About this archive

This archive is in progress. Records are still being reviewed, organized, and added.

These public records are being collected because everyone should want Bear Creek Stables to be safe for the children and families who use it. Midpen has known since at least 2015 that extensive code, safety, and ADA improvements are required. Later estimates placed that work in the millions of dollars.

Those improvements should come before public programming resumes. Midpen itself has acknowledged that the buildings and facilities are in poor condition and need immediate attention.

Public programming is not authorized under the current legal nonconforming use. The County’s 2000 determination recognized only the existing stabling use, meaning horse boarding, and prohibited any expansion or intensification without a Use Permit. Midpen’s 2015 pre-application identified public lessons, camps, educational programs, and other public activities as proposed uses. Midpen still has not obtained the required Use Permit.

The archive will include public records, photographs, meeting notes, reports, recordings, and firsthand accounts spanning more than a decade. Materials have been provided by a Midpen director, former nonprofit leaders, an Ombud, boarders, volunteers, former employees, and members of the public.

The initial focus was horse welfare and the safety of children participating in riding lessons. As additional records became available, the scope expanded to include concessionaire oversight, land use, public spending, procurement, environmental compliance, wildlife protection, and Midpen’s response to complaints.

The records document concerns involving neglected horses, unsafe conditions for children, a teenager living in a trailer with water leaking through electrical fixtures, inadequate operational oversight, loose dogs, and boarders who received eviction notices after raising concerns. They also show a recurring fear of retaliation among people who considered speaking publicly.

Once complete, this archive will preserve these materials and make them publicly available so readers can examine the documentary record for themselves.