Page 63 - Speedhorse May 2019

RUN TO THE FINISH
FEAR NOT
The preferred distance at most Relays is half a mile. That is one lap around a half-mile track, which means the rider goes 1 1 /2 miles.
“These guys train and train hard,” Howard says. “They lift weights, they run, they are athletes. They are the most athletic horsemen you’re ever going to see.”
So just what is it you see?
“Indian Relay is America’s first extreme sport,” says Ghost Bear. “There are all kinds of equine disciplines and sports. You’ve got polo, you’ve got jumping, dressage, rodeo – you can throw all them in the mix. But until you see Indian Relay and experience the rush, the excitement, the adrenaline, you haven’t seen anything. One of the riders told me he can feel his horse’s heartbeat through the reins. You look at every one of these guys who walk out there, when they’re getting ready for the race, look at their eyes. They have that look in their eyes that says they have one thing on their mind. They’re only thinking about getting on that first horse.
“This sport is becoming so popular because once people see this, they want more,” Ghost Bear continues. “The Indian Relay races now are not only at the grassroots-level tracks, but also at big tracks and a lot of the bigger rodeos. Our goal is to have Indian Relay back east in places like Kentucky, and down south in Arizona, Oklahoma and Texas, too.”
Even though the sport is centered in the Northwest and on the Northern Plains, a lot of the horses come from Oklahoma and Texas.
“A very high percentage of these are off-the- track horses, Thoroughbreds and Appendix Quarter Horses,” Howard says. “In the Northwest, Emerald Downs is their source – they go in and claim horses. They claim horses at Fonner Park in Nebraska, they shop for them in Oklahoma. We’re using 870 horses, essentially is what we’re doing. Appendix horses are the way to go for those guys.”
Each team brings three horses to a race, but most teams will travel with six to eight head.
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At the end, you want a horse that will run through to the finish like you would with any racehorse.
“They might have an A team and a B team, and if they make it into the finals, they’ll have strategy behind what they’re doing,” Jamie Howard says. “It even gets down to what horses are the best starters and finishers. If you have a horse that won’t stand, he’s not going to be your first horse. If you have one that doesn’t turn in well, he’ll probably be your last horse because you don’t have to turn in with him. Sometimes a guy needs that hard finisher at the end,
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That brings up a point. As in any kind
of high-level athletic sport and discipline, participants are operating on the ragged edge. Injuries are inevitable.
“Yeah, I broke my collarbone,” Tyler recalls. “We had the fastest time on the first day at Sheridan, Wyoming. The second day, we were going to set the fastest time again, but as I came around on our second horse for the third horse, I jumped off and kinda overjumped my third.
I had the momentum to jump back on, but as we turned the angle, the horse on another team was coming out and smacked into us, and I was caught between my horse and his horse. There was no way out – I was trapped. I didn’t know my collarbone was broke until after I finished the race. I didn’t feel it until I let my shoulder
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“THIS SPORT IS BECOMING SO POPULAR BECAUSE ONCE PEOPLE SEE THIS, THEY WANT MORE.”
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anything else deters the riders.
“You have to be fearless,” says Donroy Ghost Bear, who owns Lakota War Path. “If you’re scared, you’ve already lost. That’s a big part of this sport. Everybody on the track is fearless – they’re all warriors.”
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