Looks like Temecula was rejected.
Seems to be talk about Hansen Dam.
Santa Anita Per this article
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âThe area surrounding Santa Anita will be used for cross-countryâ
How will that work??
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Jumping over your backyard fences, swimming through your pools?
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This makes so much more sense from an access perspective; more than a 2 lane road to get there and mass transit already in place. Not to mention a boatload more lodging nearby.
Tell me youâre not familiar with the area without saying youâre not familiar with the area 
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Thereâs a golf course next door. Iâm assuming they wonât be trashing the arboretum.
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Iâm not, which is why I asked 
So tell us!
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I am intimately familiar with the area and I donât know the answer of where theyâll do cross-country at Santa Anita.
In 1984 they shipped the horses to Fairbanks Ranch, fairly close to Galway, for the cross-country, and did dressage and show jumping at Santa Anita.
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Anyone with Google Earth can pull up this view. Short of razing houses, I only see a golf course nearby with sufficient land to build a XC course.
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If one looks beyond the immediate neighborhood (even with Goggle Earth), specifically north, there is much parkland and even some horse facilities, gasp!
I have no specific knowledge of where they will do cross-country but am confident it will be figured out and will be closer than Galway. I like the idea of using the golf course, but I donât own it. The arboretum isnât big enough.
The assumption that all of Los Angeles county is concrete and swimming pools is a worn out trope.
ETA: Actually, I have some non-specific knowledge as I know someone who claims to be involved in the planning who previously shared that they were anticipating building some facility(ies) north east (correction, should have been north west) of Santa Anita, closer to the San Fernando Valley. Given this personâs tendency to tell tall tales, I take that with a shipload of salt.
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I kinda thought Galway would be a non-starter having judged there. Just not enough access.
Santa Anita would work for all but cross country I suppose.
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So I was torn - I understand the access issues that came with Galway - remembering the nightmare of a recent international competition with spectators not able to reach the grounds due to the limited access though I canât remember which one it was - Tryon or something in Europe? But my sister lives 30 minutes from Galway and was happy to be maybe looking at an hour to get to events. But Santa Anita?? That is 90 minutes on a good day from her house - forget during the Olympics. Hopefully the planning committee will have ample sorted out transit for spectators.
Iâm all good with spending time on on a bus if that means I am not losing my mind sitting in traffic.
I do worry a little about them getting too creative and out in the canyons for equestrian venues with the propensity during the summer for wildfires in LA.
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I mean, I know this area extremely well and I have no idea what you are talking about as far as âavailable parkland.â Housing in this area goes right to the base of the canyons and the canyons are river bottom with steep, loose, dry material up the sides. No place to build a cross country course that would be better than⊠arraying a bunch of portables on the racing surfaces (turf and dirt) and maybe bringing in footing and turf for the north side parking area on the Santa Anita grounds.
I mean, maybe the golf course, but itâs not that large nor does it have a good space to stage horses and spectators. Youâd be better off making do with the grounds of Santa Anita proper.
Yes, there are horse facilities in the area, and theyâre all smaller than Santa Anita. You could potentially build a course in the Hansen Dam open area which is about 45 minutes west - that is deep river sand for most of it, and with a lot of brush and mixed terrain. Itâs where we conditioned our event horses, sticking to the few harder paths for fast work. It would be pretty dry and dusty and nasty for spectators, no trees, and thereâs not a lot of parking either.
(Santa Anita is northeast of the San Fernando Valley, in the San Gabriel Valley.)
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It was the WEG in France in 2014. I was one of the lucky ones that was on a tour bus and got to the XC course very early. The guy who was the tour operator spent beau coup time sitting in traffic on the road and never managed to get there.
This was fairly early in the morning and clearly some people got through. It got much more crowded later in the day. But there were lots of really upset people, understandably.
The XC mess was just one of several logistical issues they had in Caen. Regardless, we had a great time! Wish I were there again!
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Iâm thinking the golf course for cross country.
I canât decide if this is really an option, or just a fantasy since we ALL want to go gallop on a golf course 
I remember the initial plan before Temecula had named a park they were going to temporarily build the cross country course and arenas on, but I donât know the area well enough for it to have stuck or to remember if it was in any way connected to the area near Santa Anita.
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The Beijing Olympics held the equestrian activities in Hong Kong, as I recall, for horse health reasons. The Hong Kong Jockey Club provided the facilities. The cross country was run on a golf course.
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I didnât intend to imply flat by use of the word parkland, simply that itâs not all houses and swimming pools. Also, perhaps we have different standards regarding âsurrounding areaâ anywhere in LA county works for me, maybe even parts of Ventura county.
Thanks for this correction ^^ I mixed up east and west, mea culpa. Looking at a map, I think Santa Anita and the San Fernando Valley are pretty nearly due west/east from each other.
In any event, I would have been more precise by referring to the Sepulveda Basin as the proposed site. For those following along at home, Santa Anita is near Arcadia (red circle), the Sepulveda Basin is approximately in the green circle. See the green space in the lower right of the green circle.
The Sepulveda Basin Recreation Area is an approximately 2,000-acre flood management basin located in the San Fernando Valley near the intersection of the 101 and 405 Freeways .
Sepulveda Basin was the original plan. I donât love it for a lot of reasons. The Hansen Dam area would be better, if you were going to do that; itâs closer to SA, thereâs a city-owned equestrian center that would have stabling and facilities already there, that is used to holding shows and setting up portables also.
Yes, there is certainly open space within Los Angeles and a lot of us have had horses there for many years. The challenge is, space that is appropriate and not already spoken for, that can be sidelined for the months needed to build a course, and also can accommodate 60k+ spectators and their transit.
I imagine itâs the latter issue that hurt Galway, but Iâm especially sad that we wonât get any permanent venue improvements out of all the resources that will be spent. I hate the temporary build and tear down practices of the Olympics, it just feels so wasteful.
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