True labor of love

Marian Crumb teaches about 100 kids and adults a year to ride horses. But, after expenses that include feed, vet bills and upkeep of tack, she calculates that she earns less than $1,000. Taking into account that “profit” plus the fact that the 71-year-old Hayden horsewoman has a master’s degree in education and another in science, her labors are obviously those of love.

“I live on my Social Security,” she laughs.

On a recent day she’s playing host to a dozen special education students from Coeur d’Alene High School, and the next day it will be a similar group from Lake City High.

Her pay? Nothing but the kids’ broad smiles and their whoops as they live out their cowboy and cowgirl dreams in the corral of her Hayden ranchette.

Marian’s mission with these special kids isn’t to teach; it’s to reward them for their good behavior during the school year, to familiarize them a bit with horse care, and to give them a ride.

She owns 15 head, all riding stock, and so gentle that the animals just twitch and blink as a half-dozen kids crowd around to brush down the three to be ridden.

This is the third time Nicky Eubanks, 19, has visited Marian and her horses. He says he likes this part of the excursion almost as much as riding: “I brush them until they shine. They look real good.”

Marian’s herd has shrunk considerably from the one she grew up with on her parents’ 1,100-acre cattle and sheep ranch near Roseburg, Ore. There her folks stabled not only riding horses but draft animals they used for haying.

Marian’s own riding career began when she was still on the ranch, and over the years she’s participated in hunter, jumper, Western, English and dressage competitions.

She’s been teaching the requisite skills to master those arts, plus horse packing and trail riding, to children and adults for a half-century. Her paying clients help subsidize the lessons for kids who can’t afford it.

She used to train horses, too, she says, “But I had to stop that about three years ago. Arthritis, in my hands and my hips.”

Marian was married for 39 years to John Crumb who, when he died last October, was chief of fire management for the Idaho Department of Lands. She accompanied John as his career took him from Klamath Falls and Sweet Home in Oregon to Meridian in Southern Idaho, and finally to Hayden 30 years ago.

Here, the Crumbs laid out a nine-acre spread called Marian’s Stable, where she has pursued her passion. Her clientele has included her own three children, of course. One of them, Barbara Crumb, now a teacher in Sandpoint, won the Idaho Horsemanship Award when she was in 4-H.

“That’s the top equestrian award in the state,” Marian explains. “And I’m real proud that over the years I’ve coached nine other youngsters who’ve also won that prize.”

In addition to the special education students from area schools, other youngsters whom she teaches for free are a half-dozen Special Olympians. From her, they learn to walk, trot, canter, stop and back up their mounts.

Marian’s clientele also includes about 60 4-H youngsters, constantly changing numbers of high school “life sport” students, and North Idaho College physical education and continuing education students.

But back to this particular day, when special ed students and their physical education teacher Craig Leaf are at the stable:

“They’ve been grinning big time since I told them a couple of weeks ago we were coming out here,” Leaf says. “Marian’s horses are so gentle, the kids don’t fear them at all.

“Visiting here is one of their highlights of the year. They’ll be talking about this for weeks.”

Jay Taylor, 18, fastens the chinstrap on his bicycle helmet after he climbs a set of wooden steps to mount Cody, a patient bay stud. Right hand on his saddle horn and left clenched aloft as Leaf leads him on a fast walk around the corral, Taylor yells, “I’m tall on Cody, real tall.”