The Woods

Issue date: 4/29/09 Section: Features

By Hannah Biggs
Staff writer

Midnight - the gentle echo of clip-clops of horses' shoes came up the front driveway of Le Fer dormitory. 12:05 - the laughter and shouts of SMWC seniors on their horses carried through the night air. 12:10 - SMWC students gathered to watch 12 seniors and their trusty steeds as they waved to the students in the dorm rooms. 12:15 - the clip-clop sound of horse shoes faded away.

On Thursday, April 16, the graduating seniors involved in the Equine Studies program were invited to participate in the Midnight Ride. The Midnight Ride was originally established in the 1940s, but was then stopped. However, it was later reestablished in the late 1990s and continues to this day as a reward for graduating seniors in the Equine Studies program to celebrate the end of their time at SMWC.

For senior Heather Bultemeier, this year's Midnight Ride represented the "four years of hard work it took to make it this far." Bultemeier majored in Equine Training and Instruction, and is going to work for a Boy Scout camp in Bloomington for this summer. After that, she hopes to find a job working as an assistant trainer at a horse farm.

Just like many of the graduating seniors, Bultemeier has been looking forward to this ride "since she learned about it freshman year." For her, it "reminds her of the old days when the women who went to college here were allowed to ride their horses more often around campus." She recalls seeing a picture where the young women of SMWC are riding their horses along The Avenue of campus. SMWC was established in a time before there were cars, so horses were a good form of transportation around campus and off campus. The Midnight Ride takes the graduating seniors for a step back in time to remember those days when cars were nonexistent, and horses - what they have dedicated years of their schooling to study or ride - were not just show animals or pets, but transportation.

The seniors who were eligible to ride in the Midnight Ride were allowed to choose what horse they wanted to ride. Bultemeier chose the horse she currently takes care of for her stable management class, Silver. Some riders chose to ride their own horses while others rode a school horse that they have become attached to over their years at SMWC.

Bultemeier said that "friendship played a large part in the ride." She said that it "would not have been as enjoyable if she had not had have some of her friends there." For her, "taking this first and final ride around campus gave her a sense of connection" with her classmates and with the school. It brought back memories of all the fun she had while at SMWC.

The Midnight Ride functioned both as a fun event and as a parting event. As the seniors prepare to say goodbye, the memory of the "hurry of hoofs [on Le Fer's front drive]" will remain with them for years to come and remind them of the fun times they had while at SMWC.


"A hurry of hoofs in a village street,
A shape in the moonlight, a bulk in the dark,
And beneath, from the pebbles, in passing, a spark
Struck out by a steed flying fearless and fleet…"

-The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere
By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1807-1882

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