Farmin at the Farm

Betty Robinson inspired the tradition. For years, while teaching at Lincoln Elementary School, Betty always reserved a day when her students would visit her farm. One of those students was my sister, Laurie Tibbs.

The visit left a memorable impression on Laurie and the hundreds of other kids who enjoyed that spring day at Betty's farm near the base of Greenhorn Mountain. Betty was a Colorado farm girl who always embraced adventure of any kind. She wanted the same for her students. So, after arriving at the farm for the day, they romped around her fields, saw her garden, and enjoyed associating with her husband Lloyd's horses.

Lloyd was a snoose-chewing farrier and Sandpoint fireman who at one time worked at a stable where the original Panhandle State Bank now stands. He was also a horseman who, every year, went on a week-long Gentlemen on Horseback ride with his cowboy friends from around the Inland Northwest.

Lloyd and Betty are gone now, but Betty's teaching tradition lives on. Every year in May, students in Laurie's Farmin fifth grade class, armed with sack lunches, board a bus and head toward Colburn and the Tibbs Arabian Ranch where they spend the school day.

Their schedule differs a bit from that of Betty's. Laurie uses every minute available to teach them a series of mini lessons about horse conformation, safety, grooming and even a little showing at halter.

Today is the Farmin farm day for Miss Tibbs' sixth graders. Debbie, Jenny Meyer and I will be there to help as gofers while Laurie provides an unforgettable equine experience for her 20-plus 10-year-olds.

The kids will spend most of the morning watching and listening to Laurie as she shares her lifelong knowledge of horsemanship. At lunch time, they'll sit in their groups on the grassy hillsides, visit and look over the farm, which was once a thriving dairy.

In the afternoon, they'll separate into groups. Each group of four or five gets a gentle Arabian horse to groom with brushes, combs and rags. Then, moving on to the indoor arena, one by one, each takes a turn leading a horse at the walk, the trot and the showing position.

By 2 p.m. they'll board the bus and head back to school, no doubt, gabbing incessantly about their special horses and the fun they had. More than likely, their stories of this day will continue through a lifetime, and, who knows, maybe some day one of these youngsters will become a teacher and continue such field trips to the farm through another generation.