NDSU's Equine Center in a class of its own
By Darla White
Administrative Secretary
About four miles west of NDSU is one of the treasures of campus: the Equine Center. It boasts indoor horse stalls, an indoor riding arena and outdoor turnout space. As Equine Center Manager Shannon Eck will tell you, it's a constant hub of activity.
“There are so many moving pieces here, not just the horses,” she says. But let’s start with the horses. An average of 50-75 horses call the center their home during each school year. Dozens of horses are leased from the community each year and used for equine classes. Another dozen are the therapy horses. The rest of the horses are boarded at the center by NDSU students of all different majors, who appreciate having their personal horses nearby while they work on their degrees.
The equine science program got going when the Equine Center was built in 2003 within the North Dakota Horse Park. The students have many of their classes here, and it’s also a home away from home for students on the NDSU Equestrian Team as well as the Rodeo Team.
Class and team members help do chores along with Shannon, two part-time employees and approximately 10 student workers. Most everything is done by hand – hand-catching the horses, hand-feeding them and hand-cleaning the stalls. Everyone has to work hard to keep things running smoothly, says Shannon. Her bachelor’s degree in mass communications has come in handy in this role, she says. “You deal with people nonstop.”
Shannon has been the manager since 2006, and one of the biggest changes she has seen during that time is the growth in therapeutic riding. Bison Strides is a beloved equine-assisted services program offered through the Department of Animal Sciences. It teaches horsemanship skills to people with physical, cognitive, emotional, behavioral or mental health challenges through weekly adapted therapeutic riding lessons. Dr. Erika Berg is the director of the program.
Jessie Bailey, program assistant for Bison Strides, described one of the memorable activities. Children wrote letters to some of the horses at the Equine Center, and Bison Strides volunteers wrote back as if they were the horses. At the end of the letter exchange program, the children got to come to the Equine Center to meet the horses they’d been “corresponding” with.
Jessie said that some of the kids who visit the center have never been able to go on a field trip before, so it’s gratifying to see their excitement.
Other people who are excited to visit the Equine Center are the groups who come to tour the facility or do clinics, Shannon says. These include 4-H groups, Girl Scouts, preschool classes or home school groups.
People headed to horse shows or rodeos regularly stop at the Equine Center as well; not to see what’s there, but to have their own horses “lay over,” or spend the night in a safe facility.
It seems the Equine Center is the place to be, a haven for horses, students, the community – and even jackrabbits and hawks. Just to clarify, those are real animals that sometimes make their way into the building, not disgruntled SDSU or UND fans. At least not yet.
