PIERCE COLLEGE : Horse Arena Under Construction

A new training arena for horse science classes and extracurricular rodeo activities is nearing completion at Pierce College.

The arena, which is 150 feet in diameter, is part of a new equine center approved for the school’s agriculture department, said Pierce Farm Manager Richard Melickian.

A covered arena with seating and lighting also is planned, although no construction date has been set. The indoor arena and barns for the horses will complete the center, Melickian said.

“I’ve been hoping and dreaming about this since 1973,” said Ronald Wechsler, associate professor of animal science and adviser to the Pierce rodeo team.

“Now I see the light at the end of the tunnel. It’s the salvation of the agriculture program,” Wechsler added.

Work on the training arena began in mid-January and was scheduled to be finished by the first week of this month. But Malcolm Sears, agriculture department chairman, said heavy rains delayed completion of the $2,000 project. He said completion is now expected by the end of March.

The circular area is designed so that animals will be able “to move around freely without being controlled by the place,” Sears said.

Two other horse arenas on campus, both built in the mid-1980s, have square corners and are the wrong shape for successful horse training “because the animals react differently,” Sears said.

“When a horse comes in contact with a corner, it perceives itself as being boxed in and trapped,” he said. “This erratic behavior is not helpful when trying to train a horse.”

The arena will be used for practice by the members of the Pierce rodeo team.

“It will be easier to control the animals because it is a smaller arena,” said team member David Lewis.

The bucking shoots, in which animals are saddled and rigged, will be moved to the new arena.

Sears said that he is working on obtaining a facility where students can bring their own horses to use during class, then feed and board them at the college overnight. Eventually, he said, there would be boarding space for about 20 horses.

Currently, there are about 30 horses in the Pierce program. They are purchased through the farm account, but the department usually accepts donations of one or two horses a semester, Sears said.

He said the hope is that the horse science program will be able to breed and raise horses on the college farm within the next couple of years.

Cows, pigs and sheep are raised at Pierce, Sears said, but horses are more regimented and expensive to breed because of their distinct genetic background. “You have to be careful with blood lines,” he said. “You have to be careful which horses you breed with other horses.”