Anne Meredith

SAN DIMAS – Anne Meredith, the tireless visionary who turned an 8-acre undeveloped plot into the bustling San Dimas Equestrian Center 37 years ago, passed away Sept. 2. She was 87.

Meredith, born in 1923 in Bowling Green, Ohio, into a non-equestrian family, once recalled that from age 3 she was insistent to own a horse. Her love of animals went beyond economic considerations.

Her friend, Michelle Campbell, recalls a story Meredith told from the Depression era, when her father – who normally didn’t pay too much attention to his daughter’s horse — started to wonder why his feed bill was so high. “I was feeding my friends’ horses for free, because I couldn’t bear to see them get rid of them,” Meredith once told her.

Meredith moved to San Dimas and, at age 50 in 1973 after finding success in real estate, started San Dimas Equestrian Center, said Campbell.

“It was just a big 8-acre plot of land with a tiny trailer on it — she had the vision then as her dear friend Jen recalls and knew exactly where the arenas, barns, wash racks, tack store and quarters would be,” Campbell said.

Friends held a memorial parade for Meredith Sept. 18 at the Center.

In 1990 Anne suffered a stroke, causing her to slow things down a bit, according to Campbell, who said Meredith’s horse-hauling enterprise was then reduced from three horses a day to one.
“Anne has left an imprint on our lives that we will never forget,” Campbell said. “She built our dreams out of hers. `She was the most amazing woman I have ever met’ is a common saying of her boarders and friends.”

She is survived by two children, Patricia Fuller and John Meredith, as well as six grandchildren. Family requests that any donations be made to the Inland Valley Humane Society, located at 500 Humane Way, Pomona, CA 91766, or online at www.ivhsspca.org. (Please include her name on the donation).