Faye Brophy reports that the proposed ordinance was voted down 3 to 2!!

Restricting the rental horses to within 20 ft of the bluffs from Poplar beach entrance north 0.65 mi & out at Kelly Avenue via the exist known as the 'slot' has no restrictions for any horses at this time but with the caveat to revisit this issue in the future.

With over 50 speakers signed up to vote, all of whom (except one), were from the equestrian community and spoke for no restrictions, the  meeting room had some 120+ people packed in with standing room only.  This agenda item did not get presented until 9PM and the HMB mayor decided, as was his discretion, not to allow anyone to forfeit their time to anyone else.  (Equestrians wanted to use this as a means to allow Sea Ranch's paid lawyer more time to give his argument to the Council since each speaker was only allowed 2 minutes to speak.)

 
After all the public input, the HMB council then gave their opinions.  It was made clear that the issues were still manure and public safety.  However HMB City does have in place the means for trash (i.e. diapers, broken glass etc) & manure pickup, to be paid from future fees to be collected from improvements slated for Poplar beach parking.  As for the safety/liability concerns, the Council has reserved the right to review this issue again, perhaps as early as one year from now. 
 

The Council has instructed the Police to start to document all horse related accidents/incidents; whatever this may be.  It was made clear that the equestrians' argument of 'no accidents for over 50 yrs' was lost on some of the council members and that it was more of a lack of documentation rather than never happening.  Loose horses from people getting bucked off, horses running down the beach out of control, horses rearing or coming too fast and too close up to frightened beach goers are the types of incidents that this Council may take into consideration as negative horse related incidents.
 

So, while I am estatic about the outcome of last night's vote for no restrictions and am again amazed at the organization, passion and dedication of equestrian community, especially those who showed up at last night HMB Council meeting I am still concerned about this beach access for horses. 
 

We are going to have to police our ranks to make sure that our horses/riders behave at this heavily used beach.  If you feel concerned about your horse, then ride south of Poplar beach entrance where you have 1.2 miles of beach (as opposed to 0.62 miles north) and there are fewer people to content with.  We need to educate the public about horses and safety.  And wherever we trailer and especially into Poplar beach, we need to clean up after our horses wherever & whenever we can but especially by our trailers. 

 
It's a beautiful experience to ride at the beach and it would be nice if the beach goers who disliked horses would go to other nearby beaches where horses are not allowed; but as it stands now equestrians will have to contend with these people and their phobias about manure/horses at Poplar beach.  For now, I and those who could not participate in all the work and effort involved with this issue, would like to give a big THANK YOU  for all the people who have spoken and worked so hard on this issue, it was a great win for equestrians!
 

Faye Brophy