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GUIDE TO YELLOW SPR INGS | 2021– 2022 63 to community members and physical education credits to Antioch College students who chose to learn to ride. Under Soelberg’s leader- ship, the Riding Centre strove to keep costs low in order to keep riding lessons accessible to the community. Soelberg taught her students to ride properly in the English style, but she also expected them to understand that caring for a living being requires hard — and often dirty — work. Andrews said that her mother’s own life, in some ways, reflected this contrast. “She had a way of speaking that wasn’t a British accent, though she had been [in Eng- land] for 20 years, but it was very ‘proper,’” Andrews said. “She liked to have nice things around her, and she conveyed a sense of grace and elegance to people — but then she would run around in rubber boots in the mud and clean out the stables in whatever weather.” In 1961, Soelberg and Antioch College drew up a formal lease agreement that granted the Riding Centre 60 acres. The Riding Centre would lease the land and be responsible for the upkeep and improvement of the facilities there. Original to the property, which had been vacated by a local farming family sev- eral years before Soelberg leased it, were a 19th century barn and a small house that the Riding Centre used as an office for several years. Soelberg eventually moved into the house — she called it her “hovel” — which, for the first year she lived there, only had electricity in the kitchen. Soelberg lived her evenings that year by candlelight, but because of her overall air, Andrews said it seemed “glam- orous” to the young people she taught to ride. “There was never a lot of money, but she did what she had to do, and I’ve always thought of it as pioneer spirit,” Andrews said. “The kids loved it when she invited them in. She always gave them a sense that they were valued.” So beloved was she by her students that, in the mid- 1960s, a group of tween and teen riders threw a surprise party in Soelberg’s honor, com- plete with round-trip tickets to London, where Soelberg’s elder daughter and grandchildren lived. The party was held at the barn of the McCally family, and Soelberg was celebrated with gifts and flowers — and in verse by students Debbie Vernet and Diane Leger, as reported by the News: “There was a lady from Seattle, Who soon will see the Be-atles. Her name is Louise, She does as she please She raises horses and not ke-attle.” Riding Centre expands, transitions With the money they raised from lessons, boarding horses and on-site horse shows, Soelberg and her cohorts continued to make improve - ments to the Riding Centre where they could, building stalls in the old barn and an outdoor arena for training. An indoor arena followed in the mid-1960s, after young Peace Corps members in residence at Antioch began training there in summer. In 1974, The Riding Centre expanded its offerings with its Therapeutic Riding Program, which offers riding as an alternative therapy to children and adults with physical, mental and emotional dis - abilities. Program participants are referred individually by physicians and agencies, and ride specially trained horses, with the aim being to improve balance, coordination and muscle tone. The program was ground- breaking enough that it earned Soelberg the distinc - tion of being the first woman to be named national “Senior Citizen of the Month” in Sep - tember of 1976. The award was sponsored by Kentucky Fried Chicken, and Soelberg accepted it from Col. Harland Sanders himself, decked out in his trademark white suit and black string bow tie. YS News Editor Kieth Howard wrote of the day: “In accepting the honor she emphasized that members of her staff had done more to carry on this program than she — particularly instructors Gail Brown and Jalyn Jones Roe. In the past two years, 79 students have benefitted from the program.” Soelberg was 72 when she accepted the award, and still involved in the every - day operation of the Riding Centre’s business. The center gained nonprofit status a few years later in 1979, incorpo- rating separately from Antioch College. A board of directors was established to handle the center’s financial concerns, which were many. In her YS News obituary, Soelberg was quoted as having said to a friend about the award she’d Continued from page 61 Continued on page 64 At the age of 72, Soelberg received the “Senior Citizen of the Month” award — the first such award given to a woman — for the Riding Centre’s groundbreaking Therapeutic Riding Pro - gram. The award was sponsored by Kentucky Fried Chicken, and Soelberg is pictured seated next to Col. 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