It was a first-time ride for this four-year old boy and he clearly enjoyed it. After a short ride outside the ring at the Equestrian Center at Fenton Park his grandmother took him off and they walked away. He had a big smile on his face. Who knows but he may be back in 4 or 5 years to ride a horse in the Pima County Sheriff Mounted Posse’s monthly gymkhana.
Unlike the dressage event last weekend which had an English feel to it, this gymkhana was definitely Western. The first event for riders was a short version of that staple of rodeos: barrel racing. And the first riders/racers were children under 10 years old.
Here are some photos. I also have some comments about the deaths at the Rillito Horse Racing track at the bottom of this post.
This is the “official rider” of the buckskin horse that the little boy rode. I love the braids and it looks to me that it is wearing its winter coat. Or maybe its just a shaggy horse. Quite a few of the wild horses the Bureau of Land Management auctions off every year have shaggy coats. Maybe this is one of them?
Horses and riders warming up in the ring before the event began. These are all teenage girls and one of them really ripped around the barrels setting a new record. Riding around poles was the next event but I left before then so no photos of it.
The Sheriff Posse’s flag, the U.S. flag, the Arizona state flag and–I don’t know what the 4th one is. Behind the white horse is one of the barrels.
Young rider’s families
Spectators — almost all were riders’ family members–line the fence. The red and yellow barrels were lined up in the middle of the ring. And there is that buckskin horse again.
It was definitely a family event with a picnic under the mesquite trees. I wonder if those two little ones in the playpen will remember seeing horses at such an early age?
What’s happening at the Rillito Quarter Horse races?
I read a report by KVOA TV that 4 horses had died at the Rillito Horse Racing Park last weekend. It made me think twice about going back there to watch and photograph people and sorta watch the quarter horse races. It would be tragic if Rillito became a horse death house like Santa Anita Park race track in California where so many horses have died in recent years. The Rillito GM Mike Weiss said that there were no horse deaths in 2019 or 2020.
The Rillito races are a marker point for me. In 2020 I went for the first time and when I got home I heard about COVID 19 spreading in Washington state. I had spent the day chatting with people who had just come to Tucson from Tacoma and suddenly was terrified that I might have been exposed. COVID 19 became real that day and I spent the next 12 months almost entirely in isolation. Read about that day here.
