Runny noses. Swollen eyes. Rashes. Hives. A wave of illness that plagued Bob Sweeney’s horses last summer, he said, coincided with construction work happening adjacent to his stables in Buellton.
Sweeney described the city’s nearly yearlong construction of a new 100-space parking lot on Sycamore Drive in 2025 as detrimental to his business—SYV Horseback Rides, a riding facility and petting zoo—for multiple reasons. Buellton’s legal advisors are currently investigating.
Among them was the death of Sweeney’s 13-year-old pony, Marshmallow, due to “sudden onset liver cancer,” he said.
“She was a dear horse and companion,” Sweeney told the Sun. “From a financial point of view, she was [a] moneymaker because of the daily pony rides, but I don’t want to categorize or look at her that way.”
Last fall, Marshmallow went from “healthy and productive to dead” in the span of three weeks, Sweeney wrote in a recent letter to the city of Buellton.
“Her bloodwork showed multiple morbidities that … resembled some type of poisoning that manifested into liver cancer,” Sweeney wrote. “I do not know if the environmental study conducted prior to construction indicated amounts such as DDT or Roundup in the soil, a likely occurrence since the field was a decades-long hay and crop farm.”
Both Sweeney’s business and the new parking lot are located on a city-owned 24-acre parcel near River View Park that formerly housed the historic Willemsen barn (established during the 1950s), dairy infrastructure, and a herd of cows.
The parking lot was part of a development package the city approved when it decided to retrofit the preserved Willemsen family residence into Buellton’s new library.
‘I withheld the rent to keep the pressure on them, to not pretend this doesn’t exist. … To say, let’s remedy this.’
—Bob Sweeney, Buellton business owner
Marshmallow’s passing in October 2025 was the only pony fatality Sweeney listed in his damages letter, but he believes the parking lot project’s impact on air quality caused all of his horses to break out in hives and suffer from other allergic reactions during July 2025.
His employees who look after the horses adopted a new daily antihistamine treatment routine to alleviate their symptoms, Sweeney stated in writing, and reiterated to the Buellton City Council at its May 14 meeting.
“Did we ever monitor the air?” Councilmember John Sanchez asked staff after hearing Sweeney’s comments.
Councilmember Hudson Hornick immediately interjected: “Can I interrupt and ask, if this is going to potentially go the way of litigation, is this not something we should discuss in closed session?”
Assistant City Attorney Stephanie Gutierrez then urged the council to table the discussion until staff looked into Sweeney’s complaint further.
“Just based off of the comments Mr. Sweeney has been making, … my recommendation would be to continue this item,” Gutierrez said. “I would like a chance to review the CEQA documents that he’s referencing.”
Before the postponement, the council was set to weigh in on Sweeney’s request for reimbursement funds as part of the May 14 agenda.
“I’m being very fair with my ask,” Sweeney told the Sun. “I’m asking for half of what was taken from me.”
Sweeney’s ask: a minimum of $50,000, while claiming $100,000-plus total in lost income due to alleged hardships the parking lot’s development caused.
Aside from the animal health concerns, he cited substantial interruptions to his business throughout the year starting in April 2025, when construction began.
Because the work site essentially blocked the horseback ride facility’s front entrance to drivers between April and November 2025, the city directed contractors to create a new, temporary access road for Sweeney’s employees and patrons to use.
“We quickly realized that customers were unwilling to cross the two large metal grates placed by [contractors] to knock the mud off the tractor tires, or to navigate through the long and winding dirt road that now led to the back of our compound,” Sweeney said. “The access road became nearly impassable during inclement weather, with only four-wheel drive vehicles able to ascend the dirt hill into the park.”
Sweeney said that there were multiple occasions where his on-site manager, who resides at the riding facility, couldn’t drive herself into town due to the temporary route’s conditions.
“She couldn’t leave for days at a time. I had to go get her in my four-wheel drive to go to the store,” Sweeney recalled. “She was literally trapped. … I was told by [the contractors] that they were going to upgrade that dirt road; widen it and put in some kind of waterproof surface. But they didn’t.”
According to Sweeney’s breakdown of business income, his revenue was between 15 and 33 percent lower in 2025 than in 2024 for each month between April and November.
In his total loss summary that he sent to the city, Sweeney listed $26,000 as lost projected revenue from patrons, as well as a $10,000 loss due to large group cancellations, and a $70,000 loss from canceling Santa Ynez Valley Horseback Rides’ summer camps and annual Cowboy Christmas event in 2025.
“Thirty people didn’t get a Christmas bonus because of that,” Sweeney said. “It was a huge blow.”
Sweeney also listed a $10,000 line item to replace his late pony, Marshmallow. In his letter, Sweeney alleged that physician Ed Hamer at Alamo Pintado Equine Medical Center “said he had never seen anything like it” after examining Marshmallow’s bloodwork.
The Sun reached out to the equine hospital for comment but did not receive a response before press time.
Sweeney filed a formal claim with the city’s insurance provider, California Joint Powers Insurance Authority, in November 2025. Five months later, he received a notification that the carrier rejected his claim in March.
“I got a letter in the mail saying it was declined, … and no information as to why. Just, ‘If you want to sue us, have your lawyer contact us,’ basically,” Sweeney said. “So, that’s the boat I’m in at the moment.”
As soon as Sweeney filed that claim, he said he also stopped paying monthly rent to the city. He said he assumed that the city would honor some kind of rent abatement as part of the reimbursement he applied for.
“I withheld the rent to keep the pressure on them, to not pretend this doesn’t exist. … To say, let’s remedy this,” Sweeney explained. “When I was rejected [in March], I started paying rent again, … for April and May so far.”
At the City Council’s May 14 meeting, Mayor David Silva asked Sweeney why he decided to only request $50,000.
Sweeney responded: “I’m just trying to be a team player. … I love my relationship with the city.”
City Manager Scott Wolfe asked council members to forward him any questions or concerns about the case they have.
“In this case, the [city’s] insurance claims examiner denied the claim. The City Council may choose to pay the claim … if it deems such payment appropriate,” Wolfe wrote in the staff report. “However, staff notes that such payment following the denial of a claim would be very unusual.”
Reach Senior Staff Writer Caleb Wiseblood at cwiseblood@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in May 21 – May 28, 2026.