Group donates 3 horses to Chicago highschool to offer equitable assets in agriculture: ‘It’s extra than simply using a horse’

For a number of years, college students on the Chicago Excessive Faculty for Agricultural Sciences trusted Felice, their solely horse, to foster their equestrian and therapeutic using program. However early Friday morning, Stone, Sugar and Thor, all quarter horses, arrived on the college because of a donation from the Nationwide Latino Farmers and Ranchers Commerce Affiliation.

“This present to the neighborhood is a part of our purpose of pulling down boundaries to offer equitable entry for communities of coloration to assets in agriculture,” mentioned Rudy Arredondo, the manager director of the commerce affiliation.

The three horses stood subsequent to smiling college students, who started grooming and using them shortly after they arrived from Colorado at the highschool on Chicago’s Far South Aspect.

The highschool can now develop its horse program past the classroom and permit college students to realize firsthand expertise with the animal science business and equestrian science that would then encourage them to pursue a profession in agriculture, mentioned the varsity’s principal, William Hook.

Stone, Sugar and Thor can even be part of a therapeutic using program for various learners, adults with disabilities, veterans and first responders with post-traumatic stress dysfunction, Hook mentioned.

“It’s extra than simply using a horse,” mentioned Paulina Judith Arellano, the varsity’s horse coach and the coordinator of the therapeutic program.

Grooming, taming and using a horse “will humble individuals down by bringing out the chief in you,” Arellano mentioned. “Horses are herd animals and they’re going to observe anybody who has an intuition of being chief, so caring for the horses will assist individuals turn into leaders.”

Arellano attended the highschool and graduated in 2016. She returned in 2021 after graduating from the College of Findlay with a Bachelor of Science in Western Equestrian Research and Animal Science Business.

The highschool, she mentioned, opens a window to a number of careers within the agricultural business that could be neglected.

The college was based in 1985 with the distinctive purpose of offering college students from throughout town the chance to review totally different facets of agriculture. The pathways embrace agricultural finance and economics; agricultural mechanics and know-how; animal science; meals science and know-how; horticulture; and biotechnology in agriculture.

Arredondo is a rancher at coronary heart who has labored to signify the pursuits of Latino farmers and ranchers in Washington, D.C., by proposing agriculture coverage suggestions to the U.S. Division of Agriculture. He mentioned he had been monitoring the highschool from afar for a number of years earlier than lastly visiting in June.

Throughout his go to with Eugene Pickett, the deputy director of NLFR, the 2 determined to present the varsity with three horses after seeing Arellano and college students working their solely horse, Felice.

“The road for this horse goes to be fairly lengthy,” Pickett thought to himself in the course of the go to. “You’re going to wish some extra inventory.”

They rapidly organized the donation of the horses.

Pickett recommended the varsity for its curriculum and its work to encourage the following era of farmers and ranchers from the Midwest.

“Don’t be simply pleased with it; this must be a part of the gospel,” he mentioned.

The partnership between the NLFR and the highschool is “the continuation of our curiosity in selling the worth of the land and what it produced. We have to care of it,” Arredondo mentioned.

“We’re in a local weather disaster, so which means that there’s a destruction of the atmosphere and now we have to remediate,” he added. “We have now an infrastructure that’s outdated and deteriorating and there was no effort to remediate. We have to make our farms resilient.”

If college students are supplied with the assets and motivation, they might help change and enrich the agricultural discipline, he mentioned.

Chicago Public Faculties CEO Pedro Martinez echoed Pickett’s message and mentioned the magnet college was a mannequin for town.

Sophia Roy is a sophomore on the college who joined the horse program in June. Her purpose, she mentioned, was to be taught to handle horses and about secure administration. Since working with Felice, she’s discovered to groom, practice and trip horses, however she’s additionally fashioned a bond with the horse.

The three new horses, she mentioned, will permit extra college students to create the identical bond she has with Felice.

larodriguez@chicagotribune.com