The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office has charged the former manager of Chaparral Ranch’s Bear Creek Stables in Los Gatos, a popular South Bay horse riding ranch, with criminally failing to care for a horse that died from malnutrition and heat stroke last year.
Jennifer Bryant, 25, was arraigned Monday in San Jose Superior Court on a charge of failing to give proper care and attention to an animal, a misdemeanor.
If convicted, Bryant could face up to one year in jail. The timing of the charging was due to extensive follow-up investigation by the DA’s Office and County Animal Control.
A horse named Honey was found unable to stand, badly emaciated, and filled with intestinal worms – a condition experts concluded could have been prevented with proper care.
“Honey the horse didn’t have to die like this – emaciated and malnourished on a hot day in July,” District Attorney Jeff Rosen said. “Proper care in line with a veterinarian’s recommendations could have prevented this outcome, but Honey wasn’t given that chance. All animals deserve a life free of abuse and neglect.”
Chaparral Ranch is an organization that provides horseback rides and riding lessons with hundreds of horses at multiple locations around the Bay Area.
In March 2024, County Animal Control officers responded to complaints about abused horses and inspected the property at Chaparral Ranch’s Bear Creek Stables in Los Gatos. One of the horses officers saw was Honey, who had lice and was sickly,according to prosecutors.
A veterinarian came the next day and, among other things, suggested the ill horse have a special diet of alfalfa hay. He told the ranch that there should be a follow-up appointment to check on Honey.
There is no evidence the manager ordered a follow-up appointment, allege county investigators. They said evidence shows Honey was simply moved to a pasture at a different location and not given the alfalfa hay.
On July 12, 2024, County Animal Control was notified of a “downed” horse at a Chaparral Ranch property on Weller Road in Milpitas. The officer found Honey on the ground, unable to get up, and very thin. Bryant said she had noticed Honey losing weight two weeks prior, and that the horse’s condition was due to allergies.
Honey was euthanized that day.
Fire the manager, cite the owner. Horrible, inhumane behavior.
The Ranch and owner or manager, Jennifer, are responsible of animal cruelty by the inhumane treatment of Honey. I hope she gets a full year in jail although unlikely. I hope the entire organization gets a hefty fine that goes to animal rescues, and that all their horses are sold given to rescues. This did not just happen at this organization’s one facility. It’s probably systemic within the whole company. Hopefully animal control will do a better job and follow up on this ranch and these owners.
An unfortunate and tragic event. My kids went to these camps years back. They did not like it, but they did not claim to see abuse either. This is not the first time Chaparral has been involved in animal abuse. As the Mercury News points out, this came up back in 2017, I would attached the link but SJI would delete this post. You can look it up yourself. What I find concerning is the defendant’s age and role at the ranch. I think the question should be how much authority did Ms. Bryant have in this case versus the culpability of Shawn Mott and Susan Pennell. It seems this is an ongoing problem with these owners, as pointed out in “The Almanac” in 2024. Some quotes from that article –
“In San Francisco, horses were malnourished, showing signs of exhaustion and pain, had sores and some even bleeding, as documented in a 41-page whistleblower report by Chaparral employees. ”
“Two former Chaparral employees told The Almanac that the facility struggled with having too many horses and not enough staff. Burnette recalls days where staff members would not get a break during their labor intensive shifts leading to high staff turnover. ”
“Former workers say horses were dying at Golden Gate Park and many showed signs of sickness. When employees would report ill horses to Chaparral’s owners Shawn Mott and Sue Pennell asking them to call a vet, they would take the horses to Woodside to recover and bring them back. Mott and Pennell declined to comment for this story.”
The 41 page letter can be found on in the coverage by San Francisco Standard.
I think this publication would serve its readers better with a more comprehensive look at this event, as would a deeper look by DA Rosen serve the community better.
On a farm or ranch animals can just die. How old was ‘Honey’? Animal Cruelty laws prevent horses being sold off as dog food or glue once they become too old to be useful. Just how old was this animal? If she was ten or even twenty then neglect would be an almost certainty. If she was 25+ then what?
Just how many properties are involved? ‘Multiple’ is rather vague.
The former 25 year old Manager will face charges. For an operation this big(although we don’t know how big) you have a 25 yr old making decisions?
SJ Kulak makes some very interesting observations.
Is the very inexperienced former manager just a fall guy for a systemic problem that she had little control or authority over?