I know many of you started riding at Palatine Stables (formerly known as Horseman’s Stables until 1988) just outside Chicago, and thought you might want to know that the Palatine Park District made the shocking decision to permanently close the Stables on May 13, 2024.
This has created a huge backlash from not only the boarders and lesson students, but the Palatine community overall as well as the larger equestrian community across the state of Illinois and around the globe (based on the 6,000+ signatures on the petition against closing the Stables).
There are so many ways this decision is shifty as heck - here are just a few of them:
This decision is solely based on an engineering report identifying support poles that need to be replaced. The Palatine Park District (PPD) estimated $2.5M for these repairs based on a made-up multiplier; construction professionals ran ACTUAL numbers and determined the cost to be more in the neighborhood of 10% of that ($250,000 at the most).
Support poles do not rot out overnight. So now PPD is facing questions about why they chose to not properly maintain this facility, and if they did not maintain this facility, what other PPD facilities have not been properly maintained? What were the PPD employees doing when they should have been maintaining this facility?
There are 29 school/lesson horses that are used by the equestrian team and lesson students that need to be rehomed. All have been spoken for by current or former students, or boarders (there are over 30 privately owned horses boarded at the Stables). Some of these horses have been in their herds at the Stables for over two decades.
The Stables is not only completely self-sufficient, it generates over $200,000 of additional income that is absorbed into the PPD general operating budget. So not only is the equine program being shuttered, some other program(s) are going to be affected since that extra income will no longer be generated. Why shut down a perpetual revenue stream? 
I know many high-level equestrians started their riding careers at Palatine Stables. There was a groom at the Olympics who started riding at Palatine Stables, and one of the competing horses was bred by a Palatine Stables alum.
I am hoping that a few COTHers will stop by the Save Palatine Stables group and page to comment and share their memories. Here are the links:
Website: Support Palatine Stables
Facebook group: Save Palatine Stables private FB group
Facebook page: Save Palatine Stables FB page
We have been fighting this since May, and are committed to fighting until November 30. If anyone has any success stories or expertise to share, please let me know, or reach out through the links above. We filed a violation of the Open Meetings Act (because the vote was not on the publicly posted agenda); there are now attorneys involved.
If anyone has contacts at USHJA, IHJA, USEF, or any other national organization that could send a letter of support, that would be great. We have a letter of support from the Horsemen’s Council of Illinois, and I have reached out to the American Horse Council as well.
If anyone is local to Palatine, the next PPD board meeting is Monday, September 9 at 5pm (super conducive to the public attending, right?). You don’t have to speak, but just being there to show the numbers of people offering support would be great.
Thank you for reading this far.
