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On 5 October 2019 we finished the 5th Annual Arena Challenge. West Texas had received quite a bit of rain in the weeks and day before the event, but we were blessed with clear skies, a light wind and 85 degree temperatures to see riders compete in the four divisions of Stock Horse, Open, Intermediate and Novice. Riders entered the arena and executed horsemanship tasks and negotiated obstacles while being evaluated by two judges with diverse horsemanship backgrounds - Martha Diaz, a noted Dressage competitor and instructor, who combined with Sara Tyree, a Extreme Cowboy Association (EXCA) judge and horse trainer, to evaluate each rider.
My goal for this annual event is to promote horsemanship and motivate competitors to never stop learning, and I try do that by putting some tasks and obstacles together that will challenge them. Such as small box turnarounds, tight switchback turns around upright poles, barrel patterns and other riding that requires the rider to get and maintain a good bend to their horse.
I also intend for this annual competition to allow rider's across disciplines to compete equally, build respect across disciplines and share horsemanship by demonstrating what do they do and how they handle their horses. It is eye opening when a Dressage rider say's "what do you mean when I have to ground tie my horse, or back him up with the reins while standing in a box?" Or when a Pleasure or Trail rider states that they "don't know what leg yield or shoulder's in movement is." And even when a Team Roper say's "Backing in a circle? Why in the world would I want to back my horses in a circle?"
With the blindfold tasks this paid off as several or even most of the horses had trouble with a shirt being draped over their head blocking their vision, but with the rider letting the horse know they were there and not putting pressure on the horse until they were ready, almost all the horses ended up leading out after just a bit of sacking out. I got onto the blindfold thing when I was stuck in a grazing unit when a hail storm hit. I ended up taking my shirt off and covering my horse's head to minimize the effect of the hail hitting him, until the storm abated. Blindfold's have use when moving horse's through fire and smoke such as a barn on fire or evacuating for a wildlands fire.
One task that I almost always include is lead departures but this year I had the rider's announce what lead they intended on departing on. As they rode to the end of the arena, the turned then executed a shoulder in movement halfway back before transitioning to a leg yield (forward momentum with lateral movement) around a barrel.
This year in the stockhorse division I added a task that required the rider to throw a long, flat loop around and barrel and trot their horse around the barrel feeding out their rope, stopping, reversing and trotting around the barrel while they re-coiled their rope. Sometimes you get a loop on a calf and need to give him slack as he moves, especially if he's moving on his own accord closer to the branding fire or spot where you doctoring the calves. This was the first time many performed a rope management type drill and several told me they were going to practice it as they saw the usefulness of it.
This article wouldn't be complete without mentioning the winners, so when final scores were tallied, the results were:
The prize table was again robust and it wouldn't have been so without generous support from our major sponsors: Cashel Company (Cindy Lang); Starr Western Wear (Edie Zuvanich); Spokane Traffic Control (Tammy and Mike Beggs); Animal Health International (Adrian Morales); Tractor Supply Company (Ben Lucas); Linda Seeds Tack and Repair; and VCM Equine Management.
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