Equestrians train colts

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With chains clinking against gates, horses whinnying, and hooves clicking against the sand, the Rangeland and Agriculture Center & Pavilion comes to life every week for an equine communications class.

Students begin by cleaning out their pens, located under the shade of an overhang, and then saddle their colts. Inside the arena, the students filter in and begin warming up their horses by lunging them. As the students did this, puffs of dust filled the air with each plunge of the hooves into the soft sand.

When students first began the class, they started with unbroken colts, and depending upon where they started, they are all at different points with their colts now.

Those students that are further along with their colts have begun riding them, and working on techniques with them, but some students who are working with younger or more belligerent horses are still working from the ground.

Students have the option of bringing their own horse to train, or if they are unable to bring a horse, then Head Rodeo Coach Dustin Luper, the instructor of the class, provides them with a horse that they can work with.

“When I first started I had a beginner horse that was a little trained so that I could become more confident, but now I have a harder colt to work with,” Laurie Le Pape, 19, freshman of Paris, said. “I got my horse two weeks ago. She was never worked with, but since she is an older colt, 6 years old, she learns really fast. Monday, I saddled her for the first time after just four times of working with her. She gets bored because her mind works faster, so I have to find games to occupy her. I make her jump, and I am trying to make her learn to walk through tires.”

The class is in the newly constructed Rangeland Agriculture Center & Pavilion, which was opened in 2013. Phase II of the construction project is scheduled to open in Fall 2015.

“I think that since there is an equine program it is really important to have somewhere that students can bring their horses to work with them,” Le Pape said. “I think it is cool that even though I am a communications major that the college gives me the opportunity to work with horses and have a minor in equine management because it has been my passion since I was little.”

Luper said that the building is used for the equine communication class, and the rodeo team uses it for practices each night.