For Ellie, shows and competitions were integral to the business of breeding and showing horses. “You wanted your horse to get awards. You had to get your horses noticed, especially your stallions, and the reason was that it was all about the money.” Money was a factor for Ellie, but there was the human side as well. She enjoyed judging but didn’t like to disappoint owners or riders. She preferred meeting afterwards with competitors to explain her decisions. Sometimes a horse may have had a blemish, and it was just a matter of the judge seeing or not seeing the horse at the angle that showed the blemish. A judge, she insisted, had to be entirely “in that moment” with the horse. “I hated to disappoint people, but that was a part of being a judge. It was all about what happened and what was in that particular moment. Just like life.” Ellie herself was living every moment and all that happened in each moment. “How did I handle all these things?” she wondered. “I guess I was just satisfied with the present and looking to the future. There was that much more in the future to handle, and I knew I could handle it.”

  Higher Ed Horsemanship

  Chapter 17

  DESPITE ALL THAT SHE AND BILL DID TO KEEP THE SCHOOL AND THE RANCH going, and despite her acuity in all things financial, Ellie Prince could not change the basic dynamic of the life she had chosen. Ranching in Wyoming put a rancher at odds with the weather, a bad hay crop, sick animals, and never-ending repairs. It sucked up every penny, and the general way of the rancher—one of sharing, bartering, and generosity—didn’t solve matters. Ellie was frugal and clever, but she was generous. She did not let people take advantage, but she gave when giving was appropriate. It was not her nature to hoard or to accumulate, be it money or materials. She had no desire to build wealth. She and Bill had accepted the hardship that came with the vast and beautiful blue skies and the freedom feeling of the prairie. Had they sold the ranch, they might have afforded a lovely condo in the suburbs. Ellie’s response to the notion of leaving her beloved Sodergreen was an emphatic “Never!”

  Through the fall of 1971, Bill finished the construction of the indoor arena and a corral system for the Polled Herefords. Panther was the newest kitten, and the haying season had been good. Bill and Ellie stole time, afforded by helpers filling in at the ranch, for a deer and turkey hunting trip near Newcastle, Wyoming, with Robbie Wenske’s parents. Bill drove to the hunting area, humming all the way. Later, helpers again helping, the Princes made a two-week trip back east to see “the folks.” All might have seemed placid, but the money that came from Sodergreen Horsemanship School and Ellie’s services as a trainer and breeder just wasn’t enough, and her membership and leadership in the Wyoming and Colorado Arabian Horse Associations, the Rocky Mountain Dressage Association, the International Arabian Horse Registry of North America, Al Khamsa, and the Pyramid Club yielded no remuneration. Ellie set out to find an additional source of income—one, of course, that did not take her far from the ranch. That same autumn, Ellie, who had once doubted her choice of classes at Boston University, signed a contract to teach a course on basic horsemanship through the University of Wyoming’s Physical Education Department. The course included English and Western equitation and was, according to Ellie’s course description handout, for “anyone who is interested in riding and learning about horses. No experience is necessary.”

  This was not the first time that basic horsemanship had been a part of the curriculum at the university. The story began with Ruth Eleanor Campbell. According to information provided by Dr. Donna Marburger, Ruth Campbell, born in 1899, served as Head of the University of Wyoming’s Women’s Physical Education Department from 1924 until her retirement in 1965. In addition to her administrative duties, she taught physical and health education and coached the women’s varsity ski team. In the 1930s, she established horse-riding classes in the wide pasture to the east of the few buildings that made up the UW campus. According to a circa-1984 article in the Laramie Boomerang town newspaper, by the columnist Erne Linford, Miss Campbell also organized polo teams, open only to women students, faculty, and townspeople. The three teams competed at the old fairgrounds, which were then located near what is now 21st and Grand Avenue. Linford maintained in his article that in the late 1930s, Laramie “had no paved streets, no traffic lights and no sanitary pickup service.” But there were horses and those who loved to ride them.

