Editor’s Note: For now over 75 years, The Baylor Line has been publishing vivid storytelling from across the Baylor Family. I don’t think our archives full of deep, inspirational features should live solely on shelves, so we are bringing them back to life in BL Classics. This January-February 1991 Classic shares how the Baylor Riding Association gives everyone a chance to ride a horse.
On a brisk Saturday morning in the fall, as the sun peers over the edge of the trees, a carload _ of students bumps down the dirt road to their getaway.
After signing in. searching for their favorite mounts, and chasing the horses into the corral, the students saddle their steeds. Swinging up into the saddles, the riders pause momentarily, scanning the dim horizon while their horses snort with impatience. Then, with a quick flick from the riders, the horses break and run, their hooves scattering fallen leaves as they gallop down to the meandering banks of the Bosque River.
The setting is the Circle B Ranch, home of the Baylor Riding Association. Members are willing to drive the twenty- mile stretch from Baylor to the ranch of ten for the chance to ride freely through the open meadows and along the river.
“The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers leases the ninety-acre ranch, as well as the land for Baylor Camp, to Baylor,” said Dr. Mike Frisch, associate professor of psychology and a sponsor of the club. “We have access to almost a thousand acres of land along the river.”
Parents and alumni often donate horses for the group’s use. Individual students board their horses at the ranch, and they designate whether their horses are for private or club use. Some club members ride for practice, others for competition preparation; still others come just to clear their minds.
“The club used to be mainly for those who already knew about horses and just wanted a place to ride,” said Glenn Pratt, a longtime member of the group. “Now, though, we invite people who have never even seen a horse up close — or maybe who have ridden once or twice at summer camp — but who really want to learn think that if you come to Texas from another part of the country, you shouldn’t leave without at least getting acquainted with riding horses and ranch ing,” he said.
Old members of the club ride with new members, to show them how the ranch is operated. “New members just need to purchase the necessities — a hoof pick, brush, lead rope, and halter — and we teach the rest,” Pratt said.
Because the club welcomes both experienced riders as well as those who want to learn, the group is very diversified.
Stuart Yoes, a freshman environmental science major from Beaumont, plans to be active in the club because he misses the time he has spent in rodeos.
“I’m joining so I’ll have a place to ride and get away from campus,” Yoes said. “I haven’t ridden in a couple of years, but I rode in rodeos and cutting competitions in high school. I’m doing this to try to get back into it.”
“I have no experience riding at all,” said Clay Hefty, a friend of Yoes who is also a freshman from Beaumont. ” I heard about the association in Chapel- Forum, and I thought it sounded nice. I’ve been on a horse only twice in my life — once when I was six and once in the eighth grade. I don’t know what any of those things are that I’m supposed to buy, but I’m going to go get them and then enjoy being outdoors.”
Lee Miles, a freshman from Houston, said he used to enjoy riding at his grandfather’s house in Wyoming. “Now that I’m in Waco, it’s going to be impossible for me to get to Wyoming very often,” he said. “But I’m not ready to give up riding. I think this is a great chance to get to know people and be on a ranch.”
Club president Kathryn Christiansen, a senior graphic arts major from Louisville, rides professionally and competes in rodeos and cutting competitions.
“I enjoy the ranch because it’s beautiful land, and it’s nice to get away from campus,” Christiansen said. “It’s twenty miles away from Baylor, and it’s twenty miles different. Sometimes I need that change of pace.”
According to Christiansen, the majority of the members are beginners, and the range of ability among riders makes the club interesting.
Four students serve as wranglers, working to take care of things at the Circle B Ranch. This year, the Riding Association has one ranch wrangler, Mark Sij, and three horse wranglers, Kent Porter, Michael LeHane, and Tracy Peters.
Porter, whose father is a racehorse veterinarian in El Paso, enjoys working at the ranch. “My responsibilities as a wrangler include caring for the injured horses,” he said. “If one of them gets hurt, we have to tend to it immediately.”
He added, “My grandfather always had racehorses, so I’ve been around them all of my life.”
Peters, the only female wrangler, also enjoys the opportunities provided by the club. As the club’s sweetheart, she represented the club at Baylor Homecoming. She has owned her own horse for nine years, and she boards her horse at Circle B.
“As a horse wrangler, I help orient the new members by teaching them the basics of horsemanship,” she said. “We also make sure that new members know the club rules and policies. For example, experienced riders go to the ranch with inexperienced riders twice before the new riders try it by themselves. And no rider is allowed to go to Circle B alone. That rule never causes problems; there’s always someone willing to go out there.”
Club members pay nominal dues which cover the cost of feed for the horses. However, they are not charged for individual rides. In fact, they can take a friend to the ranch with them and pay only five dollars for an all-day ride.
“The club is a good deal,” said senior marketing major Wes Hood. Hood, who transferred to Baylor and has made many new friends within the Riding Association, said that the equipment and dues together cost about a hundred dollars.
Hood said he goes to Circle B at least twice a week. He also figured that if he wanted to ride someplace else, where he would have to pay an hourly riding fee, it would cost him about $900 a semester. The club’s newest sponsors, Frisch and his wife. Dr. Elise Pinney, enjoy their time with the club. Both are learning about horsemanship. In fact, Pinney, who is an adjunct member of Baylor’s psychology department and director of psychology at the local Methodist Home, knew little about ranching when she became a sponsor. Now she rides often and has even built some jumps at the Circle B.
