I like Wyoming. I spent time there as a kid. My mother grew up there. Carmelites in Wyoming will send you great coffee. Wyoming Catholic College, which I have visited, has the Extraordinary Form of Mass and Eastern Divine Liturgy, teaches the Trivium and Quadrivium, horsemanship and how to shoot guns. The air is as clean as is the spirit there and their goals are as high as the mountains they get to ride in a hike through.
Speaking of Wyoming Catholic College, check this out.
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Brick by brick.
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Just. Too. Cool.
We are praying that WCC thrives, grows and becomes accredited over the next few years. I have a 12 year old that would be very happy there so we are watching carefully to see how things develop.
Godspeed, first graduating class of Wyoming Catholic College! Interested 10 year old in this household and on mailing list. Awesome. Live the adventure…
Every time I see things about this school, I pray that they’ll be hiring around the time I finish my PhD.
Is that ad serious?
(I am sure the place is great, they have at least one philosophy lecturer who ought never to have been allowed to re-cross the Atlantic.)
Great school. Makes me wish it was around when I was of college age.
Of the 28 students in the freshman class, 20 are from homeschooling families. They seem to have a vibrant love for the Faith in common.
Tuft’s is my alma mater. The alumni magazine featured a graduate who the xchool acclaimed for his noble action of going to court to have prayer taken out of schools. What a difference!
Extraordinary Form of Mass and Eastern Divine Liturgy, Trivium and Quadrivium, horsemanship and how to shoot guns.
This is the very definition of awesome. Don’t they have openings for teaching positions in Engineering? :) :) :)
My 17 year old will be attending their summer program this year and is hopeful to begin full-time in the fall of 2012.
Wow. Fabulous.
JKnott, you should be thankful that YOUR college didn’t appoint Peter Singer to a chair. I haven’t sent them a dime since.
Wonder if they need an instructor with degrees in law and history who is also a certified riding instructor and a competitive shooter (skeet, combat pistol, and Cowboy Action)? Plus if they’re bird hunting I can help train the retrievers.
(My husband AND my boss would kill me, but a girl can dream . . . )
I didn’t realize that it was such a young college. I hope it thrives!
I have had my heart set all year on going to this inaugural graduation since our eldest, a WCC freshman, will be singing in the choir for it. (Her brother who was visiting the college recently said that those practices sounded like finished recordings.) But — alas — money is tight. Hopefully, however, by fall of 2011, our family will have 2 kids there . . . creating another family “dynasty” — since all the rest of the siblings want to go there.
It’s Passion Week. Time for trading up . . .
Congrats, WCC seniors! You’ve earned it!
Berenike:
Dare I ask? Why wouldn’t the ad be serious?
Having visited WCC it IS awesome. It is also liberal arts so those of us in tech fields are out of luck for the present re any faculty positions….there may be hope, however, for AnAmericanMother given her degree in history. They could use some in house equine instructors since as far as I know they contract all the horse-related things out to a nearby secular college.
“The air is as clean as….”
Given the state’s problem with smog, probably not such a great analogy any longer:
http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/wyoming/article_8910eb78-49ae-11e0-bbc9-001cc4c03286.html
[It was really nice of you to post that under this entry. Thanks. That was great.]
EXCHIEF: I am a student at WCC, and we have 2 horsemanship instructors hired by the college right now and are not using the facilities or instructors of Wyoming Central College anymore. The facilities we use now are the rodeo grounds and arena in the town of Lander which is just a 5 minute drive away from the dorms. This is all as of the beginning of this school year.
JKnott: In fact, many of the students at WCC have had some kind of homeschooling at some point in their lives, if not totally homeschooled all their lives. There are also quite a few students who come from large families of 5 or more.
Sacristymaiden
GREAT NEWS. I knew at the beginning WCC used the horse facilities at Wyoming Central. Now when (not if) WCC gets its permanent site built it will be even better. Wish I wasn’t so old–I’d love to help with the equine program at WCC!
