Maintenance Badly Needed at Rohr Park Horse Arena

The first time anyone ever heard about the Rohr Park Horse Arena being owned by the Sunnyside Saddle Club was at a Sweetwater Valley Civic Association meeting back in August of 2024. Then-SVCA President Judy Tieber had invited real estate agent Terri Dillion—now SSC Vice President—to explain why the arena belonged to them and how they could lock all other Bonita horse people out. It was a heated meeting to say the least and the minutes from this meeting are missing from the SVCA site.

The meeting was heavily attended by horse people and they weren't believing any of it.

They knew that there had always been a general agreement between the horse people to allow the Saddle Club to use the arena for their horse shows about four or five times a year. The other 360 days it was always open for the public to use, ALL riders from near and far.

 It made absolutely no sense. If the arena belonged to the Sunnyside Saddle Club, why would the Bonita Valley Horsemen build two round pens (the first stolen) on "private property" where they couldn't use their own round pen?

This Sweetwater Valley Civic Association meeting was held after a private agreement with the City of Chula Vista had been secured by the Saddle Club in secrecy. The papers were signed by then Saddle Club President Richelle Farley. This was all found out later.

SVCA President Judy Tieber didn't let the community know about their mission (to give exclusivity to the Saddle Club) so that other riders could attend the Chula Vista Council Meeting and voice their opinions. It was just done, on a consent calendar no less (no vote).

Mrs. Tieber sat on both the SVCA Board and the Sweetwater Community Planning Group Board at that time and still does. These two groups are where the community gets all their information. But not this time. Mrs. Tieber zipped her lips and looked the other way. To add insult to injury, she strongly supported it in her written comment.

The Saddle Club recently had an election. The new president is Scott Aurich—owner of the Sunnyside Stables over on Sweetwater—and the vice president is Terri Dillion. Richelle Farley has vanished into thin air.

The new SSC president said publicly on camera at the Mayor John McCann Press Conference that the arena would be open to all.

The Saddle Club signed a contract with Chula Vista for five years. With that said, that holds them as the responsible party for maintenance. SSC told other riders that they had done all the upkeep in the past and that's why it belonged to them. But horse people only saw them do maintenance when they were about to have a show. The Saddle Club did not have any shows in 2025.

Also, there's that grant money they received to fix the footing in the arena:

NEIGHBORHOOD REINVESTMENT PROGRAM ALLOCATIONS

Click on image to enlarge

The Grant was in the amount of $25,000. The materials used plus cost of labor would have amounted to between $3,000 and $4,000. The best arena maintenance folk in the area agreed on that price.

That leaves $20,000+ to complete some much-needed maintenance on the arena, exercise area, round pen and buildings. The entire area looks embarrassingly shoddy.

L-R: Main arena, outside main arena and exercise area | Clink on images to enlarge

The main arena is in dire need of a good dragging with a drag harrow. That will pull up all the weeds and level the ground. This should be done every three months, at least.

The outside of the arena, the exercise area and the round pen (not shown) could use a good weed pulling or hoeing with some good old elbow grease. All those members in the Saddle Club could get it all done in a matter of hours. "Many hands make light work." Absolutely NO WEED KILLER should be used anywhere around this entire horse area.

L-R: Broken gate and unattractive storage area | Clink on images to enlarge

The horse gate to the arena has been jimmied and overlaps when you try to close it. A secure arena is needed to turn out horses. A good handyman or iron worker could fix this in no time.

The storage area holds jumps and other accessories used for the Saddle Club horse shows. The chain link looks unprofessional. The holes allow mice and their friends to crawl through and find a warm home. Mice are often followed by snakes and it would be unfortunate for someone to find a snake when pulling out the equipment. A solid door would work better, for looks and for safety.

These last photos show the area in the most need of repair.

Clink on images to enlarge

The woodwork on the storage area/snack bar could use a good sanding on everything and then a few coats of paint. It is currently not protected from the sun or rain. In fact, with our recent rains there could be dry rot from exposure which would mean the replacement of the wood elements would need to happen.

Clink on images to enlarge

The buildings look terrible and this is what all the walkers and runners see when they use the trail behind the structures. It appears that they have not been painted in some time, except to slap some ill-matching paint over graffiti that occasionally occurs. It would be nice for all the buildings get a few new coats of paint, saving the extra for graffiti touchups.

The window at the top of the 2-story is open, no glass or screen. This is a nifty place for rats, mice, bats . . even a bee hive. That opening should be closed.

All this maintenance is long overdue and could be polished off in a jiffy! It not only would vastly improve the horse arena area, it would go the distance in proving to the City that we want to keep our arena.