Arnavaz Fatemi
The raging fires that took place in October and November were no match for the Boots and Saddles club, who came riding in on their white horses – which they like to call trailers.
Being honored by the city of Los Angeles , Pierce College and members of the Boots and Saddles Club received certificates and pins at the Equestrian Center April 11 for their volunteer work during the fires last fall.
During the October and November fires, the Boots and Saddles Club accepted the horses that were in danger and brought them to Pierce. The vice president of the club got donations and feed for the horses.
Representatives of Zev Yaroslavsky, Los Angeles County supervisor, and Los Angeles Councilman Dennis Zine both gave certificates of recognition to Pierce College for the volunteer work, presented by the parties’ representatives.
“I’m very proud of the club for their support and service to the community,” said faculty advisor Paddy Warner.
“We are actually prepared for these situations,” said club communication director Chris Robertson. “We have three club members who are the first responders. They contact 50 members of the club and they are all prepared for 24-hour service until everything is done.”
Robertson went on to say that when handling the horses, only the students who are certified are allowed to actually move and touch the horses. The other students help with feeding and other tasks.
“On our Web site we have green, yellow and red codes,” he continued.
“Yellow code means just to be prepared for anything. When it’s red code, they shouldn’t even be on the internet looking at it – they need to be here helping.”
“It’s great we can be at service to the community,” said Pierce President Robert Garber. “They took classroom experience and applied it to the real world. That’s what we want to do.”
At the end of the awards ceremony, Garber talked about new projects and construction that is planned for the Equestrian Center.
The equestrian project bid will be put out soon, and around July, they plan to start building a new Equestrian Center and animal enclosures.
Garber also wants to bring someone in to teach a horse science class.
