Horses, Riders Losing Ground: Area Equestrians Work to Create, Keep Trails Open

By Brian J. Pedersen, The Arizona Daily Star, Tucson

Jan. 18–Horses have always been a part of the Tucson area’s culture, from as far back as when Spanish missionaries came through in the late 17th century to each February when La Fiesta de los Vaqueros turns the South Side into cowboy country.

But as Tucson, Pima County and surrounding communities continue to experience rapid growth, the options and opportunities for equestrian use have decreased.

“It’s the typical urbanization of an area,” said Steve Anderson, principal planner for Pima County’s Natural Resources, Parks and Recreation Department. “But we’re a Western community, and we’re trying to protect that. Equestrians are just part of the culture, and we try to accommodate them as much as we can.”

Riding horses within Tucson’s city limits is almost unheard of nowadays, except through the dry beds of the Rillito and Santa Cruz rivers or the Pantano Wash.

But on the outskirts of town, both in unincorporated Pima County and the area’s growing suburbs, efforts are being made to preserve equestrian use.

Organizing trail preservation

The blueprint for much of the work behind keeping trails accessible to riders, as well as for hikers and cyclists, is the Eastern Pima County Trail System Master Plan.

Published in 1989, the plan did not start to be implemented until 1995, when Anderson was hired by Pima County.

Since then, Anderson has been involved with nearly every effort to preserve, maintain or create area trails.

“Since 1995 we’ve made great strides,” Anderson said during an interview last week at his Northwest Side office, which has dozens of schematics of existing and proposed trails taking up every inch of his desk.

Anderson noted that trails provisions were a big part of the Houghton Area Master Plan that was adopted by the Tucson City Council in June 2005, and some areas along the Pantano Wash on the East Side have new mixed-use paths that fit with the county’s divided-urban-pathway standards.

Anderson’s master vision is for a vast network of trails that are all connected. Included in that is an ambitious plan in the works: a land bridge over Interstate 10 just south of West Tangerine Road.

Similar to a bridge built in 2000 over Interstate 75 in central Florida, the 600-foot-long structure would be 60 feet wide and include a 20-foot-wide soft-surfaced trail for hikers, bikers and equestrians to safely cross the freeway. Elevated planters on both sides of the trail would shield users from views of the traffic below.

The bridge would be part of a proposed trail that is expected to parallel the Central Arizona Project canal from southwest of Tucson up through Marana and into Pinal County.

Anderson said he tries to work closely with officials from Tucson, Marana and Oro Valley, and plans to do so with Sahuarita in the near future, in order to have all communities on the same page as far as trails go.

Another organization very involved in trail preservation is the Pima Trails Association, which was formed in 1987 after development in the Foothills started wiping out many of that area’s trails.

“We meet with department heads all the time,” president Sue Clark said. “It’s really due to the efforts of the Pima Trails Association, and its members, that there’s anything being done. It’s just a matter of staying vigilant.”

“They deserve a lot of credit,” Anderson said of the Pima Trails Association. “Those folks work great with us to (represent) all of the trail users in town.”

Northwest makes effort

On the Northwest Side, officials with Marana and Oro Valley also are doing their best to provide equestrians with places to ride.

Oro Valley Parks and Recreation director Ainsley Reeder said her office is involved in every development plan within the town. She said her department cross-references proposed developments with where existing trails are to prevent access from being limited or cut off altogether.

“We do everything we can to make sure those trails are maintained,” Reeder said.

Oro Valley’s web of trails includes ones leading into the Santa Catalina Mountains, along the Canada del Oro Wash and through neighborhoods, such as the Logan’s Crossing Trail near North La Canada Drive and West Linda Vista Boulevard, which was acquired from Pima County last year.

In Marana, the annexation of land in and around the Tortolita Mountains has allowed the town to create more trails for riders. The town has nine miles of trails in 2,500-acre Tortolita Preserve, Parks and Recreation coordinator Tom Ellis said.

Ellis said that because Marana still considers itself a rural community, the needs and concerns of equestrians are factored heavily.

“In our planning here in Marana, it’s just about part of everything we do,” Ellis said. “In Marana we’re still more rural than urban.”

Trails ‘choked off’

When East River Road was just a curvy two-lane road that paralleled the Rillito River, much of the land on either side of the road was dedicated to horses.

But most of that land has been sold off, bladed and turned into office complexes and a wider, straighter River Road.

Horse property still exists, though not nearly to the extent it did as recently as 10 years ago, says Scott Tilley, ranch manager for Santosa Stables.

“A lot of the big ranches have been choked out by developers,” said Tilley, who helps run the boarding and training facility at 3605 E. River Road. “And there used to be a bunch of (riding) trails back up in the foothills, but they’ve been choked off, too.”