Frisch believes the club provides an excellent chance for students to develop their own skills, accept responsibilities, and learn about ranch management.
“The students show tremendous initiative and responsibility in ways they can’t always show in the classroom,” Frisch said. “They’ve built a tack shed, completely shredded a ninety-acre pasture, and rebuilt the fences.”
Members of the group who ride in professional roping, cutting, or showing competitions get together regularly to watch one another and share their skills. Club members also gather at the Circle B informally to race and play games on horseback.
A favorite team sport is the saddle relay. “Each person has to saddle a horse, ride down around a tree and back, unsaddle the horse, and tag the next person,” Pratt said.
Another club favorite is the boot game: “We each take off one boot and put it in a pile at one end of the pasture.” he explained. “Then we divide into teams. Each person jumps on a January horse, rides to the pile, jumps down, finds his or her boot and puts it on, and races back to let the next person go.”
Student activities are not just limited to fun and games, though. Association members participate in many activities as a service to Baylor and Waco. “We believe we should give something back for what we’re given,” Frisch said.
To do this, the club rode in the grand entry of last year’s Mesquite Rodeo in a fund-raising activity sponsored by the Baylor University Women’s Council of Dallas. Proceeds from the rodeo were donated to the Strecker Museum building fund and the Women’s Council scholarship fund.
Each year members also load the horses onto trailers and bring them to Diadeloso, Baylor’s spring play day.
“We usually give free rides to the children whom other clubs have brought to Diadeloso,” Pratt said. “The children enjoy it; many of them have never even touched a horse.”
The club does a bit of fundraising, too, by selling rides to Baylor students and others who attend Baylor’s play day.
In an effort to serve the Waco community, the association works with the Big Brother/Big Sister program at the Methodist Home. The students befriend the children there, many of whom are orphaned or have had to be removed from a troubled home environ ment. A favorite activity, of course, is to take the boys and girls out for an afternoon ride at the ranch.
“I think this program helps the club members not to take their lives for granted,” Frisch said. “It helps us to gain a sensitivity for those who do not have all that we have.”
The children from the Methodist Home enjoy this opportunity as well. “My wife tells me that this can help build confidence in children,” he said. “They gain a sense of accomplishment when they are able to saddle up and ride.”
Club members provide weekly rides for patients at the local Veterans Administra tion Hospital. “The club members have really started to develop compassion for others through their work with these patients,” Frisch said.
A different aspect of social service is found in the club’s participation in the Heart of Texas Fair and Rodeo Grand Entry each October and in the Baylor Homecoming Parade each November.
“The rodeo is a major event for the club,” Pratt said. “Not only do we get publicity in the community and provide a service just by filling a space in the program, but we also get experience in a horse show.”
He explained that many of the club members who have never even seen a rodeo grand entry learn how to ride in formations and get to see rodeos from the riders’ perspective.
Each club member is required to feed the horses five times each semester, and they must attend at least two of the many work days. For work days, the group gathers at Circle B early on a Saturday to clean, repair, or build anything necessary.
Some days they burn the pasture to kill weeds, other days they replace broken boards in the fences, and still other days they straighten the tack shed and clean saddles. On other Saturdays, the club gathers for play days.
Whether the particular Saturday has been designated for work or play, the club generally schedules a cookout for the evening.
“Now, the cookouts have become a type of competition,” said Pratt. “We all try to outdo each other with our meals. One time, a guy brought filet mignon, and then another guy brought pheasant!”
The club also holds dances at least once a semester. Appropriately, the group dons jeans and boots, and they crank up country music for a relaxed evening of kicker dancing.
Dorothy Hutto, a longtime sponsor of the organization, said that she thinks the club is a great way for students to get away from campus and to find a feeling of inde¬ pendence.
“The main concerns of this club are different from those of other clubs on campus,” Hutto said. “Really, we end up spending most of our time with the horses — either riding them or feeding them.”
An administrative assistant in Baylor’s physical education department until her retirement in December, Hutto served as the club’s sponsor for thirty years.
Hutto said that serving as a sponsor for the club has been a very good experience for her. “I’ve enjoyed getting to know all of these students; I have kept scrapbooks from most years of the club,” she said.
The students are quick to voice their appreciation for Hutto, too. “Mrs. Hutto’s office was our place to meet on campus,” said Christiansen. “She would help us take care of all the business, and she would take care of us too — like she’d bring donuts to our early-morning meetings before parades. I know everyone in the club will miss her.”
The club as a whole is in a period of change. For years the group went by the name of the Baylor Rodeo Club; their primary activity was to sponsor rodeos and horse shows. In the seventies, however, the club sold its arena and began broadening the scope of its activities.
These changes have been good for the Baylor Riding Association; though Paulo Garrett ’89 is a graduate student in the master’s program of the Department of English at Baylor. ‘ They get what in their hooves?’ Kent Porter teaches two new members the fine points of caring for the horses. the club had only about fifteen or twenty members annually during the 1960s and 1970s, this year’s membership is up to nearly one hundred riders.
Despite the growth of the club, Tracy Peters feels it is still a close-knit group. She quickly adds that the members always welcome new students who are interested in riding.
“Most of my best friends are in the riding club,” she said. “When you’re around animals, you have to be natural and just be yourself. You can’t help but get to know people when you work and ride together like we do.”
