For nearly two decades, Christine James, a Santa Cruz County local, has boarded her horse at the Coast Road Stables located on a quiet parcel between the Monterey Bay shoreline and Highway 1, just west of UC Santa Cruz’s Coastal Science Campus.

She makes the drive everyday from Felton to ride her horses through Wilder Ranch State Park, which sits adjacent to the stable. James says that she has remained a customer of the stable because of the affordable price, convenient location and the community she has built with fellow horse riders.

“I’m 77 years old, so I don’t have a lot of chances to go out and meet people. I’ve known these women [from the stable] for 16 years, and some of them have been at the ranch for 25,” James said. “We have created this wonderful community of lovely women … we support each other with our riding skills, and we all go out on trail together so that we’re safe.”

But now, due to a conservation project led by UC Santa Cruz, her horse may be evicted from its home.

Potential Acquisition

On Aug. 25, Chancellor Cynthia Larive announced in a news release that the university is working to become the steward of 214 acres of coastal farmland by 2026. A portion of the land UCSC is set to steward includes where the Coast Road Stables have been in business for nearly 50 years.

Larive laid out plans for how the Center for Agroecology and the Campus Natural Reserves will use the land for conservation.

“This property offers us an unparalleled opportunity to advance sustainable organic farming practices, train future leaders in agriculture, and undertake research that addresses the urgent challenges of food security and environmental change,” the news release read. 

At this point in time, it is unknown how costly the acquisition of the land will be. UCSC is working to acquire the land through collaboration with a non-profit organization called The Conservation Fund (TCF) and the Younger Family, who previously donated the land that is now the Younger Lagoon Reserve, in addition to a part of the land that is home to UCSC’s coastal campus.

According to a long time boarder of Coast Road Stable, Dee Kenville, the university has not made it clear what this will mean for the continuation of their business, and others on the land.

“With UCSC, they’re pretty much not responding,” Kenville said. “And many of us have reached out.”

James explained that taking her horse home is not as simple as it seems.

“If I wasn’t boarding at Coast Road Stable, I would have to put him in a horse trailer every single day and drive all the way over there, and then after I rode, I would have to put him back in the trailer and bring him home, that’s a lot of work.”

A pair of miniature horses who reside at the Coast Road Stables. 

The day after the university’s announcement, community members created an online petition to “Save Coast Road Stables,” and it currently has over 900 signatures. 

“We do NOT oppose this acquisition or the partnership between UCSC and TCF — as a group we seek to advocate for those directly affected by this sale and work WITH UCSC and TCF towards a mutually beneficial resolution,” the petition reads.

“There’s no guarantee that UC Santa Cruz will ultimately be the stewards of the coastal property, but we are working with that intention,” said Assistant Vice Chancellor, Scott Hernandez-Jason, in an email to City on a Hill Press. “It is not within the campus’s current mission or vision to become stewards or landlords of a horse boarding facility.”

It is still unclear what exactly the university’s vision is for the stable, and the uncertainty is impacting the stable community.

“A lot of people are getting afraid and panicking [so] they are leaving the stable.” James said. “Some of our community are hanging in there, we’re going to try to stay.”

At the Coast Road Stables, each of the horses are given their own shelter. With the land acquisition, it remains uncertain whether owners will be able to relocate their horses to new stables and have the necessary resources to care for them.