There is no room for horsing around at the Seven Lakes Stables.
Stable Manager Kate Pennington has worked hard to determine the needs of the current herd and riders, and now she hopes to generate revenue to support the stables operation by boarding horses for private owners.
At the Monday, March 11 Seven Lakes Landowners Association [SLLA] Work Session, Pennington presented an in-depth proposal for offering boarding services.
“Currently, we have eight horses and two ponies,” Pennington said. “At the end of April, we will have seven horses and two ponies. I think we should board horses. We would have a stall for every horse, and we could maintain our operations.”
Equine Separate but Equal
Modifications would need to be made to keep the boarded horses separate from the SLLA herd and residents, Pennington said.
“We would need to add a couple of gates and a fence line,” she explained. “We should really have our pastures segregated anyway. That is how our pastures are already set up.”
The existing pasture shelters are sub-par and need to be rebuilt for the existing herd, she added.
“The ones out there right now, they are much too narrow,” Pennington said. New shelters would be relativity inexpensive to build, requiring four posts, painted plywood siding and a tin roof.
Horses Need Fresh Air
Referencing state requirements for stables Pennington said: “Shelters are included for inclement weather. Under North Carolina law, you do not have to provide shelter for a pastured horse.”
“If we have fence line set up, then I can have the horses outside,” she explained. “The horses will be locked up in their paddock outside — where horses should be. Most horse owners want their horses outside. Every horse would have its own stall, so that they can be packed up in it for the night.”
“In our hospital paddock, next to barn, there is a run-in shed, and that can be used as a stall for the ponies,” said Pennington. “It was originally built to be a pony stall. Ponies should not be indoors ever, except in extreme weather. And we have a stall for that.”
Potential Boarders
Six residents within Seven Lakes North, South, and West, have expressed interest in boarding their horses at the stables, Pennington reported. Board Member Bob Racine questioned whether North and South would be given priority over the West.
In most stables, “it is first come, first serve,” said Pennington. “I have only contacted the North, South, and West communities. Six people have expressed interest. I think we should start with boarding two, and see if this works. It’s an experiment. I personally think that it will be successful and think we should try it and see.”
Start Small
“I think it would be good to raise some revenue,” said board member Steve Ritter. “I like what you said about trying it small and seeing what happens. That seems to be a reasonable approach. You are currently generating attendance numbers, and I think that is very good. It will give us a better idea of usage. I am not sure prior to you, that we felt the numbers were as accurate as they can be.”
“We made a fairly significant change to the guest passes,” Ritter noted, referring to recent price increases for guest use of the stables. “I am wondering what size of a herd we are really going to need to service the people.”
“By the Fall, we will have seen our biggest numbers,” said Pennington. “The Summer will determine if this new fee structure will have any effect on the number of riders. Due to safety, I only take five people on a trail ride at once. When we take out kids below ten years of age, we only have four.”
Liability of Boarding Horses
SLLA Manager Ray Sohl questioned the liability that would be risked by boarding horses.
“No matter how many signs posted or waivers signed, any incident of negligence, and we are left open,” he said. Pennington said the risk of accidents would be greatly reduced by keeping the SLLA herd separate from the boarded horses.
“We as a board need to do our due diligence,” said Meyer. “I am seeing for the first time a boarding agreement. We have to go through, dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s.” Meyer suggested having the SLLA attorney look over the proposed boarding agreement.
Board Members appeared to agree that Pennington’s proposal has potential.
“In general, I am in favor of raising revenue to offset some of the cost,” Meyer said. “I am also in favor of taking a look at this from a revenue perspective. Kate has thought this through. But I am not ready to approve this. I think we ought to proceed, but we are not ready to vote for anything.”
The Board voted to table the discussion pending further research and review.
Prancing Horse
The use of the SLLA Stables by the Prancing Horse organization has drawn a number of interested spectators, including Board members. “It is fun to watch,” said Meyer.
Prancing Horse provides therapeutic riding opportunities for children with special needs and disabilities, providing positive outreach for SLLA while generating revenue.
“I am very proud to say that we have six horses and two ponies that are Prancing Horse qualified,” Pennington said. “Helping special needs children and giving them the chance to ride a horse is awesome. When I came here, it took me a good four months to learn the horses’ personalities. The horses we have now are all good guys and are very versatile. Our horses have been desensitized. I did everything possible to desensitize them.”
