Woman Sues Las Campanas Equestrian Facility

[Mike Matson]

If not satisfied with your boarding facility, get a good lawyer and sue (after you move, of course).

http://www.santafenewmexican.com/Loc...ty-didn-t-deli

A Tesuque woman is suing Las Campanas, claiming its equestrian center didn't live up to the promises made to her when she began boarding her horses there.

Janet Steinberg said that when she signed contracts with Las Campanas' equestrian center in January 2008, she was promised the facility would be maintained at a "world class level."

But, she says, the luxury development was in such dire financial straits that it soon began cutting back on expenses at the center, leading to dirty and hazardous conditions.

Steinberg's legal complaint — filed Nov. 10 in state District Court by lawyers Roger Purcino and Lee Hunt of Santa Fe — seeks reimbursement for two Equestrian Lease Agreements, expenses for moving her two horses, compensatory and punitive damages and other relief for the "fraud."

Each ELA requires a one-time initiation fee of about $30,000, plus additional monthly payments for horse stalls, food, lessons and other services.

Last year, the original developer of Las Campanas, Lyle Anderson, defaulted on loans from The Bank of Scotland. The bank hired Oasis Management Resources to run the development, which includes The Club at Las Campanas' golf, tennis and riding operations.

Oasis Management Resources laid off 178 club employees and "essentially closed the Las Campanas Club and all of its services including the Equestrian Center for two weeks on or about Sept. 12, 2009," according to the complaint. "Ms. Steinberg was provided no warning before the closure and was given no opportunity to move the horses to another facility."

The complaint charges that there were insufficient shavings on stall floors, causing horses to slip and become injured; that the material on stall floors was changed infrequently, so "the smell of urine permeated the facility;" and that the water in the troughs was changed infrequently.

Also, according to the complaint, Oasis laid off "world-renowned rider, breeder and trainer" Caroline Invicta Stevenson as the director of the equestrian center, as well as "the most proficient instructor," Sarah Williams, and replaced them and other staff members with "inexperienced and incapable employees."

[Kate66]

Obviously I think it's insane that someone would pay $30,000 for a LEASE agreement, let alone two of them, but can imagine that if I had paid that, that I would sue too.

What I don't understand is, if she was leasing the horses, how could she move them anyway?

[oldpony66]

I think the lease agreement is for the facility. It sounds like she owned her horses. It's similar to initial membership fees at some country clubs, golf courses, etc. And, actually, cheaper than some of those.

[hitchinmygetalong]

I think I would be doing the exact same thing.

[Bluey]

I wonder at that time why would anyone try to build and run such a facility where they did.

ANYONE knows you need to be where the people are to make those work.
Making people come to you from far away only works at very low level of participation and will always struggle.
That location was crazy for that kind of facility, other than the pretty setting.

I wonder how much it may have been a scam, how much just some clueless developer following someone's far out ideas.

As for suing, good luck, I expect when the dust settles, if she gets anything for her troubles, it may be at a loss in attorneys fees.
Evidently she has the money to throw at such things.

[MistyBlue]

I'd sue too, but after having my head examined for paying that much for country club boarding.

[Guilherme]

I'd sue too, but after having my head examined for paying that much for country club boarding.

Amen.

G.

[IronwoodFarm]

She has nothing to lose by suing. The problem is that even if she wins, I don't think there is anything to collect.

[criss]

Bluey, no, it wasn't a scam, nor was it a crazy location. It's been the "it" location in Santa Fe--a whole city that's pretty much an "it" location--for many years. I know architects who've built multiple multi-million-dollar houses there, and most of the wealthiest people in the area seem to live there. It's a vast area, yes, but that's what those people want, the sense of having all that space. The equestrian center is closer to those houses than any other barn would be, and in fact is also closer than any other amenities including gas stations or supermarkets.

Before Caroline and her daughter Sarah were laid off (as mentioned in the article), it was indeed a lovely facility. Yeah, you paid through the nose, and yeah, it was for members only (I got to ride there a little as a guest, but only Las Campanas residents could board there), but everything was perfect all the time. It wasn't my personal taste--too big, too expensive, just too MUCH--but it was a good value for the people who liked that sort of thing. Caroline has been a friend of mine for going on 20 years now, and I can vouch for her--she is truly world-class, it's not just the New Mexican saying that. She and Sarah really got shafted after doing a great job for many years.

