Sun Cities Stable draws crop of horse lovers

Tucked away behind a convenience store and a huge RV park in Surprise is a place Patti Hirst and her horse absolutely love.

Rebel, a 20-year-old Arabian gelding, has been boarded at the Sun Cities Stable for the last nine years. At an open house on Saturday, Hirst wanted other horse owners in the Sun Cities to know they, too, could become a part of the family-like group of boarders and their horses.

“I love it here. We have so much fun,” said Hirst, a Sun City West resident. “It’s a real friendly group of people who love horses. We all have a common interest. We go on rides together, we join parades together, we’re mostly pleasure riders (but) we have some people who compete.”

Two spots are open at the 25-stall stable, primarily for residents of Sun City, Sun City West and Sun City Grand. Spots may be available to residents of other communities if they are not filled by residents of the Sun Cities. A waiting list is available, as well. The stable is only open to trained and rideable horses, Hirst said.

The available stalls are for $50 a month, but other sizes run at $60 and $80 a month, as well. The price includes water and electricity at the stable, which has lights for night riding. Hay, food and cleaning duties are not included in the monthly rent, and horse owners take turns cleaning the stalls twice daily.

“We take care of the horses ourselves and get into pods to share the duties,” she said. “We clean the stalls twice a day so it’s real clean. There’s a big arena, a round pen and a hotwalker.”

A perk of the stable’s location is the nearby riverbeds for riding, Hirst said.

“There’s quite a bit of riding nearby. We can ride out here in the river bottom all the way to Phoenix if we had the energy. Then you can go the other direction and cross over Bell Road,” she said. “It’s a nice ride.”

For more information about the stable or boarding a horse, call Dick Hodgson, president of the Sun Cities Stable at 623-694-3400. The stable is at 16204 N. 115th Ave. in Surprise.