Suit Filed Over Club’s Disposal of Horse Manure

Horse manure studded with barbed wire was dumped on a neighbor’s property in Rolling Hills Estates over a span of several years and accumulated into a 50-foot-tall pile, according to a suit filed in Torrance Superior Court.

The Chandler Land Trust is asking the court to force the Empty Saddle Club to remove the waste, which it says rests on land the trust recently sold for a nature preserve.

For decades, the club disposed of manure in a small canyon on its property. In early 1990, the manure spontaneously exploded, prompting the club to smother it with dirt to avoid further fires.

All the activity alerted the owners of the trust, which had land on Buckskin Lane adjacent to saddle club property. Since the suit was filed, the trust sold its 28-acre parcel of open land to the Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy and the city of Rolling Hills Estates.