A UC Davis alumnus is gifting $4.5 million to support the Department of Animal Science’s Horse Barn and related programming.

Richard “Dick” E. Jorgensen, who graduated from UC Davis in 1960, spent his senior year as a student herdsman living at the barn, feeding horses at night, keeping an eye on mares ready to foal and occasionally riding the black stallion Araza.

“You got to live in the barn,” he said. “That was the best prize of all.”

Wild horses face an uncertain future on the mainland

It's hot at El Campeon Farms, even for early August. A hard wind accompanies the heat, blowing through the Conejo Valley, where this horse ranch sits in Southern California. Abby Followwill is saddled on a horse named Vince. His golden-brown coat and blond mane stand out against the saturated blue sky and dusty corral where Followwill is training with him.

Annual auction June 24 at the UC Davis Horse Barn

Whoa Nelly! The annual horse auction will be held Saturday, June 24, at the UC Davis Horse Barn on LaRue Road. For sale will be a variety of horses, including a weanling, 13 yearlings, two broodmares, a gelding riding horse, and two mules fathered by the late and legendary donkey, Action Jackson. All yearlings and the weanling were bred at the UC Davis Horse Barn and raised by students.

Prolific donkey is remembered fondly.

The UC Davis community recently lost one of its most venerable members, the 29-year-old donkey Action Jackson, who died Jan. 6 after standing at stud at the Horse Barn for two decades — siring well over 500 donkeys and mules — and, with his “talkative” behavior, entertaining countless visitors to the barn on La Rue Road.

Wildlife biologist Tim Caro earns his “zebra stripes” with new book.

The distinct black and white stripes of zebras capture people’s attention and imagination from an early age. But rarely are we told why zebras have those stripes to begin with.

The question has intrigued UC Davis wildlife biology professor Tim Caro for more than a decade.