Roughly 940 parcels of about 15,000 carry horse rights — concentrated in Peralta Hills and the Mohler Drive corridor.
The headline rule is one acre, but a carve-out in the zoning table drops RH-2 to 22,000 sq ft, which roughly triples eligibility. Highlands, Sycamore Canyon and Summit prohibit animal keeping outright.
Most of Anaheim Hills cannot keep a horse. A named few can.
That is the honest version, and it is more useful than the version usually given. Anaheim Hills is a large hillside area of largely conventional tract housing — and inside it sit two genuine horse neighbourhoods with legal rights that most of the surrounding city does not have.
Roughly 940 single-family parcels in Anaheim Hills carry horse rights, against about 15,000 single-family parcels in the 92807 and 92808 ZIPs. That is around 6%. Small — but about three times the equivalent figure in Fullerton, and unlike Fullerton they are concentrated and nameable.
They are Peralta Hills (zoned RH-1) and the Mohler Drive / Avenida de Santiago corridor (RH-2).
The 22,000 square foot carve-out
The headline rule in Anaheim is one acre. Anaheim Municipal Code § 18.38.030.030:
“No equine animal shall be kept… on any parcel of property of less than one (1) acre (43,560 square feet) in area, unless otherwise specified in the underlying zone. Further, not more than one (1) adult animal and its immature offspring of less than eight (8) months in age shall be permitted per each quarter-acre (10,890 square feet).”
Read that italicised clause, because the exception it points to is worth real money. In Table 4-B at § 18.04.030, the Special Provisions cell for animal keeping says:
“Subject to 18.38.030, except that in the RH-2 Zone, equine, bovine, sheep, goats & swine may be kept, stabled, tethered or otherwise maintained on minimum 22,000 sq. ft. parcels.”
A half-acre carve-out, hiding in a footnote cell of a use table. It roughly triples the eligible parcel population, and almost nobody writing about Anaheim Hills horse property knows it exists.
So the arithmetic: four horses on an acre at one per quarter-acre, and two on a qualifying RH-2 half-acre lot. Fractions round up at 0.5 or more.
Animal keeping is permitted in all seven single-family zones subject to those
standards. The old RS-A-43,000 designation you may still see quoted
was replaced in 2004 by the RH-1/RH-2/RH-3 and RS-1 through RS-4 series.
Setbacks, and a trail provision that changes them
§ 18.38.030.0202:
“No equine, bovine, sheep, swine, goat or bird shall be kept, stabled, tethered, corralled or confined in any manner within fifty (50) feet of any structure used for human habitation, other than that of the owner, or within twenty (20) feet of any property line, except when kept in the dwelling.”
And a detail specific to this city that a buyer with a trail across the lot should know. Under § 18.04.100, setbacks are measured “from the ultimate right-of-way, recorded access easement, or recorded riding and hiking trails” — and any structure used for human habitation must keep at least 10 feet from any recorded riding and hiking trail easement. The trail does not merely cross your land; it moves the line your house is measured from.
Temporary over-limit numbers are allowed in RH-1 and RH-2 for 4-H or FFA projects, up to eight months. And § 18.38.030.100 closes the door on anything unlisted: “The keeping of animals not specifically mentioned in this chapter is prohibited.”
Where you cannot keep a horse, which matters more here than usual
Three of the best-known Anaheim Hills communities are governed by their own specific plans, and those plans contain no mention of equine, equestrian, horse or corral, and no animal-keeping row in any use table. Where a use is unlisted, it is not permitted.
- The Highlands at Anaheim Hills (SP 87-1)
- Sycamore Canyon (SP 88-1)
- The Summit of Anaheim Hills (SP 88-2)
Mountain Park (SP 90-4) permits animal keeping under the ordinary one-acre rule. Anaheim Hills Festival (SP 90-1) permits it in two districts only and expressly marks commercial equestrian establishments as not permitted anywhere in the plan.
If a listing in one of those three communities is described as horse property, that description is doing something the specific plan does not.
The Scenic Corridor overlay does not affect horses
Essentially all of Anaheim Hills — some 11,000 acres — sits in the Scenic Corridor Overlay, and buyers often assume it constrains animal keeping. It does not. § 18.18.050 prohibits exactly four uses: bed and breakfast inns, borrow pits, sand and gravel operations, and transportation terminals. Animal keeping is not among them.
Trails
Anaheim's 1992 Equestrian, Riding, and Hiking Trails Plan delineates roughly 48 miles of trails for pedestrians, equestrians and mountain bikers, with a Feeder Trail Overlay designated for primarily equestrian use and trail heads carrying hitching posts.
Deer Canyon Park Preserve is explicit in the City's own words: “This 103 acre wilderness area in the Anaheim Hills provides numerous trails for both hiking and horse riding.”
We are not going to tell you which other individual trails permit horses. The City's published material does not consistently say, and guessing about access on a specific trail is exactly the sort of detail that turns out to be wrong. Ask the City, or ride it with someone who knows.
Verified September 8, 2026 against the Anaheim Municipal Code (American Legal, 2026 S-28, current through Ordinance 6627, August 11, 2026). Parcel counts were derived from the City's own GIS by spatial intersection and should be read as approximate — about 900 to 950, not a precise figure.
Confirm zoning per parcel with City of Anaheim Planning before relying on any of this, particularly whether a specific lot is RH-1, RH-2 or inside one of the three specific plans that do not permit animals. This page is written by a real estate broker, not by the City.
What Sharon does with all of this
Checks the zone before the acreage, because RH-2 at 22,000 square feet works and RS-2 at an acre does not. Checks whether the property sits inside Highlands, Sycamore Canyon or Summit, where the answer is no regardless of lot size. And measures the 50-foot and 20-foot separations against where the neighbours' houses actually are — on hillside lots that is frequently the binding constraint rather than the animal count.
Looking for horse property in Anaheim Hills?
Equestrian properties in Anaheim Hills are a small market, and a good number of them change hands before they ever reach the public portals. Sharon hears about those first — through the barns, the trainers and the neighbours, which is a network you cannot subscribe to.
- Tell her what you need — acreage, stalls, arena, ride-out access, turnout, water.
- She will send you what is on the market now that actually fits, not everything with a fence.
- And she will tell you about the ones that are not listed yet.
Selling in Anaheim Hills
The buyer who will pay the most for your Anaheim Hills property is an equestrian, and equestrians do not find properties the way ordinary buyers do. They hear about them at the barn, in the horse press, and from their trainer. That is the audience Sharon markets to.
