Roberge: “Leading a club like this one is like running a small business.”
Since 1919, Wisconsin Hoofers— one of UW-Madison’s oldest and largest student organizations — has promoted outdoor recreation to not only the campus community but also the city at large.
And as Hoofers approaches the century mark, it continues to evolve. All six clubs (scuba, outing, ski and snowboard, mountaineering, sailing and riding) recently boasted woman presidents for the first time in history. (The club’s elections are staggered throughout the year; the sailing club got a new — male — president on Sept. 10.) Hoofers members range in age from 18 to over 90.
“I’m really excited,” says Erin Roberge, a 20-year-old junior who is the 2018-19 president of the Hoofer riding club. “The horse industry is female-dominated, but the outdoor industry as a whole has been male-dominated for years. Hopefully, other female Hoofer members [will] run for office, too.”
While Hoofers is a student-led organization, anybody can join the six clubs, creating a unique blend of more than 2,500 students, faculty, staff, alumni and Madison-area residents who enjoy the outdoors together. As such, Hoofers allows people of multiple generations to participate in shared interests — something many college students don’t have the opportunity to experience at that age.
As an example of the community’s involvement, Roberge points to the fact that more parents are encouraging their young children to get involved in the Hoofer riding club. Based out of Liberty Stables in Verona, where the club owns or leases between six and 12 horses, the club offers riding lessons, clinics, summer camps and other activities.
Hoofer mountaineering, meanwhile, encourages climbers while also maintaining a collective of knowledgeable enthusiasts who teach the sport. The Hoofer sailing club works together to maintain a fleet of boats for recreational and competitive sailing, and the Hoofer scuba club caters to divers of all levels via certifications and dive trips. The Hoofer outing club focuses on a variety of wilderness excursions, and the ski and snowboard club delivers as advertised.
But it’s not all about having fun in the outdoors. Roberge — an animal science major with a business emphasis who went to high school in St. Paul, Minnesota — chose UW-Madison in large part because of the university’s opportunities for horse lovers.
“One of the factors in me coming here was making sure they had an equestrian team, and then I found out about the Hoofer riding club,” she says. “I’m hoping to eventually manage a small farm, and leading a club like this one is like running a small business.”
