In the mid-1980s, Charles and Linda Cline were building a barn on their farm just west of Cushing, Oklahoma, when two Oklahoma State University professors noticed the construction and stopped to ask about the barn.

Linda Cline remembered the professors were curious to see what they were up to with the facility, Linda Cline said.

That quick, drop-in visit turned into a 40-year relationship with OSU, which in April 2026 celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Charles and Linda Cline Equine Teaching Center.

Now state-of-the-art, the center was then a little more than an old stall barn with a tack room.

“We need to do something about that old barn,” Linda Cline said.

Linda Cline’s comment marked the beginning of the center.

“Where the Cline Center stands today used to be an old, rusted-out stall barn,” said Steven Cooper, animal science associate professor in the Department of Animal and Food Sciences and Cline Family Equine Sciences Professorship.

Linda Cline’s initial goal was to make the facility more functional for students and to create a comprehensive equine education program, said her daughter, Amy Cline.

“She wasn’t necessarily into building just a building,” Amy Cline said. “She wanted to have a building that would benefit all of the equine students and the industry.”

Linda Cline hoped the facility would allow more students to remain active in the equine industry after graduation, Amy Cline added.

“I hate to see the horse become a dinosaur,” Linda Cline said. “It takes a lot of land and cost to take care of a horse, and it was my goal to keep it active on campus.”

A small-town girl, Linda Cline grew up in Claremore, Oklahoma.

“I was a town girl, not a city girl,” she said.

In 1985, her husband, Charles Cline, wanted to buy a farm, an idea she initially resisted until he talked her into the move. Within a month of moving to their farm near Cushing, Charles Cline took the family to a dispersal sale in Dewey, Oklahoma, where horses and equipment were for sale.

Charles Cline was like a kid in a candy store, Linda Cline said, buying 17 horses and six saddles. He told the salesperson that if he could get the saddles in the car, the family would buy them, she said.

“There were four of us in the sedan,” Linda Cline said. “We had saddles in our lap, in our trunk, everywhere, and we brought them home.”

That was the beginning of the Char-Lin Ranch.

“For me, it turned out to be an instant obsession,” Linda Cline said. “I loved it.”

By January 1986, the Clines had built their barn, which prompted an impromptu visit from OSU faculty members Don Topliff and Dave Freeman. The pair became the Cline’s mentors, she said.

Today, Linda Cline is known throughout the Department of Animal and Food Sciences as a “phenomenal supporter” who has a heart for students, said Richard Coffey, professor and head of the Department of Animal and Food Sciences.

Linda Cline looks for ways she can better support students during their time at OSU, he added.

Linda Cline’s support of students extends well beyond the Ferguson College of Agriculture, Cooper said.

“She also supports the music program, the library and The McKnight Center,” Cooper said. “If it’s for students, she just says, ‘Tell me what you need,’ and never bats an eye. She just does it.”

The opening of the Cline Center in 2016 marked a pivotal change in OSU’s ability to deliver hands-on, high-quality education on equine production, Cooper said.

With support from additional donors, including Heritage Place LLC, Mel and Jackie Bollenbach, Shawnee Milling Company, and Canaan Creek Stables LLC, the facility provides climate-controlled comfort and safety for the horses and students.

The facility offers a variety of functional spaces, including classrooms, horse stalls, a foaling area, offices, a conference room, a tornado shelter and an indoor arena.

“The Cline Center is one of those transformational things that gives you the ability to do a whole lot more and better help the students,” Coffey said.

The number of hands-on courses available to students grew from two to four, said Marissa Chapa, herd manager at the Charles and Linda Cline Equine Teaching Center.

Today, the center averages approximately 50 students a semester in those courses, she added.

“There are a lot of positive things that come with having this kind of resource, the first being that it allows you to do more for students,” Coffey said. “As much as anything, having access to high-quality facilities that let you expand upon what you have already been doing.”

The expansion of hands-on teaching opportunities also allowed for the creation of an Equine Enterprise Management Certificate, Cooper said.

The Cline Center now offers students the opportunity to be involved in the foaling process as part of their coursework, Coffey said.

After the center’s opening, students could start staying overnight in a safe, comfortable facility, taking shifts around the clock to be able to watch mares for signs of parturition and actually be there for the process and hands-on during labor and delivery of the new foal, said Natalie Baker, who worked as the Cline Center’s herd manager from 2016 to 2018.

The center builds students' confidence and competence, regardless of their equine background, Chapa said.

“We have a whole spectrum of students, some who have never touched a horse before,” Chapa said. “To see their confidence, excitement and involvement in the equine production component is the best part of what  
I do.”

Chapa emphasized how the center exposes students to all facets of equine production, whether it be mares, foals, or stallions, and the importance of that education for students.

“Providing students with the opportunities they otherwise wouldn’t have is the coolest and most rewarding part of what I do,” she added.

OSU students gain experience that prepares them for careers in the production side of the equine industry, a growing sector, Chapa said.

The Cline Center is producing people who are entering the industry with the potential to be more successful because they have foresight into what it takes to be productive, contributing members of society, Baker said.

The addition of the Charles and Linda Cline Equine Teaching Center is more than just a facility for the equine students, she added.

“It is a key part of all three of our land-grant missions here at OSU,” Coffey said.

Teaching is certainly the main focus of the center, but it is also used to support Extension, outreach and research, he added.

“The facility has been able to offer more equine workshops through Extension opportunities,” Baker said, adding that trainers and clinicians often use the center to work with the university’s ranch horse team, as well.

The expansion of hands-on opportunities in a comfortable and clean environment has made the Cline Center a place where people want to come teach and learn, she added.

Amy Cline said she and her mother enjoy hearing about how the Cline Center is used.

“When we hear about how the center is being used from the students, it makes us so proud,” Amy Cline said.

Story by Monica Ferris | Cowboy Journal