After much debate, the members of the Morven Park Foundation Board of Directors have decided that they\’ll downsize their involvement in their sprawling equestrian center next year.

The steeplechase races, the horse trials and three-day event will continue as fundraisers for the foundation, but the board won’t be able to support the other equestrian events at the showgrounds in Leesburg, Va., as they have in the past.

“There’s still a lot to be decided, but we\’re not closing” said Will O’Keefe, executive director at Morven Park.

“We’re closing our offices at the equestrian center and reducing the level of support to the groups that come in and lease the facility. We’ll continue to lease the facility to groups that have the ability to come in and run their whole event without the level of support that we’ve been providing.”

In the past, when groups have leased the grounds for a competition, the Morven Park staff has dealt with shavings, manure, trash, ring maintenance, and more. They’ll still take care of electrical and plumbing issues, and other basic logistics, but the rest of it will be up to the group renting the facility.

“This is a decision that wasn’t made easily,” said O’Keefe. “Unfortunately, with the rising cost of operating the whole facility, and the incredible amount of deferred maintenance we have on the entire property, we’ve had to set some priorities.”

O’Keefe is looking for a group—either for-profit or non-profit\-hat will step in and offer to lease the equestrian facility and continue the present operations.

“I hope that a group steps forward and puts together a sound business plan and can make it work,” he said. “There is at least one group that has expressed an interest in the facility, and there might end up being more. We’d love to have a group lease the facility from us and make it even better than it presently is.”