Have you ever baked a prize-winning souffle from scratch? Have you ever built a raging bonfire with two rocks and a handful of grass?

If so, you’d probably have some appreciation for the construction project put forth by Ellen White, who built a nationally recognized equestrian program from the ground up.

And she did it in just four short years.

As the third-ranked Baylor equestrian team prepares for today’s Varsity Equestrian National Championships at Waco’s Heart O’Texas Coliseum, it seems appropriate to ask the question — how did the Lady Bears get to this point? How can a four-year-old program consider a national championship a realistic goal?

Shouldn’t Baylor have to hold its horses, so to speak?

No way, says White.

“This is our fourth year, but this is our first year to have seniors,” White said. “We’ve got leadership on our team this year and finally someone who really knows what’s going on, not that deer-in-the-headlights look of, ‘I’ve never been here before, I don’t know what I’m doing.’ We have a very strong chance (to win a national title). I will be very disappointed if we’re not in the top two on the Hunter Seat side for sure.”

When Baylor’s Board of Regents voted to add equestrian as the school’s 18th varsity sport in September 2004, the move was made in part to remain compliant with Title IX, which seeks equity among men’s and women’s sports.

But White said the program was allowed to thrive because Baylor’s administration didn’t simply start the sport, then leave and take a hands-off approach.

“I think we can have a national championship and put this on because our administration helps,” White said. “Now they’re showing you didn’t just take equestrian for Title IX. It’s not like you don’t have the room or the space or the whatever. Ours came on and said, ‘Yes, we’re taking this on, and we’re going to do things for you’ and made it legit. I think what that does is it makes donors step up and say, ‘Oh, they’re serious. This isn’t just some little thing Baylor decided to do because they got in trouble or whatever.’”

Still, success wasn’t born overnight. White estimates she had “50 or 60” riders interested in joining the program in its inaugural season of 2005-06. Next year, she’ll have more than 300 trying out.

“At first, the very first year, our team was very small,” said senior Nicole Brown, the fourth-ranked rider in the country in Equitation over Fences. “We didn’t have much depth, but we went out there and represented Baylor well and put ourselves on the map, and that helped to bring in some top-notch student-athletes.”

Baylor’s academic reputation served as a draw to recruits as well. Brown is a pre-med major and is indicative of the type of highly-motivated student that comprises much of the equestrian roster.

“Coming to that top-tier university like Baylor has become, it attracts the kind of people who are riding horses and doing this sport,” White said. “So therefore they come and see the campus and they meet the professors and then see our basketball and everything else, and they say, ‘Hey, Baylor! That’s a real school, let’s go there!’ So we’re getting some top recruits in. That’s the bottom line. We’re getting girls that can ride.”

One of those talented recruits is freshman Lisa Goldman, the No. 2 national seed in Equitation over Fences. Other than drinking smoothies at Starbucks with Brown on her recruiting visit, Goldman didn’t meet any of the Baylor riders until after she enrolled. But she was sold by Baylor’s total collegiate package as much as she was the equestrian program.

“It’s a beautiful campus and the academics really drew me,” said Goldman, another pre-med student. “It was between here and Kansas State, and the campus itself and the academics really brought me here.”

Like a horse soaring over a fence, the equestrian program took a major leap forward with the creation of the Willis Family Equestrian Center in 2006. Besides being an attractive facility to potential recruits, the center affords Baylor the freedom to schedule home matches whenever it wants. Several other top-ranked programs, including BU’s Big 12 rivals Oklahoma State and Texas A&M, share their home facilities with other entities.

With its deepest stable of riders yet, Baylor — which finished sixth at last year’s VENC — charged into this season with burgeoning expectations. In late February, the Lady Bears made history by achieving the No. 1 ranking in the national coaches’ poll, becoming only the third Baylor sport, along with women’s basketball and men’s tennis, to reach the top spot in a national poll.

Baylor lasted at No. 1 for just two weeks, as the team lost to No. 4 Auburn in its first match after earning the ranking, but even that brief reign atop the throne had its benefits.

“Sure, it’s a confidence boost,” Brown said. “We recognize that we’ve only been around four years and we’re a brand new team, but being able to achieve that status of being the No. 1 team, it kind of opened our eyes a little bit and we realized, ‘We really can do this.’”

White, ever personable and jovial, is deadly serious about Baylor’s quest for a national championship. With equestrian powers like Georgia, Auburn and TCU among the field, she understands her team will really have to hoof it to win it all.

But you’d better believe she believes.

“Even though we’re not ranked No. 1 right now, that’s just because those rankers, what do they know?” she said, rolling her eyes and smiling. “I don’t care how we go in, I care how we come out. And we’re going to come out No. 1, so there you go.”

bcherry@wacotrib.com

757-5714

VARSITY EQUESTRIAN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

When: Today-Saturday

Where: Heart O’Texas Coliseum

Admission: Event is free and open to the public