  The source of Ruth Campbell’s horses for her riding classes is not clear. The horses may have come directly from the Wyoming Army National Guard stables in Newcastle, 246 miles north of Laramie. They may also have been dispersed remounts or retirees from Fort David A. Russell (now F. E. Warren Air Force Base), in Cheyenne, which maintained a cavalry until 1927.64 Wyoming in and of itself had been, since WWI, “prevalent in breeding war-horse stock.”65

  Eleanor Prince and Ruth Eleanor Campbell were both disciplined and passionate horsewomen. Other similarities existed. Ellie’s drive to give young women opportunities to learn confidence, resilience, tenacity, generosity, and self-worth could be mirrored in Ruth’s accomplishments. Accolades to Ruth Campbell were recorded by Erne Linford in his 1984 tribute to Campbell after her death, which he titled, “Laramie Loses a Gracious Lady.”

  “Girls,” Linford wrote, “were tolerated in university sports, but they were second class in the schedule for playing and in equipment.” According to Linford, Miss Campbell revised the men’s and women’s curricula and graduation requirements, securing equality for all physical education majors, regardless of gender. Linford described her as “one of Laramie’s outstanding leaders in civic and health affairs” and the organizer of “the first Girl Scout troop in the community.” Miss Campbell served as a city council member, acting mayor, and a member of the Mental Health Board for Albany County. According to Linford, though, Ruth Campbell believed her greatest contribution to the university and to Wyoming was “the creation of health education in the university’s curriculum.” During WWII, she took a leave of absence “to serve as a health education consultant in the Wyoming State Department of Education” and later served as chairperson of the Red Cross.

  In 1955, some would say, Ruth Campbell engaged in her most significant work for humanity. In a missive dated October 11th of that year and sent to her friend and former student Donna Marburger, she provided a poignant account of the work of many professionals and volunteers, including mountain climbers and skiers from Denver University, Colorado University, and UW, to retrieve the remains of the sixty-six crew members and passengers of United Airlines Flight 409 after its crash into the Snowy Range Medicine Bow Peak on October 6, 1955. Ruth Campbell was head of the large Red Cross crew at Base Camp No. 1 that provided the massive operation’s personnel—from FBI to ambulance drivers to horse wranglers—with “coffee, hot chocolate, tea, milk, sandwiches, stew, candy, cigars, cigarettes, and even chewing tobacco from 8:30 to 6:00” throughout the operation.

  Ruth Campbell retired from the department in 1965, six years before Eleanor Prince was hired to teach basic horsemanship. Barbara Breeding was hired and served as coordinator of women’s physical education until 1972. Breeding delighted in re-connecting with her old classmate and friend Donna Marburger, who joined the department in 1967 as an associate professor of physical education, responsible for teaching undergraduate classes to PE majors and advising and acting as thesis director for graduate students. Donna Marburger received her Bachelor of Science degree from UW in 1954 and went on to earn her Master’s degree at the University of Colorado and her Doctorate at the University of Northern Colorado, citing, “I may have been the first female faculty member in the department to have a doctorate.” The two women, who had been undergraduates together, reminisced about their love of horses and riding, including pack trips, runaway horses, and bad storms in terrain that did not afford the best of shelters. They also remembered earlier days as counselors at a girls’ summer camp in Maine, where Barbara had taught English riding and Donna had been head counselor. In her short term as coordinator, Breeding was pivotal in reinstating the UW horsemanship class as part of the Physical Education Activity Program.

  Eleanor Prince, Breeding’s vibrant and well-educated hire for the fall 1971 and spring 1972 semesters, was pivotal in expanding the horsemanship program. That academic year, there were no appropriate facilities on the campus, and the riding arena at the Sodergreen Ranch was only partially completed, so the university arranged for Ellie’s “classroom” to be north of town, adjacent to the Diamond Horseshoe restaurant and bar. A corral would be her arena, and she would lecture in the vacant bar. Healthy Quarter horses were at her disposal, and Ellie appreciated the condition of the stalls and tack. However, these horses presented a problem for Ellie’s students. She explained that “the horses were too well trained. If an inexperienced student exaggerated a command, even slightly, the horse might magnify what the rider, often mistakenly, requested. For example, pull the rein just a bit too much and the horse might do a roll back. I appreciated the owners and caretakers, but lessons were a challenge for my inexperienced students.”

