Cal Poly Horse Facility Is a Breed Apart

Karina Slinger fell in love with horses when a friend who lived on a farm invited her over one day while she was in elementary school. Now Slinger is turning her childhood passion into a university degree.

The 20-year-old Cal Poly Pomona student is taking the animal science/equine option at the W.K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Center. She is one of 10 to 20 students who study horses at the center each year while enrolled at the university, the only one in the state with its own horse ranch.

“I have learned so much here,” said Slinger, who hopes to own a horse breeding and training center someday.

The 80 horses at the Kellogg Horse Center on a recent weekday ranged in age from a 2-day-old foal hiding shyly behind her mother’s flank to an aging mare about to give birth to her last offspring.

The Cal Poly center is both a relic of early Southern California history and a modern animal training and educational facility.

“We give clinics and seminars on everything from riding to nutrition to breeding,” said Ann Clausen, for 13 years an assistant trainer at the equine center.

The facility also houses a continuing education department, a breeding stable and educational facilities for the public, including once-a-month Sunday horse shows that date back to 1926, when the land was part of cornflake king W.K. Kellogg’s empire.

Slinger is a member of the Arabian Horse Drill Team, a precision riding team of eight that teaches horses intricate steps and synchronized riding patterns. During the Sunday shows, as well as Thursday performances for Southern California schoolchildren, drill team members must tightly control their horses so they can ride close together, weaving in and out of each others’ paths, while clearing each other.

Tryouts for Cal Poly students who want to be on the drill team or want to major at the horse center are held in the fall. Experienced riders take equitation, or riding classes. Beginners usually start in the grooming program.

“We have horses here that can teach people” how to ride, Clausen said.

Other courses include advanced studies of breeding, genetics, stallion and mare selection and foal management.

“Ours is the only university that runs this kind of program, on the West Coast at least,” said Dan Daniels, a Cal Poly spokesman.

While there are other agricultural universities, such as Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, that keep horses for animal science studies, the Pomona campus is unusual because it has a horse ranch open to the public.

The Arabian center is internationally recognized, and horses stabled there compete in shows with horses from all over the world. Some of the center’s horses competed in the 1984 Summer Olympics, Daniels said.

Despite the uniqueness of the program, it is not well-known locally, even among some students, said David Keach, 27, a graphic design major. “You drive by the horses every day, but a lot of students don’t know that you can ride them even if you’re not an animal science major,” he said.

Keach is one of a handful of liberal arts majors who enroll in the program each year to ride for pleasure. The rest are serious about making a career in the horse industry, either in breeding, racing, veterinary care or management of horses.

Keach decided last fall to take the beginning riding class open to all students. “I’ve had an interest in horses since I was a little kid, but I also wanted to get in on the historical aspect of Cal Poly. The school’s existence is dependent on these horses, really.”

His experience with horses before the class was one trail ride, about a decade ago, Keach said. When he got close to the Arabians the first few times, he found them intimidating. “If you’re not used to being around them and working with them, it’s kind of difficult. They’re really massive animals.”

Arabians are the oldest horses in recorded history and their ancestors are in every other breed of light horse (as distinguished from draft horses like the Clydesdales), Clausen said. They are known for their beauty, spirit and versatility.

Although they are commonly seen now, when the Kellogg center was founded, Arabian horses were considered exotic.

It was Kellogg who first began showing off his Arabians on Sunday afternoons after he built his Spanish-style mansion on 816 acres on the western edge of Pomona in 1926.

He built a series of stables around a training ring and courtyard and soon purchased enough Arabians to own the third-largest collection in the United States and one of the world’s foremost Arabian breeding farms.

The Sunday shows were a centerpiece of Kellogg’s estate, an opportunity for him to educate the public about the Arabians’ versatility and beauty.

When Kellogg’s estate was donated to the California State University system in 1949--providing the land for the Cal Poly campus--it was done with the stipulation that the Arabian breeding and training programs would continue, along with the Sunday shows.

Kellogg’s original Spanish-style stables are at the center of the campus. They have been restored and refurbished and now serve mainly as offices.

The horse center’s facilities were constructed in 1974 and include 38 acres of pasture, three barns, foaling stalls with an observation room, a breeding area and a clinic.

The center’s prize Arabian stallion, Reign On, commands a $2,000 stud fee. Combining stud fees, horse sales and money from the Kellogg foundation, the center is self-sustaining, Clausen said.

During the year, four students live at the center and are paid to feed, clean and shoe the horses as well as help with foaling and assist in breeding.

Equine job skills aside, the center is also teaching some students a lifelong love of horses. Even after he graduates and finds a job as a graphic artist, Keach says he still plans to ride.

“It’s really piqued my interest in horses and riding,” he said. “Plus, there’s a lot of physical conditioning that goes into it that would be a shame to just lose once the classes are over.”

IT’S SHOW TIME

Admission to the horse shows is $2. The last show of this spring will be at the Arabian Horse Center, 3801 W. Temple Ave., Pomona, at 2 p.m. on June 6. The monthly shows resume in October and attract nearly 700 attendees on average. The horse center, including the barns, show arena, breeding and foaling areas, veterinarian clinic, training and shoeing areas, are open to the public every day from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.