The equine science program at Los Angeles Pierce College has suffered significant changes which today keep leading it towards the end. For the program that is based mostly on hands-on experience, having no horses to work with is a disaster.
Every class I have to imagine a horse to understand any given concept, which is extremely difficult if you have never worked with these animals before. Having to go through a dozen pictures for each term still doesn’t teach me how to work with it in person.
Not only is it useless, but it is also dangerous to let out the “certified experts” from Pierce to work with 1,000 – 1,500 pound animals without knowing what their behavior says. One silly move can be fatal for both the human and the horse.
The college that was born off agriculture is now digging its grave. Great start for the 75th year, great demolitions are in motion.
From tricking students to apply for the program with no required resources available to consistently ignoring them when the issue is being brought up.
So far, I heard back from one person out of eight I personally emailed, and the response did not include any solutions to the current issue. I was told this month that the program is being redesigned and that the administration has been aware of it since at least January 2022.
They prefer to have horses only for Spring semesters, which will cut the cost for college but will make a two-year program into four-year + program, and that is if the student doesn’t choose to dig deeper on specific classes such as Advanced horseback riding or Advanced training.
As of right now, the ANML SC 620 class is not being offered, this particular class is a prerequisite for every class involving horses and if you don’t take it the first semester of the two-year program, you are stuck for at least two to five years. Now, how fair is that?
If the administration was aware of such changes being made, why haven’t they notified future students? Would having horses on campus jeopardize the filming of movies and TV-shows here? Who knows.
I feel robbed of my time and efforts fighting for justice for the problem that the department seems to not notice or solve.
Me, the instructors, and each student in Equine Science are still there. We are still trying our best to get this program running and we are ready to be a part of it if the administration expresses the necessary effort to fix this issue sooner rather than later.
And, don’t get me wrong, sending emails with apologies won’t do it, we demand horses to be present every Fall and Spring semester as promised by the program.
Thank you very much for your time and efforts in making this college a better place!
– Aliaksandra Rudzko
