MOORPARK : College’s Equine Program Will End

A Moorpark College program that trains students how to work with horses will graduate its last 25 students this summer as the college shuts down the program and funnels the savings to more basic classes, officials said.

The about $150,000 it costs annually to pay two employees and feed and stable 60 horses at a ranch in Newbury Park will instead go to add classes, said Jim Walker, president of Moorpark College.

“It’s a small program, and we’ve been cutting classes to save money,” he said. “Something has to give.”

Since its inception more than a decade ago, the program has been run by college instructor Donald Anderson. Part of the reason that the college is ending the program is because Anderson is retiring in May, Walker said.

Students spend a year taking such courses as horse husbandry, principles of horse ranch management and artificial insemination of horses. At the end of two semesters, they receive an equine management and training certificate and can look for jobs at a horse ranch, animal entertainment center or in other equine-related industries.

The college had stabled the horses for free on 200 acres in Newbury Park owned by the National Park Service.