“It was a transformational experience at camp because of the animals, “ said Nancy Weber (1962). “ I was a girl born in the fifties in the city and I should have been a forties girl born in the country. I was just ripe for Camp Maqua. It was the first time that I rode a horse and it changed my life. That began a life long love affair. My Dad bought me a horse in the ninth grade and I had one until 1990, but my daughter was the one who had the talent for horses. I was very tight with Ollie and Mel and would visit them all the way through college and beyond—-that is how much they influenced me. Horses made me poor for the rest of my life,” she laughed. “Ollie and Mel were very dear to me and were models.”

“Honestly, I could not spend enough time with those horses. I had extra lessons for horseback riding at camp. I wanted triple sessions, but had to settle for double, but I would beg to go to those horses on my free time. I remember we could go for a swim during our free time, and somehow I figured out how to leave for the free swim, go back to the barn and get back to the lake. I made the mistake of forgetting to turn in my buddy tag, and they were practically dragging the lake for me,” said Nancy.

“I just remember seeing this truck flying over a bump in the road and Ollie muttering “uh-oh”, as I sat in this bale of hay with a reed in my mouth. I also remember the terror sitting between Dorthe and Beanie in that truck. I was terrified of both of them. The experience scarred me forever. They called my parents. I’m lucky I was not sent home,” she said.

Jan Bateson (1951-52) also went to camp for the horses—it was the main reason and the only activity she was really interested in. “I avoided everthing else and I avoided the counselors who were looking for me. I wasn’t really hiding, but I was never where I was supposed to be. When it was 8 a.m. and were were supposed to go down for our swim, it was so cold, I would disappear. When I went to archery and didn’t hit the target, I hid the next time. I guess you could say, I had my own agenda.”

One of Jan’s clearest memories in her second year involved her friend Sherry from Central High who fell off the back of her horse and had some teeth kicked out. “Sissy”, as Jan was known, claims the horses were pretty tame, but she was not in that class of Tex’s when it happened, but said the news spread like wildfire through the camp that day.

Horseback riding was one of the main reasons KayMary Young (1954) returned to camp. She recalled Mary Jane Keschman and Marsha Immerman as her riding instructors and loved learning to ride at camp. “There was a ring for the horses, but they would tie them to a stand of the trees in the shade. We would trail ride on the property, back away from the cabins, and I can still see how steep some of the trails were.(Their friend Molly Olson bonded over the horses and would get in trouble for skipping activities to spend more time with them.)

“My last year there, a young man who wore cowboy boots and a hat made my heart go pitty-pat. He was probably twenty-five and when I had time off, I would use the pretense of going to see the horses to take photos, but I was really going to take photos of him, “ laughed KayMary. “I really just took head shots of the horse with him in it. It was the beginning of my feeling for boys.”

Were you one of the girls who always seemed to be at the corral with the horses?