Horsing Around at the Farm Walk

Kori Neal / Roundup, Heidi Paul / Roundup

There’s nothing like the annual Farm Walk to bring out the true country in the city.
Despite the heat that reached into the nineties, thousands showed up Sunday for the Pierce College event that has been delighting and educating children and grown-ups for the past 17 years.

The petting zoo, with its lambs and goats, was a big attraction for children. Local Girl Scouts were on hand to help educate the younger members of the public about how and what to feed the wooly attractions (fingers not acceptable).
For those who wanted to tour the north forty, a wagon ride via tractor tow was available through the pastures.

But there was no hoofing it through the fields as they were lined off for the yearly Cow Chip Bingo contest. For a dollar, a participant could pick a cow and if it set its chip in their square, they could be the winner of up to $1,000. Maybe it wasn’t good, clean fun, but it’s pretty hard to rig the tables. 

Those who weren’t the gambling type could always try the scavenger hunt based on answers they could glean from exhibition booths.

Booths were set up by groups such as the California Rare Fruit Growers, who were sampling out exotic fruits from around the world.

The Los Angeles City Vector Control had examples of L.A.’s “Least Wanted” insects.
The L.A. County Fire Department not only gave out advice on fire-resistant landscaping, but they also gave out sycamore and oak saplings.

The Dairy Council of California brought in a mobile dairy classroom with a cow in the trailer that could be milked.

This year also saw the utilization of the new barns and arenas as booth and exhibition venues for the equine science classes and the horse shows. The barns provided a shady place to go and learn about horse anatomy, first aid and therapeutic riding.

“These barns were developed and designed so 20 stalls can become 40, which we can use during emergency evacuations, such as the fires last year,” said Ron Wechsler, who teaches equine science classes at Pierce and was the driving force behind the new facilities. “We had about 270 horses stabled here during the fires and everything went perfectly. The students did a great job handling everything.”

And that’s what Farm Walk is all about: the students and what they can do.
To an outsider’s eyes, Farm Walk is a yearly event where visitors can take the kiddies and have a “country day” in the middle of one of the country’s largest cities. But it’s more than that.

Farm Walk is an open house. It is a teaching laboratory where the agriculture students can communicate to the public what Pierce was all about when it began and what a large portion of it is still doing.

Leland Shapiro, Ph.D., professor of animal science, describes it as a way to give back to and educate the surrounding area.

“We wouldn’t exist as open space without community involvement,” he said. “We can not only educate the public in where their food comes from, we can become agricultural ambassadors to them.”

“We are the only school between San Luis Obispo and Mexico with hands on teaching and companion animals,” he continued. “We are a farm lab, where the students learn by doing.”
One of his past students, Stacey Dancy, was at Farm Walk for her ninth year.

“I started out with the cows in school,”  she said. “Now I’m with Animal Regulation and working with CERT (Community Emergency Response Team). We help evacuate animals during emergencies, such as the fires last year.”

Dancy is not just a representative of Farm Walk’s past — she represents its future. Both Shapiro and Wechsler can cite examples of children who visited Farm Walk as youngsters and returned to become students years later. Many, like Dancy, are still involved with Pierce years after graduating.

So, for the kiddies this year, Farm Walk may be a fun day to pet the sheep and watch the horses perform while eating too many free strawberries.

But give them time; they could become the next vet tech, cattle producer or fruit farmer.

And you’ll have Farm Walk to thank.

Allison Smith, 21, rides her horse, Smokin’ Ty, during a performance at the Farm Walk. (Alina Popov / Roundup)

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