Two Mainstays of the Santa Barbara Equine Community Trying to Survive Financially in the 21st Century

The noisy air conditioning had to be shut off in Warren Hall for last Thursday’s monthly board meeting. Five board members of the 19th District Agricultural Association, Earl Warren Showgrounds’ CEO, and a lawyer representing the California Department of Food and Agriculture sat around a table in a huddle, while about 40 community members filed into the red upholstered chairs, public comment tickets in hand. 

The topic of the hour was the new proposed rental agreement, listing a price of $600 a month to be paid by nonprofit Santa Barbara Equine Assistance and Evacuation Team, aka Equine Evac, for the storage of a trailer and container full of emergency response equipment in the showgrounds parking lot. 

“That $600 a month would be devastating to our program,” said Equine Evac’s director Rhonda Hathaway.

This proposal came as a shock to Equine Evac, who had been storing its materials on the property for the past 35 years at no cost, and has worked in coordination with Earl Warren to provide essential large animal evacuation resources to thousands of southern Santa Barbara County animals through fire and flood. 

As the air temperature started to rise in the hall, so too did the temperature of the comments from members of the equestrian community, including horse owners, trainers, veterinarians, and former firefighters. 

The local horse community has been up in arms, with a petition garnering over 800 signatures, and the lengthy public comment period at the August 27 board meeting effectively delaying the board’s decision on the matter.   

A Community Event Center 

Earl Warren Showgrounds is a nonprofit with property owned by the State of California and directed by the 19th District Agricultural Association, whose nine boardmembers are appointed by California’s governor. Only four full-time employees, and about 15-20 temporary maintenance workers hired during busy seasons, keep the property up and running. 

The multi-use, community facility receives zero taxpayer dollars and is “financially self-sustaining” and invests “100% of our donations and profits back into our Showgrounds,” according to the facility’s website. 

The showgrounds used to receive state funding for operations and maintenance, but state budget cuts in the 1990s and again in the early 2010s left District Agricultural Associations (DAAs) like Earl Warren Showgrounds without their major funding streams and relying primarily on event revenue, property usage fees, and donations, including donations from Equine Evac. Struggling to keep up financially, the showgrounds had been operating at a deficit of over $100,000, sparking false rumors of the showgrounds potentially closing in 2019. 

“The staff really is to be commended,” said Earl Warren CEO Ben Sprague. “They’ve kept this place together with duct tape and baling wire for years.”

In 2019, Sprague was hired to run the showgrounds, and his number one task, assigned by the 19th District board, was to make the showgrounds financially viable. He said that for the last few years, Earl Warren’s finances have been net positive, and enough to keep the facility comfortable to pay for basic facility maintenance and protect pensions. 

For the Horse Community

In the 1950s, Earl Warren Showgrounds was built to be the home for the Santa Barbara National Horse and Flower Show, with a commitment, in their previous mission statement, to “maintain[ing] a first-class equine facility.” 

As of March 2023, the board amended the showground’s mission statement, and now it no longer includes a commitment to equestrian events. The current mission statement reads as follows: “The Earl Warren Showgrounds is a multi-use community event and emergency resiliency center serving the existing and changing needs of Santa Barbara’s culture, history, and community.”

This change, coupled with a new Earl Warren Master Plan that proposed to drastically reduce the amount of horse facilities on the property — including removing eight of the eleven barns used for housing horses and other large animals during shows and emergency evacuations — has left some in Santa Barbara’s horse community with major distrust in the current Earl Warren management.

“I understand that Earl Warren needs to be financially sustainable and accommodate a variety of community events,” said Jen Boulden. “But I respectfully ask that this be accomplished without sacrificing the equestrian and agricultural foundations of the showgrounds.”

Equine Evac was founded after the 1990 Paint Fire, which claimed the lives of tens of horses living on ranches in the Santa Ynez Mountains whose owners were not able to save them from the fast-moving flames. The nonprofit, volunteer-run organization is funded by donations and maintains equipment and a crew of trained and registered Disaster Service Workers, ready to be engaged in an emergency. 

All of their essential lifesaving services — both animal and human who might otherwise stay behind to care for their creatures — are provided free of charge, leaving the organization beloved by the equine community.   

In Earl Warren’s parking lot, there sits a 30-foot Conex shipping container. “It has hoses, buckets, wheelbarrows, feed, bedding, our Kawasaki mule, temporary lighting, tools, anything that we may need to be up and running,” said Rhonda Hathaway.  

Next to the shipping container used to be a 24-foot response trailer, which is used as the command center for recording all the animals evacuated in accordance with ICS protocols and Department of Animal Service rules. Earl Warren management requested that Equine Evac move the trailer temporarily for the Santa Barbara Fair & Expo back in April, and they have not been allowed to bring it back to the property since. 

