above
\nthe saddling area where feeding took place for many years, the areas of most concern were
\nthe ring pasture and the upper part of the lower pasture. These areas had been
\nconsistently overgrazed for years with no easy solution apparent. The Board, responding to
\nthe EBMUD, decided to take corrective action.<\/p>\n
The Ring pasture is highly visible to the public and was a potential public relations
\nproblem. It also was the easiest to mitigate, requiring a new use policy, adopted in the
\nlate 1980’s, and the cooperation of members who used this pasture as a convenient holding
\narea, thus avoiding the hike up the hill to find their animals. The new policy stated that
\nthe ring pasture would be available primarily for emergencies and for short term use
\nspecifically approved by the President. Horses placed therein must be fed supplemental hay
\ndaily by owners. However, the problem has never been completely resolved.<\/p>\n
The Lower Pasture posed a more difficult problem. Horses tended to hang out adjacent to
\nthe feeding and saddling area, thus trampling the grass and denuding the area along the
\nupper fence. Starting in 1995, EBMUD has required OHA to fence off the damaged areas to
\npermit reseeding and regrowth of the range grasses.<\/p>\n
A major threat to OHA and loss of a significant part of the lower pasture was averted
\nin 1985, when EBMUD purchased the pioneer `Sullivan Ranch’ property to the east of the OHA
\nlease. A bank, the owner of the property, had entered into an agreement with a land
\ndeveloper to build a large number of houses on the ranch. The developer requested
\npermission to build a road and a sewer line through the lower pasture from the top of the
\nhill through the Pear Orchard to Wildcat Canyon Road . Members fought the proposal by
\nwriting many letters to the Orinda City Council and to EBMUD noting that the land was very
\nunstable, subject to slides and posed a major threat to water quality. EBMUD noted the
\nopposition to the developer by OHA and many property owners in the El Toyonal area. After
\npublic meetings and mounting opposition to the proposal including strong opposition by the
\nOHA, an arrangement between the developer and EBMUD resulted in the District’s acquisition
\nof the Sullivan Ranch, ending the threat and preserving vanishing open space.<\/p>\n
In an organization such as the OHA it is inevitable that people’s interests and
\nactivities change over time. Often members find themselves unable to care for their
\nanimals for a myriad of reasons such as changing responsibilities or illness. Also,
\nconcurrently, there are non-members who wish to become involved with horses but are not
\nready to make a full commitment involved in ownership. A fortuitous relationship called
\nsponsorship has thus developed. There is an arrangement between `buyer and seller’, but at
\nthe same time the OHA becomes an interested third party. In 1984, the membership adopted
\nthe policy that each request by the proprietary member to have a sponsor must be made in
\nwriting to the Board of Directors. The Board will make the determination of awarding
\nAssociate Membership by exercising the judgment on a case by case basis. Associate
\nMembers, as sponsors are formally called, are responsible for knowing and abiding by all
\nof the rules and regulations, must pay the prescribed fees, and are generally are required
\nby proprietary members to meet at least partially the work requirements.There has been
\nsome concern as to whether a horse should be sponsored by several people at once. However,
\nthe program has been popular and a significant number of sponsors have gone on to become
\nregular OHA members.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Concerns Over the years certain issues have become on-going concerns, despite extensive discussion of the membership and the best efforts by the Board of Directors to achieve consensus as to acceptable solutions. Health Maintenance of Horses Upon admission as as member of OHA each new member is required to submit a veterinarian’s certificate as to… Read More »Recurrent Concerns<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":147,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/orindahorsemen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/215"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/orindahorsemen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/orindahorsemen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orindahorsemen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orindahorsemen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=215"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/orindahorsemen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/215\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1459,"href":"http:\/\/orindahorsemen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/215\/revisions\/1459"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orindahorsemen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/orindahorsemen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orindahorsemen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orindahorsemen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}