Yuba-Sutter students get hands-on learning experience at Corral

Hooves, "are just like your fingernails," explained Jeff Shearer, a farrier and Flying U Rodeo crew member, as Lone Tree Elementary School students crowded around to see.

He bent over to remove a worn shoe from his horse's back foot, and Jaden Whalen, a second-grader, became concerned.

"What happens if he poops when you're taking that off?" he said.

"Ow," was expressed aloud by groups of 20-30 kids at a time, herded over to watch the horseshoeing demonstration Thursday at Rosser's Christmas corral.

"It's gotta hurt," said Charizma Brown, a fifth-grader. "It doesn't hurt," Iman Danesh, her classmate, corrected her. "They're used to it," Christian Hill chimed in, knowingly.

Twenty-two classes in all — 484 students — from Arboga, Plumas Lake, Lone Tree and Wheatland Charter Academy, rotated through a variety of learning stations at the Corral on Thursday off Forty Mile Road.

The event was part of field trips arranged this year for the first time at the seasonal Christmas tree and ranch animal display south of Marysville.

Reno Rosser's Christmas tree-selling business, now in its fifth year, was officially brought into the Yuba-Sutter Chamber of Commerce on Thursday evening with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

"A lot of kids don't realize how agriculturally rich we are in this area," Rosser explained of his new outreach program. "They don't get to see a lot of this, normally."

Ovani Navdo, a gravelly-voiced second-grader, left the animal petting area impressed by his experience.

"The baby was so soft," he said of the calf he had petted.

"I'm gonna be famous," he whispered in his friend, Tripler Palega's ear.

CONTACT Nancy Pasternack at npasternack @appealdemocrat.com or 749-4781. Find her on Facebook at /ADnpasternack or on Twitter at @ADnpasternack.