“We are concerned that the trailer’s continued absence could create delays in response time and may impact the safety, security, and orderly movement of people and animals during emergency activation,” said Sara Aguilar, director of the Santa Barbara County Animal Services, the agency in charge of activating Earl Warren Showgrounds in the event of an emergency. 

“We’ll welcome it back as soon as the contract is signed,” Sprague said. 

Tasked by California to Be Prepared

“The ability to safely shelter animals during evacuations not only protects valuable livestock and companion animals, but also allows residents to evacuate more quickly and safely, knowing their animals are cared for,” said former Montecito Fire Chief David Neels. 

Earl Warren Showgrounds is, and continues to be, the only location designated as a large animal emergency evacuation center in South County. Strategically located next to Highway 101 and neighboring Santa Barbara Golf Club, the property is defendable from fires, is easily accessible, and has barns and facilities capable of housing large animals. The next closest large animal evacuation center capable of handling horses, cattle, goats, and other species is more than 30 miles away at the Ventura County Fairgrounds. 

Equine Evac has been the primary resource for large animal evacuations in South County since its formation. Santa Barbara County Fire Captain Micheal Gray said, “We notify them, and they handle it, and we’re very appreciative of the work they do.”

For the past 35 years, their relationship has been stable. Earl Warren hosts the animals, and Equine Evac provides the care and supplies and can be set up in just one hour, ready to receive the first four-legged evacuees.  

Previous Earl Warren management have solidified this relationship with Equine Evac with memorandums of understanding (MOUs) and rental contracts listing rental fees at zero dollars a month. The most recent documented rental agreement, provided to the Independent by Equine Evac, listed the rental fees at zero dollars and expired on December 31, 2024. 

In June 2026, a letter was sent from Earl Warren to Equine Evac notifying the nonprofit that in order to be in accordance with the California State Constitution, Equine Evac would have to pay rent for the equipment kept on the property, and that rent would be $600 per month calculated based on market-rate value. 

“With consideration that Cal-Fire has declared a year-round fire season and that Earl Warren Showgrounds is a part of the California statewide fairgrounds emergency network, there is an obligation by the Board of Directors to support a no-charge rental agreement,” said Lisa Baca, president of the California State Horsemen’s Association, in a letter to the board. 

CEO Sprague said that this new charge is not meant to target Equine Evac directly, but is part of a larger effort on the part of Earl Warren management to standardize rental agreements with all private and public entities using the Earl Warren property. 

“Adding an extra expense to a nonprofit of this kind is really difficult, and it harms a pattern of great community service we’ve had for these years,” said Kathy Rosenthal during public comment at Thursday’s meeting.

Efficiency in Emergency Evacuations

As a part of a statewide effort to make emergency response more efficient, the California Department of Food and Agriculture has been reviewing and assessing emergency protocols and memorandums of understanding (MOUs) of District Agricultural Associations and the fairgrounds they manage, including Earl Warren. 

When an emergency does occur, the response is paid for by the local, state, or county agency who maintains jurisdiction over the land where the incident started. For example, if a wildfire were sparked in Los Padres National Forest, the federal government would pay for the emergency response. So, when organizations like Earl Warren are activated by the county for emergency response, they will be reimbursed. 

But the question of long-term storage of emergency equipment is another issue. 

In unison with the state’s emergency plan streamlining process, rental agreements for all the public and private entities using Earl Warren property are getting “cleaned up” and standardized to be in compliance with the California State constitution, which prohibits the gifting of public funds. 

“We are having to formalize agreements,” said legal counsel for the California Department of Food and Agriculture Brandi Gragg. “We’re having to charge rent where maybe rent wasn’t charged previously.”

Since Equine Evac is renting the space for free, and Earl Warren property is owned by the state, according to Gragg, their current agreement is considered a gift of public funds and needs to be changed. 

During public comment, Phillip Seymour, an attorney who spent 25 years representing public agencies and a former firefighter, read directly from court documents, “This is a direct quote from the California Supreme Court, ‘It’s well settled that in determining whether an appropriation of public funds or property is to be considered gift, the primary question is whether the funds are to be used for a public or private purpose. If they are for a public purpose, they are not a gift.’”  

Gragg said during the meeting, “any emergency response activation group, Cal Fire, Cal OES, PG&E, anybody who is activated or utilized in the emergency, if they’re storing equipment on fairgrounds, they’re paying for it.”

There were so many public comments at Thursday’s meeting, that even despite limiting each speaker to one minute only, the time ran out and the board was forced to make a decision. Director Miguel Avila called a motion to move the Equine Evac rental amount approval to be voted on another day, which passed, with the stipulation that a concrete decision regarding the matter must be made by the end of next month’s meeting. 

“It’s a treasure that you have here, so be wise,” said Dr. Nijera in public comment addressing the board. “If you lose [Equine Evac] it is going to be a horrible thing. You’ll be remembered.”

Editor’s Note: David Neels is the former Montecito Fire Chief not the current chief as stated in an earlier version of this story.