The problem is that the developer went broke and there wasn't any warning to people. If I had bought into a country-club-style equestrian center and then hadn't been warned that something like that was going down, I'd be pretty mad too! I mean, if the kind of place where I would board went through a messy change of management, it wouldn't represent an amount of money worth suing over, but that would be the only difference. The whole thing really stinks...no pun intended....

[Bluey]

I still say it was just not drawing from a large enough population for what they wanted, that is why it eventually didn't really fly, no matter how well it may have been managed.
You can't believe what difference it makes to be where people are piling on each other to be part of what you have to sell, when it comes to those kinds of developments.

Several of us, that also got the promotional literature, did wonder at that time and all along how long it would be in operation and sad to say, we were right.

Wonderful ideas those, wrong location, really.
Happens regularly with developments.

[criss]

Uh...people *were* piling on one another to live at Las Campanas for many years. The developer there is certainly not the only one to go bust lately, and his personal insolvency in no way reflects the successfulness or popularity of the development. Whether you *like* it or not is a separate issue, of course.

[mvp]

I was in Santa Fe for a minute a few summers ago and I remember hearing about that place.

Buying into a development with the understanding that I'd keep my horse at it's boarding barn is not for the faint of heart. Or maybe it's for people who aren't really critical of their horses' care and availability of trainers. This isn't to speak badly of the trainers there. It is to say that things can change and even if that's a lateral kind of change, it seems tough to do something different about the horse side of your life.

I found Santa Fe a strange place. Amazing wealth close in. Ten or fifteen minutes out of town? A whole other world.

[Guilherme]

Uh...people *were* piling on one another to live at Las Campanas for many years. The developer there is certainly not the only one to go bust lately, and his personal insolvency in no way reflects the successfulness or popularity of the development. Whether you *like* it or not is a separate issue, of course.

Interesting question. If the development is a success then it will likely continue under new management once the bankruptcy process is complete. If its fundamentals are flawed then continuation will be problematical. I guess time will tell.

G.

[Bluey]

I was in Santa Fe for a minute a few summers ago and I remember hearing about that place.

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I found Santa Fe a strange place. Amazing wealth close in. Ten or fifteen minutes out of town? A whole other world.

That is true of much of NM, a state in a developed country with some of it still in a third world culture, some by ignorance, poverty, lack of resources and some by choice, preferring that kind of easy, simpler life.

A study in contrasts, is it.

[lalahartma1]

Not unlike Texas.

[Bluey]

Not unlike Texas.

I live right on the edge of both and there is definitely a clear difference between both cultures.
Some parts of TX are just plain poor, but trying for a higher standard of living.
In NM, the less developed areas are larger and seem to be fine with whatever their standard of living may be.
The cultures are somewhat different, not any better or worse, just different.
Easy to see if you live here.

[Kate66]

Obviously I think it's insane that someone would pay $30,000 for a LEASE agreement, let alone two of them, but can imagine that if I had paid that, that I would sue too.

What I don't understand is, if she was leasing the horses, how could she move them anyway?

Now I feel like a twit - re-reading it it's so obvious. :-) I did think that $30k to lease a horse was definitely odd!!!

[criss]

Buying into a development with the understanding that I'd keep my horse at it's boarding barn is not for the faint of heart. Or maybe it's for people who aren't really critical of their horses' care and availability of trainers. This isn't to speak badly of the trainers there. It is to say that things can change and even if that's a lateral kind of change, it seems tough to do something different about the horse side of your life.

Well, from what I can tell, the people who bought in were people who could have afforded to throw it away and board somewhere else if it were that bad. They also had a lot of faith in Caroline, and rightly so--she was in it for the long haul and had the horses' interests first always. What happened with the bankruptcy wasn't the kind of thing you could foresee, and in fact would probably never have happened if the economy hadn't tanked when it did.

I found Santa Fe a strange place. Amazing wealth close in. Ten or fifteen minutes out of town? A whole other world.

Depends which side of town you mean. And even then. The area where I grew up is about evenly split between the kind of people Bluey is talking about--ferociously proud that they still live in the past and have a 19th-century standard of living--and insanely rich folks. My mom bought her property right on the cusp back in 1981, and we were the second bunch of gringos to own a house on our road (the other being a dude who smoked, and sold, a lot of pot, and had horses who used to always knock down his hippie fences and go eat old ladies' lilac bushes). When I was a teenager, Val Kilmer was one of our nearest (geographically anyway) neighbors. Yeah, Santa Fe is a kind of odd place.