Richard Pringle was a "back side" kind of guy.

Though he rode rodeo bulls and took a 10-month turn as a jockey, the lifelong Otis Orchards resident preferred the behind-the-scenes life at the racetrack.

"He was always on the working end," said Bruce Wager, a friend who hired Pringle to exercise his thoroughbred horses at Playfair Race Course for more than 15 years.

Never much of a gambler, Pringle galloped horses every morning at the track before starting his 7 a.m. shift at Kaiser Aluminum.

The early morning job offered the horse lover a perfect opportunity to work with the animals he admired for their unbridled but gentle spirit. It was also a good fit for a man who tempered his own wild side with a realistic work ethic and a strong love for his family.

"He was a good father and husband," said his eldest daughter, Susan Hershberger.

"He did what was right," said his younger daughter, Carol Booth. "Family first."

Pringle, who was loved by his family for his reliability and humor, died July 7 after a long battle with emphysema and asthma. He was 70.

Pringle was born in Otis Orchards to a pioneer family that settled in the Valley in 1883. Pringle's great-grandfather William moved from California and made a living raising cattle and other livestock at a home on the corner of Harvard Road and Euclid Avenue.

Pringle's family didn't stay in the ranching business for long, however. His father ran a garage and a restaurant in the neighborhood, and Richard Pringle grew up near Otis Orchards High School, cultivating his cowboy roots on his own.

In eighth grade, he took a job at Jim Lloyd's apple orchard so he could save money for his first horse.

Once he had the horse, he entertained the farm kids every afternoon by pulling tricks as the bus passed by.

"The bus driver always said he was really brave or really stupid," remembered classmate, Willie Misterek.

It wasn't long, however, before he met his future wife, Donna Weil, and started his 32-year career at Kaiser.

Pringle won Donna's heart a year before they were married with a simple poem composed in England, where he was stationed with the Air Force's 116th Fighter Squadron during the Korean War.

The poem, called "You, My Life," told Donna she meant the world to him. At its end, Pringle wrote that the verse wasn't the work of a poet, but a man who just tried to make his thoughts rhyme a little bit.

Almost 50 years later, Donna keeps the poem tucked away in a box of memorabilia.

That romantic-yet-practical sensibility characterized Pringle's life, and left his daughters with a lifetime of fond memories.

Hershberger recalls accompanying her dad out to the old Coeur d'Alene horse racing track on summer mornings. While he galloped horses, she'd muck out the stables and prepare the feed for the day.

"You didn't do it sloppy, even though you were in the barn," she said. "He took a lot of pride in his work and in the fact that we'd come with him."

Pringle bought Booth her first horse when she was a teenager, and they'd spend afternoons riding up Harvard hill and down a trail he loved.

As she grew more confident with the horse, Pringle encouraged her to show it in local competitions.

"I always came in last but that didn't matter to him," she said. "My horse wasn't the best show horse, but Dad knew he was the best horse for me."