Lacey Catania, of Amboy, retells stories from her childhood visiting the once vibrant horse arena at Amboy Territorial Park.
Now, it sits as an empty field with a failing wooden fence around it.
“In 2016, there was a post from the park about it closing due to maintenance,” Catania said. “They never posted anything about it being permanently closed. I haven’t found a single thing about the permanent closure of the arena. So, the reason I got into this is because I want the community to know. Our community is so much bigger than it used to be. There’s so many houses being put up and it’s an equine community.”
Catania, who works in the equine world, said that north Clark County has many equine households that would love to have access to a nearby arena with a club to join. Catania added that a well-maintained horse arena could also yield events of different kinds.
Catania’s efforts started in February of this year with a Facebook post to put the feelers out on community support.
“I got a ton of people interested,” she said. “I have five ladies who we formed our own little committee on how to get a plan going on how we would like to get started with this, and the park committee is really reluctant to open it back up. They’ve gave us lists of things to accomplish and we’ve accomplished those things.”
Currently, Catania said her efforts sit as her group of horse arena advocates who are ready to revive the space are on standby for a decision from the Territorial Park committee.
“Getting the community involved is really the only way this is going to happen, because we have to kind of show them, ‘Hey, we want this,’” she said. “This is a community park. It’s the only community park in the state of Washington and, as of my knowledge, this is the only community corral in the state of Washington. So it all depends on the community.”
Catania envisions the space as a place for the community to gather, not just for the equine community, but for anyone wanting to have fun and watch along the fence as horseriders tightly turn around barrels, ride through courses and more.
Currently, the majority of public riding options include trails in the areas, which could ultimately get cut off or be more difficult to reach, areas such as the Kalama Horse Camp near Mount St. Helens, due to a lack of bridge repair on the Yale Bridge, Catania noted.
“If it was back up and going, we would like to form a club for it,” Catania said of returning public riding to the Amboy arena. “So, people would pay dues, help pay for the insurance costs, because that’s very important. … It would be accessible to anybody in the community.”
Catania looked over at the overgrown horse arena and said that every day it sits unmaintained it is a wasted space, as well as a waste of history.
“I mean, horseback riding in the ‘80s when I grew up, we were down here every weekend doing pay, not like barrel racing, but just played and the whole family would come,” she said. “And that’s what I want to bring back is for the equine community; let’s have some fun. Let’s play some games. Let’s invite all disciplines. Not just barrel racing.”
Catania added that she believes the park committee is not aware of how hard working the equine community is when it comes to keeping facilities alive. She said she isn’t even worried about searching hard for volunteers if the time came to operate the space as she has people of different skillsets lined up to help reach operational status if allowed.
The Reflector called Amboy Territorial Park and left a voicemail but did not receive a reply by press time.
Catania said the best way to help and provide support is reaching out to the park committee, with the best method by commenting on their social media, she added. For more information and to contact Catania, visit her Facebook group “Save the Amboy Arena.” Catania encouraged messaging there to learn more.