  In direct contrast, the owner who leased horses to the university the subsequent semester was, in Ellie’s words, “an awful person.” Ellie was horrified to see that “the tack was just left on the ground, the saddle and bridle leather was dried out and old, motheaten blankets replaced saddle pads, and the bits and bridles were in terrible, filthy condition. The horses were wild and skinny, and when they were brought in for the class, they were treated roughly, with ropes just thrown over them. I was worried for the horses and for my students.”

  Ellie also worried about the university’s reputation, with students coming from all over the country to the state’s only four-year school. She told the owner of her dissatisfaction and her intent to do something about the neglectful and unsafe situation if her concerns were not addressed. She was ignored. Not long after, Ellie finished a lecture in the empty bar and dismissed her students to get their horses. As she was preparing to leave the area, the furious wife of the owner of the horses attacked Ellie. “She went right for my throat. I may have been smaller, but I was stronger. I shoved her to the ground, finished my class, and contacted the police.” The State Brand Inspector and a veterinarian arrived in an unmarked car. After their investigation, the woman ran after their departing vehicle, threatening them with a broom.

  Ellie was not intimidated by the incident at the Diamond Horseshoe. To the contrary, she grew more determined than ever to make excellence in instruction her unwavering goal and would settle for nothing less than to teach at her own ranch with her own horses. At the semester’s end, the PE Department agreed to move the horsemanship class to Sodergreen Ranch.

  In 1972, when Dr. Marburger became the coordinator of the Physical Education Undergraduate Program, Ellie’s class, PEACT 344D, remained part of the Physical Education Activity Program. Thus, it was available for ½ academic credit for PE majors as well as for non-PE majors, who were required to have two years of PE in order to fulfill UW graduation requirements. The class met on Thursday afternoons in the fall and spring semesters. As Ellie’s supervisor, Dr. Marburger pledged to support Ellie in what she had already established. “It was fun and easy to continue Barbara’s work through Ellie. Ellie had answers to my questions, and we sorted out the details such as the need for students to have transportation to Sodergreen Ranch, the weather’s potential effect on attendance, and the issue of the additional required student fee of $125.”

  Like Ruth Campbell, Donna Marburger was intelligent, well-educated, and dedicated to cultivating gender equality for students throughout the department and in encouraging young women to achieve their goals. It is no wonder that Donna Marburger and Eleanor Prince became lifetime friends as well as amicable colleagues.

  Dr. Marburger was quick to see Ellie’s potential as a college instructor. “Ellie carried into the riding ring her enthusiasm for both riding and teaching young riders to practice safety and to have fun. She was confident but never overbearing. She instilled in her students a great respect and love for horses and helped the timid ones overcome their fear of these big creatures. She never lost her temper and was always gentle with the horses and her students. And, of course, she had that delightful New England accent and that big smile.” Dr. Marburger was from a family of horseback riders and knew that she could leave Ellie on her own. She enjoyed observing the horsemanship classes and meeting the horses, and a few times she even participated.

  As coordinator of the Physical Education Undergraduate Program, Dr. Marburger fully endorsed the Basic Horsemanship class. She saw it as something unique to Wyoming and an exceptional opportunity for students to learn about horses and how riding could be such a joy. She accepted that there were private stables where students could study riding, “but they wouldn’t get the extent of knowledge as in Ellie’s class, or the same breadth, since Ellie taught both English and Western equitation.”

