May 02 2009
4-H Sport’s Day….or, Vic Saves the Day
Sport’s day is when the kids get to do some fun stuff with their horses.
One of the events, the blind pole-bending, provided a lot of entertainment. Of course, I could only assimilate so much at one time so I can only report on two of the teams. One of course, was Vic with Aaron on board along with his team-mate, the son of chuckwagon driver, Glen Summerville. The idea is that the rider in the saddle is blindfolded and his partner, behind the saddle, gives instructions on when to turn the barrels. The guy on back cannot touch the rider or the reins, just talk the other guy through the course. Then, the riders switch places and do it again.
Everything went pretty well with Aaron in the saddle. They made some wide turns but managed the course. When they switched places the fun really started. The other kid had been riding one of his dad’s thoroughbreds, green-broke and of course, not trained to neck-rein because he was basically to become a wagon horse. Vic hadn’t had a direct rein used on him since he was 2 and he was now 16………
With much excitement and confusion they made it around the first barrel. Donald kept trying to turn Vic gee-haw fashion and the big horse did as asked. By the second barrel, Aaron was getting excited because another team was farther along than they were and the instructions got coming too fast. He was asking Donald to turn the horse too soon and Donald was attempting to comply. Vic had his head cranked around. walking sideways, trying to relieve the pressure, but his eyes were glued to that barrel and he refused to actually make the turn until he got around to the other side of it. They completed the final barrel in similar fashion. I don’t remember what place they won but I do remember Aaron’s dad watching the whole performance and laughing. He said the boys hadn’t won that ribbon, the horse had done it for them.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, my daughter had decided not to re-saddle her pony and she and her friend made it through the first segment of the event. When they tried to switch places, Holly was sure they could do so without getting off the horse. Her friend fell off. Holly gave her a boost up and then the friend tried to help pull Holly back on. They both took a tumble. They finally got it together but lost too much time to place in the race.