Summer Riding Camp
The SLLA riding camp for children is a real bargain. “We are well below other camp’s prices,” Pennington said. “I looked at five camps in the area. The cheapest camp I found was $300. These fees are extremely cheap for what we are doing.”
Pennington requested increasing the camp tuition from $50 to $75. “The reason I wanted to increase it is so we can do more crafts,” she explained. “I would love to be able to offer more crafts and activities when the temperatures reach above 100 degrees.”
“I would support increasing the cost of the camp,” Director Racine said. The Board voted to take the fee increase to a vote at the next Open Meeting.
Code of Ethics
Community Manager Sohl recommended updating the Board’s Code of Ethics. “These are basic and good tools for the board,” Sohl said.
Most of the points suggested by Sohl could be considered common sense provisions — for example, that no board member could receive money related to Board action or act unilaterally without the consent of other Board members. [Neither The Times nor landowners attending the Work Session were provided with copies of the recommended code.]
Director Ritter agreed he was in favor of operating under a code of conduct, but worried that several of the suggested provisions were too restrictive. Citing one recommended proscription, Ritter read, “A Board Member or his or her family shall not engage in writing or speechmaking that defames another Board Member.”
“Its one thing, if this refers to me,” said Ritter. “But I have a hard time in restricting what a spouse can say.”
Racine agreed with Ritter: “I don’t want to tell my wife she can’t say anything.”
The board discussed the wording and made several suggestions to Sohl. “It will be on the agenda for the April work session,” Director Meyer said. “We will have time to fine tune this a little bit.”
One Bad Apple
The SLLA office has received numerous complaints regarding extended parking of recreational vehicles [RVs] at residences.
“It is a leading complaint in the office,” said Sohl. The most common abuse is when a resident removes his RV just long enough to restart the amount of time it can be parked in his driveway and then brings it back in.
“This is aimed primarily at one person,” said Racine. “He comes in, parks, and leaves his RV there for more than 72 hours.”
Sohl suggested a stricter ordinance for RVs that would set a 30-day waiting period between instances of parking an RV at a residence.
Resident Jerry Johnson said that he often took shorter trips, and expressed concern with the proposed rule. “It says you can load it, but cannot bring it back until after thirty days. What if I am only gone a week?” he asked.
Racine agreed that Johnson had made a valid point, and the Board decided that the language of the proposed rule needed cleaning up.
“We certainly can wordsmith and change it,” said Sohl. “But I think that it does need to move forward.”
Island at North Mailhouse
Vehicles have repeatedly driven into the split rail fence that divides through traffic from those stopping at the Northside mailhouse, Sohl reported. He recommended replacing the fence with a small four-foot-wide island with a raised center that would be planted with low-maintenance shrubbery.
“I do think there is some urgency to this,” said Sohl. “It has become a safety issue. The split rail fence has been hit several times. I think we need to go ahead and move forward on this project.
The island not only would improve the appearance of the area, but would most likely reduce the number of accidents, said Ritter. The Board agreed to expedite construction by conducting an electronic vote once a contract is secured. The cost of the construction is not to exceed $4,500.
Heading off Liability
Sohl consulted with SLLA’s insurance broker to ask if additional coverage would be needed for transporting employees to offsite swim meets.
“He did say it could be an issue,” Sohl said. “He also said we should consider a sexual harassment package.”
Sohl recommended adding additional coverage to the insurance policy in April.
Pool Repairs
Due to the time sensitive nature of pool repairs, Sohl suggested an electronic vote should be taken regarding work on the pool. The work is extensive and would include replacing the coping tile around the perimeter with monolith concrete as a better solution than brick. Additional work will include replacing the wall tile, as well as repairing the pool tank and the deck.
“I don’t want to push this into April,” said Sohl. “After repairs the pool needs to be inspected. I want to allow plenty of time to make this happen.”
The Board unanimously approved holding an electronic vote once bids are available.
Project Updates
In other project-related discussion during the March 11 Work Session the SLLA Board:
• Heard that a new $1,000 pump will be purchased to have on hand as a backup to be used for Ramapo and Little J when necessary.
• Heard that the pumping of Lake Sequoia into Lake Echo has proceeded as scheduled. Once Lake Echo and Sequoia are equalized, attention will be given to Lakes Ramapo and Timber. The pumping from Sequoia to Echo will not exceed the scheduled two-week period.
Directors Bob Darr and Chuck Leach were absent from the meeting.