And re the out of place post on smog about 99% of WY is smog free
Eoin Suibhne: it’s the voice-over. It must be some sort of self-micky-take.
No?
berenike: I have not idea who added the voice for this clip. I am pretty sure it was not anyone at the college.
Sacristymaiden,
Glad to hear you have your own instructors now. Are you running barrels or cutting, or just general horsemanship?
EXCHIEF,
On sober consideration, it probably wouldn’t be a good idea, because other than a stint on a cattle ranch in Nebraska, I have always ridden hunter-jumpers and dressage horses.
Although a horse is a horse (of course, of course) and probably 80% of what I teach is applicable to western horsemanship. Major difference is in the bitting and reining . . . but I see an awful lot of people putting their cutting horses into snaffles these days, and the first thing I did in Nebraska was put my little sorrel QH into a French snaffle and side reins and work suppling exercises with him while riding fence. HE loved the easy bit and accepted light contact and collection immediately. The cowboys stopped laughing when they realized that I could use a side pass and turn on the forehand to open, go through, and close a gate without ever getting out of the saddle (I am short AND lazy.) He was such a nice boy, and very tolerant of all my shenanigans (including jumping hay bales on a longe line). Sad to think that it was all 40 years ago, and he has no doubt transited the glue factory by now.
Berenike:
For what it’s worth, I worked for at a time at a radio station. The producer who managed the on-air talent was always vigilant against their “yucking it up.” (An extreme example would be the typical car commercial.) I don’t get the sense at all that the fellow in this ad was “yucking it up” or going over the top.
My two cents.
AnAmericanMother
Not to derail the thread but one of our mares has never had anything but a snaffle bit in her 9 years and she does it all from ranch work to trails to dressage.
AnAmericanMother: We have done a variety of horsemanship stuff: pole bending, jumping, a bit of barrel racing, some dressage, dressage patterns, mostly Western riding with a bit of English thrown in, bareback, ways of mounting without a stool, lounging, cattle herding, roping, relay races, leg bandaging, grooming, some equine medicine, hoof care/light farrier-ing, knowledge of kinds of tack and their names and special uses, driving, etc.
We have a lot of fun doing these things.
Sacristymaiden,
That sounds like an EXCELLENT program! Good variety of activities and covering horse care as well. I think a general program should cover lots of different things, so that if you decide to follow it up you have a good survey of what’s available and can take it in any direction you like.
And the horse care is really important. I’ve never had much respect for the type of “horseman” who lets his groom do all the work and just climbs into the saddle and rides. And you will bond with your horse much more effectively if you feed him and groom him and tend to his needs. It may be “cupboard love” but they know who takes care of them. My TB hunter mare (now sadly retired to the Special Olympics) knew the sound of my truck and my voice and would lean out of her stall to nicker at me as I came in the barn.
Glad you’re doing some dressage — I’ve found that to be a great technique for balance and control (in both horse and rider) no matter what you’re doing. It will improve your seat and encourage you to sit up straight (as your eyes go, so goes your body). In recent years the Western equitation at least seems to have gone to more of a balanced seat (shorter stirrups with the body poised over the balls of the feet) instead of the traditional cowboy seat (long stirrups and sitting behind the motion). Meanwhile, the hunter types (under the influence of dressage) have retreated from the “monkey on a stick” seat (very short stirrups and very forward) so we all may meet in the middle and that will be a good thing.
EXCHIEF –
You know those horsey people, they just ride in and take over. :-D
Glad to hear that you have such a nice mare. I’m partial to mares – my retired mount was an ex-broodmare, very steady, very responsive, very sweet temperament. Never had anything in her mouth but a snaffle, she did have a tendency to toss her head when galloping but we corrected that with a German martingale. She carried me everywhere – 3 day, hunting, hunter shows, trail rides – for 13 years, faithfully and kindly, until permanent lameness ended her career. Thankfully we found her a position with the Special Olympics, where she can carry the little children at a gentle trot and be loved and fussed over. She loves children and being fussed over.