  Besides, Donna was a horse-loving person herself. “I like horses,” she said exuberantly, “even if they are bigger than I am. A person can have a really nice relationship with a horse. When I rode, I loved to talk and sing to my horse. There’s something appealing about a horse, maybe because they’re so big and strong yet are sensitive to our voices, our legs, and our handling of the reins. And just imagine all the places you can go and the scenery you can take in.” Connect all that with the joy of an instructor like Ellie, and it was no wonder, Dr. Marburger professed, “that Ellie’s students’ course evaluations were always excellent, and there was always a waiting list for the class, in spite of the additional fee required.”

  Those who wrote positive evaluations and never forgot their experiences in the class included Wyoming native Lana Brokaw, daughter of horse breeder Audrey Brokaw and one of Ellie’s first students and helpers. After completing the class, Lana was hired by Ellie as an assistant instructor and ranch helper in 1982 and 1984. Lana appreciated Ellie’s teaching that every horse is different and that every rider must sense that individuality. “Just as Ellie knew fully her horses and her students, she made sure that her riders understood their horses and engaged in two-way communication.” Lana also stressed that Ellie’s teaching went beyond the riding arena. “Probably recalling advice from her mother, Ellie taught self-confidence. She reminded her riders that just as they would make concessions in life, they were never to forget or devalue their own individuality.”

  Linda Goodnight (now Haynes) was another student who praised Ellie in her evaluation of the course. Linda had loved riding bareback on her father’s farm in Pennsylvania. “I grew up thinking I knew a lot, and I even took riding lessons when I was older. Those riding lessons were just that, though—riding. We were put on our horses, we rode around the ring, and the instructor’s only words were ‘up, two, three, down, two, three.’ I assumed that was all there was.” As a grown woman, Linda moved to Wyoming “to be on a ranch and be around horses.” Thanks to a new friend, Lois Beckett, she soon learned that riding horses was more than “up, two, three, down, two, three.” Lois, also horse-crazy, convinced Linda in the mid-1970s that they should take a fall semester UW horsemanship class, where the lessons were taught on a ranch.

  Linda’s plan for the class was to ride, ride, ride. At the first class meeting, then, she was hugely disappointed to learn that the first hour of every two-hour class would be devoted to lectures and lessons about horses and horsemanship. Her disappointment wore off quickly as Ellie talked of how the health of a horse was dependent on thorough grooming, hoof care, mouth inspection, and a comprehensive care regimen both before and after riding. “I didn’t expect,” Linda said, “to learn so much in those classroom hours, all the intricacies and critical minutiae important to the horse. I realized I hadn’t been prepared for that kind of care. Ellie made the material so engaging, but she also indicated that we had no choice but to learn, and we did learn. It was terrific.”

  The class remained a fond memory for Linda. “Ellie’s classes were comprehensive. She was also a kick, so at ease and at one with the environment. There was no artificiality, and she made us feel at home. She loved having us there and sharing what she knew, and everyone picked up on that. She made us feel as important as the horses. Being with horses was just, well, Ellie.”

  Lois Beckett also loved the class. “With the lessons, the horses, and the ranch, it couldn’t get any better.” She recalled that during the lectures in Ellie’s inviting living room, before the arena was finished, Ellie shared with the students the “personalities of the horses we would ride so that they were not abstract animals or merely tools for the class. Ellie taught that the pre- and post-riding grooming was for us to get to know the horse, but it was also for the horse’s health and comfort and our responsibility as riders. Everything was all about care, from beginning to end.”

  Ellie encouraged a proper seat and the benefits of balance in the saddle “so that we were engaging with our horses,” Lois said. “We learned exercises, posting, arena riding, right and left trot diagonals—all done through control of the body and shifting our weight.” Calling Ellie an “apt” teacher whose enthusiasm and confidence were contagious, Lois insisted that even Ellie’s exams were good training. “They caused me to be serious about these new skills and the knowledge of horse care. This may have been just a PE class, but it really was a true college course with useful instruction if ever we were going to do things with animals that were in our care. I learned everything Ellie taught us because, without a doubt, I never wanted to disappoint this special teacher.”