Page 49 - Speedhorse Canada Spring 2020

A PARTNERSHIP
from sponsorships and jackpotted entry fees.
“Our total added money for
the whole card last year at Walla Walla was about $65,000,” Howard recalls. “It was in the neighborhood of about $20,000 in the final race.”
That’s not really the point.
“It’s not so much the purse – it’s bragging rights,” Howard says. “The buckle means more than the purse.”
DRESS UP, BEAR DOWN
Like their forefathers in the 19th century, the riders do not use saddles, preferring to sit their horses bareback. Nor do they wear helmets or flak jackets, although doing so would not necessarily be against the rules. Many riders dress in traditional garb, even
to the point of feathered headdresses and war paint, especially at Relay events where awards are given for such criteria as best regalia.
The horses, too, often are adorned with war paint and ink symbols with specific meanings. According to legend, a circle around the horse’s eye improved
its ability to see danger, just as a circle around the nostrils helped the horse smell danger. A lightning bolt on the leg brought power and speed, an arrow across the shoulder adds strength. Dots all over the head and chest are prayers for hail to fall on the enemy. Hand prints were among the highest honors:
A hand print on the hip indicates courage of a horse that had brought his master home unharmed from
a dangerous mission; a hand print on the chest shows the horse had knocked down an enemy; the highest honor was an upside-down print, for a horse carrying his warrior on a do-or-die mission.
Jamie Howard, with the HNIRC, and Calvin Ghost Bear, an Ogala Sioux of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, partnered on the Paint horse Girls Got Grip, who won the $257,208 Speedhorse Graham Paint & Appaloosa Futurity-G1 at Remington Park in 2010.
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“That’s one of the reasons that the Indians used Paint Horses,” Howard says. “Some cultures, like the Crow and Sioux, believed Paint Horses were special because they were born with markings. The Nez Perce were the first to selectively breed Appaloosas. The Nez Perce were the first tribe to geld their horses, way back in the day, if they didn’t think they were quality.”
Howard runs horses on the flat track and partnered with Calvin Ghost Bear on the Country Quick Dash mare Girls Got Grip, an American Paint Horse that in 2010 won the $257,208 Graham Paint Futurity-G1 at Remington Park.
Ghost Bear and wife Carla live on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, where they raise cattle and horses on their ranch with their sons, Donroy and Tony.
“It’s fulfilling, the sense that it’s something we’ve done as a horse nation,” Ghost Bear says. “The Oglala Sioux are part of what we call the Horse Nations, and we have a lot of history in our horsemanship and horse culture. Everything we’ve done revolves around the horses. They are part of our everyday life.”
The Ghost Bears are handing down the life to the next generation. For the past four years, their grandson Tyler Grass has ridden for Lakota War Path and has won Relays at Parshall, North Dakota; Lower Brule and Rosebud, South Dakota; and Baker, Montana.
“I’ve always ridden horses,” says Tyler, 19. “I’ve been riding hard since I was a little kid. So I asked to ride one day, took my shot and have been riding ever since.
SPEEDHORSE CANADA Spring 2020 49
Dustin Orona Photography