There’s a new face in the Lake County MSU Extension office in Ronan, and it belongs to new Agricultural/4-H agent Clare Corley. Her first day of work was Nov. 3.

She joins Family and Consumer Science/4-H agent Erika Mitchell at the office, located in the west end of the Ronan Community Center. Veteran ag agent Jack Stivers has been lending his 30 years of expertise to the office as new agents are hired and trained.

“We really have a vibrant 4-H program in Lake County. There are lots of kids for the area we have,” Corley said, adding that western Montana is a “very dense 4-H region.”

Corley wants to dive in and work with Mitchell to continue improving the program and bringing more kids into the 4-H fold.

“Agriculture is huge here, too. That is this big, beautiful umbrella of all these different worlds from cherry growers to our cattle ranchers,” she said. “Their needs are very different.”

She appreciates Stivers, who has introduced her to various growers “so we can assess who needs me and what they need,” she said. “Having Jack as a mentor will really help me out.”

An agri-business/equine studies graduate of California State Polytechnic University in Pomona, Corley grew up with a naval officer father and has lived “all over” in the United States. She learned how to be adaptable and meet new people and that experience “instilled in me to be of service and the value of service,” Corley said.

Always a horse lover, she competed in gymkhanas when she first learned to ride, then began riding hunter/jumpers and showing horses when the family lived on the East Coast. She also took lessons with German dressage trainers for 10 years. Then she discovered a love of trail riding with a Pomona friend.

“Now I want to trail ride,” she said, noting she’s lost some of her appetite for competition.

During her years at Cal Poly-Pomona, Corley put her knowledge and love of horses and her urge to serve into double harness, working with horses and veterans in the university’s W.K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Center with Horses for Heroes and other equine programs.

In the HFH collaboration, veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder or other issues were paired with an Arabian horse in the facility and learned to groom, walk and care for their horse.

Although it was a therapy program, “We wanted to give the veterans skills, too,” Corley explained. In addition to therapists, HFH brought in speakers and specialists, such as farriers, so veterans could learn about horse care.

At that time “… my goal was to be a horse trainer and run big barns.”

In her Ag Business classes, she began to learn more about agriculture and the idea of feeding the world roused her goal to serve, “the impact, the need, really was more in agriculture.”

As she began to look at career paths, she discovered Extension, and felt as though “I unwrapped this present and said, ‘Wow, someone made this custom job for me.’”

So she applied for the job in Ronan; and “Here I am, counting my blessings,” she said.

One of her blessings is her horse, a 17-hand thoroughbred gelding she brought to Montana with her. Corley had worked at a local ranch training mustangs this summer, and she and her horse will be living at the same ranch.

“It’s lovely here. I got to explore Montana and find out how special this pocket is,” she added.

Another big blessing is the folks she works with, Mitchell and Stivers, and their capable guidance. “I have just great people to answer my questions.”

“My biggest goal is to listen a lot this year. I really want to understand the community — what they’re doing and what they want to do,” she said. “I’m really just here to be a resource and to facilitate. I’ll be doing a lot of listening.”