This week, we’re taking a look at a nearly-forgotten piece of the town’s history: the Fountain Hills Saddle Club.

It began with four make-shift stalls at the old P-Bar Ranch site, where the FountainHillsHigh School is now located, in the late 1970s. The Fountain Hills Saddle Club was one of the more active organizations in town during its early years.

Organizers of the club were contractors Ray Good and John Eberling and Jonquil Trevor, wife of internationally known author, Elleston Trevor, who lived in Fountain Hills. The club quickly grew in membership. Many former Midwesterners said they came to Arizona and Fountain Hills for their love of the outdoors and fascination with the western style of living. But very few of the lots were given horse privileges. That created a need for a horse facility, and the club filled that need.

The club signed its first agreement with MCO Properties in 1981 for a site on Laser Drive. Fourteen stalls were erected on that site and the land around it was wide open desert for riding. The third and final location was next to McDowellMountainPark beyond the north end of Golden Eagle Boulevard. The five-acre site accommodated a clubhouse, an arena and 38 stalls.

Rich Davila, a long-time air conditioning contractor in the community, became president of the club in 1982.

Reminiscing about the club, he recalls, “Everything was built with volunteer labor. Morris Pickle (another local building contractor) and I dug the trenches and installed water and electrical lines to the club site extending them from the northwest corner of the community. As for upkeep, it was always easy to find volunteers. They were a good group of people.

“The club was very family oriented. There were lots of kids that liked to be with the horses. We offered riding lessons and classes on how to care for the animals. I started a gymkhana for the kids. It was a junior rodeo with kids riding goats and horses in competitions.”

No dues were charged and people paid for their stalls. Other funds for the club improvements came from two annual organized trail rides and cookouts, attended by more than 200 people. Members also sold beer at the White Castle Days events at FountainPark.

“We only had one accident on any of those trail rides,” Davila said. “One time a horse came back covered with cholla. We went out and found the rider, took him to a hospital for removal of the cholla stickers, many in his face. He fell headfirst into the cactus after the horse bucked him off. But he was back for the cookout that evening.”

Davila also remembers riding into the McDowells many mornings either alone or with a few other members and seeing many mule deer and other wildlife. He once spotted a mountain lion.

There were many good times during the 20-plus years of its existence, however, the beginning of the end was when MCO notified the club in the summer of 1996 that they may have to move their site. The developer offered to relocate the club to adjacent property, but homeowners in the Marathon and Paradox drives area objected to moving the horse facility closer to their properties.

The club did not have the resources to buy the property and after a year of difficult discussions, MCO ordered the closing of the facility by Nov. 15, 1997.

Marcia Falco, who had boarded two horses at the facility at that time, said, “It is the loss of a beautiful facility. I wish something could be done to save it.”