Having not one, not two, but three large animal veterinarians in my extended family, and understanding the vital role these rural vets play in helping preserve the nation’s farms and ranches, my ears perked up upon word that Greenville University in Illinois aims to make the Flathead Valley a national hub for equine education, therapy, and veterinary training.
The nucleus will be a spectacular but underutilized 75 acre equestrian estate off Old Montana Highway 35 in Bigfork, its world class facilities consisting of a 77,000-square-foot arena, veterinary clinic, 39 horse stalls, 9,000-square-foot foaling barn, 11,000-square-foot equipment building, and plenty more.
And you’d be right if you guessed it’s the same sprawling complex where the legendary Bolt d’Oro trained as a top contender for the 2018 Kentucky Derby. In fact, it was the racehorse’s owner and trainer, Mick Ruis, who recently sold the estate to a most appreciative university and its president, a lifelong equestrian.
“When we drove by this place for the first time it literally was like the heavens parted. And we’re like, ‘Of course, this is where we should be!’ It was kind of a long road to get here,” Greenville President Dr. Suzanne Davis told me during her recent visit to the arena.
First though, she wants to put to rest any persisting rumors about future plans for the Bigfork property.
The facility, Davis said, will be used “as it was designed,” not as an event venue, but strictly for educational purposes. The university will not confer Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) degrees, rather offer students a hands-on “pre-vet” and equine education curriculum, which would also include shadowing local veterinarians and sharing opportunities with Flathead Valley Community College. It won’t be a campus of several hundred students – I’m told upwards of 50 max, who will be housed in a soon-to-be renovated large equipment building next to the arena.
“This isn’t 500 students with dorms and construction,” Davis assured surrounding residents.
Right off the bat I have to ask the president how a small but well-established Midwest Christian liberal arts college, dating to 1892, found its way to Bigfork?
Her short answer is Greenville had originally planned to open an equestrian institute in Evergreen, Colorado, where it already had a biology studies site. But the school encountered so much “red tape” it recently pulled up stakes and sold the property.
An influential university board member, Davis noted, who happens to live in Big Sky, “kept saying when we were doing the Colorado initiative, ‘Oh my gosh, all the politics, all the things in Colorado. You should do it in Montana instead, it’s just a much better state to do business.’”
While all of this was transpiring, Kansas City businesswoman Jessica Ford Ray, another dynamic university board member with Montana roots, told the college president: “You need to go meet my dad [businessman and Flathead native Tim Ford] and see what he’s up to in Bigfork.”
“So I literally came out [this past summer] with no expectations of anything,” Davis pointed out. “This is the funniest part of this story: I’ve never met someone like Tim, who gets stuff done no matter what. He’s awesome.
“Then we meet the Averills [of Flathead Lake Lodge] and see their ranching operations, which is what comes to mind when you think of the Old West. So we get into this long conversation of course – I can talk horses with anyone because I’m an avid equestrian myself – and I’m into what they’re doing with their horses [including therapeutically], and the lodge, and this is just great. And then … ”
And then Tim drove the college president past the horse arena, which had been on the market, “and I’m like, wow!”
I come to learn that from a very early age horses have helped Davis and her family through some very difficult times. While growing up, her two older brothers were slowly dying from a rare genetic disease, and her dad wasn’t doing too well, either. Whenever her parents traversed the country seeking medical care for their sons, their daughter would stay with family friends who raised majestic Belgian Draught horses.
“Gentle giants,” she described. “They kind of raised me when my parents were gone. I loved the horses from age three, never got over it. My own kind of healing through a lot of chaos with my family.”
Time would pass and Davis would become tremendously useful at the horse farm, cleaning tack and stalls until eventually training the large Belgians to ride. And soon there would be other horses to break-in in other places, which helped put her through college and eventually law school. Before she knew it she had her own barn and horses.
“I became an attorney to support my habit,” Davis laughed.
“I was able to adopt 14-year-old twin girls from two horrific stories of abuse and neglect and I watched the horses transform their lives, too,” she continued. “I saw how they were able to trust the horses before they could trust people, because their language, their communication, is consistent and trustworthy. And sometimes humans are not, right? The humans failed them.
“So that’s the real ‘passion project’ of it all. Equine assistance services provides help and healing to trauma, whether its trauma surrounding veterans, youth, disadvantaged kids. That’s where the heartbeat of the thing is. Training students to be able to be the trainers—we train the trainers.
“And the rural veterinary crisis: we know we have one … and doing right by the animals means having veterinary care available.”
There was one Belgian draft horse in particular, named Echo and a favorite of one of Davis’ daughters, who died not long ago because a large animal vet wasn’t available to respond to Davis’ farm.
“And she didn’t have to die,” the president recalls in a university video announcing the Bigfork equine initiative. “Frankly, it was because there’s not enough large animal vets in the region [and] this isn’t just the case in the Midwest, it is across the nation but especially out West. I have heard of veterinarians that just cannot keep up with the demand – not just horses, but cattle [and] other large animals.”
Davis told me some 20 percent of graduating veterinarians go into large animal care, and even with that small number some turn to small animals because the jobs are easier and better paying.
“You go out in the cold, you go out on Christmas. You’re going to them,” she explained of rural vets. “So it just keeps getting whittled down to where it might be below 20 percent.”
“Greenville University,” Davis continues in her video, “is on the verge of providing a solution to that problem, providing more opportunities for graduate studies in veterinary science that would expand the opportunities for the veterinarians.”
Which brings us to Bigfork.
“Montana is more than a location, it signals scale, permanence, and national relevance. By establishing Greenville University’s equestrian institute in Big Sky Country, we move beyond regional impact and step onto the national stage. Here horse therapy restores lives, veterinary and animal science programs prepare the next generation of practitioners, and leadership development is formed through the transformational bond between horses and humans.
“Montana gives Greenville University the rare chance to turn an existing world-class equestrian estate into a national hub for education, therapy, and veterinary training.”
The school president wants Flathead Valley residents to know one more thing about the caliber of Greenville’s equestrian students, who have previously immersed themselves at the Illinois horse farm Davis subsequently turned over to the university.
“We train our students to serve,” Davis said. “The students that you’ll see … they’re like salt of the earth kind of kids. They take care of the whole farm. These are responsible individuals. We don’t bring anybody in who can’t hack the work because they have to do the work of the farm. That’s the immersion.”
Note: A community tour and Q&A about Greenville University will take place on Friday, Dec. 19, at 9:30 am. Meet at the arena complex, 6135 Old Montana Highway 35, Bigfork. All are welcome.
John McCaslin is a longtime journalist and author who lives in Bigfork.