Pole bending and barrel racing competitors show their stuff
By Chris Eakin Fairview Post
Posted 2 hours ago
Swartzy Performance Horses hosted the Black and Gold Barrel Racing and Pole Bending event this past weekend, running Saturday through Monday with 130 riders with 185 horses competing.
The riders spanned the ages from so young their mother led the horse through the course to adult. They came from as far away as Langley, B.C, Prince George, B.C., Lloydminster and all over Alberta.
Organizer Dallas Schwerdt said the work of preparing for the event started months before and had to be interrupted for other events such as a big horse show in Dawson Creek that took precedence for a few weeks.
She explained that originally the competitions ran week nights but one year they had so many cancellations due to rain, they had to run all the competitions in one long weekend and the feedback they got from competitors was positive.
She added that the timing this year was in their favour as the North Peace Stampede at Lac Cardinal allowed competitors from that event to also take part in the Black and Gold and vice versa.
How such a local event has become a success is not simple but not difficult to explain. Swartzy Performance Horses has gained a good reputation for having a good facility with fast ground for racing, they have been well organized and they have also managed to get respectable prizes.
Schwerdt explained “fast ground” is when there is enough give in the ground to allow the horses to dig but firm enough to give them traction. Too hard and the ground becomes slippery, too soft and they bog down, too wet and it turns into mud that sucks horses and riders in. Schwerdts seemed to have the formula down pat, watering the ground often enough to keep the dust down but not so much that it got muddy and harrowing the ring regularly so riders have a consistent surface to ride on.
Schwerdt noted “That (the prize money) doesn’t happen without piles and piles of partners.”
The list of partners in the event would likely fill pages, their names are listed on signs everywhere at the facility and announcements made over the loudspeaker remind the crowd who they are. The announcements also ask people to thank those sponsors for making the event possible. It’s the kind of effort that makes sponsors come back again and again. It’s also the kind of effort that pays off in pulling in competitors from all over Alberta as well as from B.C. and Saskatchewan, top competitors who make the event more exciting for spectators and other competitors.
The Post asked her, in a sport where the difference between winner and second place can be a thousandth of a second, how does a rider find that little edge. She explained it can be in very simple things, the position the rider takes approaching the barrel, the position of body and hands, the angle of the horse coming out of the alley and mental focus.
She added that the top riders have one thing in common and it is they race a lot, many have their pro card and make their living from barrel racing.
The weekend wasn’t all in the saddle as Saturday night the organizers laid on some entertainment with local singers Tasey Young and Tracey Jordan with her sister Wanda Bjorklund.
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