Clients from Tilley’s stables still ride down into the Rillito, though that means having to cross River Road.

This was a treacherous endeavor to begin with even before construction began last year to align River with North Alvernon Way. But included in that construction was installation of equestrian-friendly crosswalk buttons at two intersections — on River at Alvernon, and a mile east at River and North Pontatoc Road — that are higher off the ground and don’t require a rider to dismount.

“It’s much safer having that,” said Claire Hallum, who works at Santosa and said her pony, Stormy, gets very nervous around cars.

The River/Alvernon crosswalk leads right into the new Brandi Fenton Memorial Park, a 55-acre park between River Road and the Rillito that includes equestrian facilities and connects with Rillito River Park, which spans both sides of the river from North La Cholla Boulevard to North Craycroft Road.

“I’m very appreciative of what they did, big time,” by building the park, Tilley said.

Anderson said Pima County wanted to build another park in that area for years, but it wasn’t until the River/Alvernon project was created that such an opportunity arose.

“The facilitating event was the road being built,” Anderson said. “It was a great impetus.”

A few places left to ride

Developments such as Rita Ranch and Rancho del Lago in Vail and Rancho Sahuarita in Los Arroyos in Sahuarita have eaten up large chunks of open desert that used to be heavily ridden by equestrians.

But, at least for now, riders in these areas are still able to find plenty of places off the beaten path to take a leisurely ride.

“I ride from my place most every day, and I usually just ride around the open desert a little bit,” says Bill Cunningham, 70, who since 1990 has lived on the far Southeast Side in New Tucson. “There are a lot of old dirt roads, or we just ride in the washes.”

Cunningham, a member of the Tucson Saddle Club, also is part of the Pima County Sheriff’s Posse, a volunteer mounted unit that has been around since 1946. Cunningham helps patrol Tucson Mountain Park on the west side of Tucson, and he said he regularly sees people using the trails to ride.

While loading horses into a trailer to take them out to preserved trails is still a viable option, Cunningham says he knows of many people who would prefer to just be able to ride right outside their back doors.

“Parking for trucks and trailers can be limiting in some places,” Cunningham said. “Horse people, we usually like to be off in the dirt.”

One person who still has the opportunity to ride right off her property onto open terrain is Sahuarita’s vice mayor, Marty Moreno. Since 1986 Moreno has lived in Sahuarita Village, a small development just south of the master-planned Rancho Sahuarita and one of the town’s oldest neighborhoods.

Though she only has one horse left on her property — Moreno said she had as many as four at one time and her land still includes a one-acre arena for horse training — she knows of many people in the Sahuarita area who just go up and down the local roads on horseback.

“As long as you don’t live in Rancho Sahuarita, you can probably do that,” Moreno said. “A lot of people ride the (Santa Cruz) river, or along the river. Or you can ride El Toro (Road) or down La Villita (Road) all the way down to Duval Mine Road.”

‘The need is here’

Sahuarita Parks and Recreation Department director Debbie Summers says she sees people riding on the streets around her office at Anamax Park, 17501 S. Camino de las Quintas.

“I see them riding all the time, even on the bike paths,” Summers said.

Summers’ office does not oversee any official equestrian trails, though it is in the plans for the future, Moreno noted.

“I am aware that the Parks and Recreation Commission has been queried on that, and hopefully they will incorporate that into the parks system,” Moreno said. “The need is here. People still want and desire to ride their horses. I would hate to see that lost.”

Clark, of the Pima Trails Association, said the Southeast Side and Sahuarita are two high-growth areas that her organization is monitoring closely to ensure riding, biking and hiking interests are properly paid attention to.

“All of that area is getting a huge amount of development, so we’re very on top of that,” Clark said.

On Starnet: Cast your vote in a poll on this issue at northwest.azstarnet.com

Tickets to ride

For a list of trails in your area, contact the parks and recreation departments of Pima County, Marana, Oro Valley, Sahuarita or Tucson.

Interested in renting a horse, or going out on a guided ride? Here is a list of a few local stables:

–Pantano Riding Stables, 4450 S. Houghton Road. 298-8980.

–Pusch Ridge Stables, 13700 N. Oracle Road. 825-1664.

–Rocking K Stables, 13401 E. Old Spanish Trail. 647-0040.

–Spanish Trail Outfitters, 8500 E. Ocotillo Drive. 749-0167.

–Walking Wind Stables, 10000 N. Oracle Road (at Hilton El Conquistador Golf and Tennis Resort). 742-4422.

–For additional locations, go online to www.google.com and type “Tucson horse stables” into the search engine.

–Send sports and rec story ideas to Brian J. Pedersen at bpedersen@azstarnet.com or call 434-4079.

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Copyright (c) 2007, The Arizona Daily Star, Tucson

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.

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