Congrats to our Special Olympians!
Wednesday
Sep 7, 2016
Two individuals from the Renville County Rebels Special Olympics Team competed in state equestrian events.
For the first time, On August 19, two individuals from the Renville Country Rebels Special Olympics Team competed at Northwest Saddle Club in North Branch, Minnesota. Since this was the first experience with these events, the coaches and riders decided to keep things simple. The two athletes, Ryan Hern and Hunter Bahr, tried two events – western equitation and western working trail course. The two athletes have been practicing at Lee-Mar Ranch Equine Center for the summer. Bahr has been participating in therapeutic riding and Hern has been involved in riding lessons as well. Since joining the Rebels, they both have wanted to participate in the equine events but there was no horse activities until a group of individuals agreed to become coaches through Lee-mar Ranch. The seven individuals who attended level two coaches training included Keisha Louwagie, Sally Gniffke, Kayla Hegna, Diane Lecy, Crissy DeLong, Shery Parker, and Amy Fliflet. Hunters parent stated that Lee-mar Ranch helped make these athletes dreams come true.
In order to qualify for state competitions, athletes must put in at least 10 hours of training. The athletes trained one time a week throughout the summer. They worked on their riding skills, working through trail activities, leading the horses, and overall confidence gaining skills through riding horse. The two activities, Western Equitation and Western Working Trail each have different components that are judged. In Western Equitation, the riders walk the horses around the rail in the arena a number of times, the judges will tell the riders to stop and go in the opposite direction. The athletes are judged more on their own posture and performance in this event than the horses movement. Hern placed fifth in Equitation and Bahr placed second.
The second event, Western Working Trail, simulates various situations in which a horse and rider may have to work though on a trail in a natural environment. The horse and rider may need to go over a bridge, logs, weave through obstacles, complete a small turn and clean stop between objects. Hern placed fifth place and Bahr placed first.
Both of these riders did a great job considering this was their first year and they were using borrowed horses. Both of the athletes compete in other sporting events with the Rebels and have worked very hard this summer in their new adventure.
