Effects of horse park on Valley exaggerated

My letter is in response to Mr. Steve Lang, who responded to Denise Beronio's guest opinion regarding the proposed Nevada Horse Park.

Mr. Lang, why did you feel it necessary to respond to Ms. Beronio's opinion with such disdain and sarcasm? I certainly felt your response was discourteous and immature. I offer that it is you who are one-sided.

I support the Nevada Horse Park project. As an end user of such facilities, taking my daughter on the show circuit all the way to Youth Nationals twice, I can tell you that what you fear in impacts is overstated and would certainly give an uneducated reader unnecessary fears.

There are facilities all over the country that handle large numbers of horses and their resulting waste. Some of these facilities are in the middle of large cities and odor and waste are handled without issue. As examples I will name the Los Angeles Equestrian Center, in downtown Burbank, the Reno Livestock Events Center and Expo New Mexico in the middle of Albuquerque. There are dozens of others.

I truly don't believe that many of the horses that come to this park are going to be out all over the county riding the trails. Show horses do just that, show. They stay at the show ground, which will be required to have a manure removal system in place so that the groundwater and waterways are not polluted. Last I heard, manure is not "toxic," that term is better left for something left over by a chemical plant or the exhaust from the tailpipe of your car. Stalled horses are bedded in absorbent bedding such as shavings or straw, so liquid waste does not go directly into the ground but is absorbed to be handled with the manure.

U.S.-Equestrian-Federation-approved shows require that the facility have its own medical staff present during the entire show. This would mitigate the impact on local emergency responders. In all the years we've shown, police have shown up to visit and patrol the grounds and I have only heard of one instance where police were called to a disturbance. Most horse show people are not considered a law enforcement problem. I'm sure you can check with your sheriff's office and see what impacts equestrian events at the fairgrounds have raised.

Will there be a traffic impact? You bet there will. As with any project there is a traffic impact. Should Douglas County decide to approve the project, the traffic issue will have to be addressed, just as it is addressed for many other reasons, i.e. the mall you reference in your letter. Douglas County has been forward thinking in the way of services and infrastructure, trying to grow ahead of the community's needs. I'm confident they can handle it.

I see the project as a positive for Douglas County. To have an equestrian facility of this magnitude in Carson Valley would be an honor. The cities we have visited during our show traveling have welcomed us with open arms, happy to see us and the tourism dollars we bring. Having horses in our life has helped my daughter grow into a responsible young lady, in the top 20 of her class at Douglas High, with a 4.13 GPA last year. Equestrian sports are a positive thing; think of the Olympics, equestrian events are the only sport in which men and women compete as equals.

The final sentence in Mr. Lang's letter is correct. Douglas County should proceed with caution and due process. As with any large project, there will be issues that will need to be addressed, but Mr. Lang's fearful diatribe is a bit overdone.

n Christine Branscombe is a member of the Carson Valley Arabian Horse Association and a Markleeville resident.