The Dallas Morning News
Monday, November 29, 2010

By N. HOLLAND PEARCE

It's just before dawn, and the ranch hands have already begun turning out horses, walking them from their stables to a wide, grassy run. The neighs of an Arabian mare pierce the pastoral scene.

This isn't the West Texas prairie. It's the Park Lane Equestrian Center, a 300-acre facility off a busy thoroughfare in northeast Dallas.

The urban ranch, one of three stables within the Dallas city limits, serves as a respite for city dwellers, providing therapy, comfort and a chance for some to relive their rural childhoods.

"I have a ranch in downtown Dallas," says Jeff Swope, the owner of the Park Lane center.
 "It sounds like a line if you're talking to a girl."

The 150-stable facility features some of the industry's top-of-the-line equipment: timed feeders and waterers, extensive fire sprinklers and automatic fly-spray systems.  But this isn't a horse hotel....all boarders are in charge of grooming and upkeep.

"The boarders are responsible for their own horse," Swope says. "We don't pretend they're ours."

Jeff Swope has been in the ranching business for much of his life, and most of his family has had a hand in the business in one way or another.

Handler Jim Damico helps groom a Budweiser Clydesdale at Park Lane Equestrian Center in Northeast Dallas.
The famous team of horses was in town earlier this month in conjunction
with World Series events in Arlington.

In the late 1970s, he made a deal with ranching mogul Mabel Peters Caruth and the original Park Lane ranch opened with 107 horses, 45 cows and nine barns.

Over the next three decades, the property went though a few changes – enduring one failed golf courseafter another.  Swope finally decided this land was meant only for horses.

In 2005, he brought a new proposal to the Dallas City Council, which quickly approved the facility in its current form.

"Someone says, 'Yeehaw, let's vote,' " Swope recalls. "They voted, and that was it."