The Rocket

Issue date: 12/7/07 Section: Focus

Media Credit: Nate Daymut Sara Laderick, a graduate assistant at the Storm Harbor Equestrian Center, dumps a shovel of horse manure into a container as she cleans a horse stable. [Click to enlarge]

On the Discovery Channel's hit show "Dirty Jobs," host Mike Rowe travels the country and gets down and dirty by trying his hand at some of the most disgusting occupations people have.

If Rowe were to visit Slippery Rock, the Storm Harbor Equestrian Center might just be on his list of stops.

For the employees of the equestrian center, their daily chores and duties differ greatly from those of the typical desk job.

Some of the chores of the workers at the equestrian center include feeding the horses twice a day and taking them out to the pasture.

"The horses go out in the field for usually eight hours a day and get to run around while eating hay and grass," said Lauren Schmitt, a senior elementary education major.

Schmitt, 21, has been working at the center since it opened in Fall 2005.

"It definitely gets messy in there," Schmitt said.

Schmitt said all employees must clean the horse stalls, which can take anywhere from five to 30 minutes, as well as shovel manure, but one of the dirtiest jobs the workers have involves more than getting their shovels dirty.

"We put the manure we scoop into wheelbarrows, and from there we dump it into a spreader," Schmitt said. "When you dump it in (the spreader), the manure sometimes doesn't go where you want it to and can end up on your arms."

During the summer, the workers also frequently bathe the horses, but in the winter it is too cold for full baths so they only clean the mud off the horses' legs.

Along with being the primary location for the equestrian team's practices, the equestrian center is also used to provide therapeutic therapy to people with disabilities.

Among the workers' duties is assisting with the therapeutic riding.

Continued...

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