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Photos courtesy MSU/Teton County 4-H

Nineteen Teton County 4-H members in the horse project were cheered on by family members as they demonstrated the skills they have learned this year and were evaluated by judge Becky Anseth.  4-Hers participating were Rylynn Allaire, Gage Banner, McCoy Banner, Avery Banner, Ariana Banner, Kyndal Becker, Kwin Briscoe, Elisabeth Brown, Ayden DeBruycker, Cole deVos, Abigail deVos, Carter Fryberger, Clancy Fryberger, Cale Fryberger, Ella Fryberger, Taela Knable, Trinity Knable, Leah Paulson and Madeline Preston.  

The day started with showmanship in three age levels, senior, junior and pre-junior.  The oldest member to kick it off was Gage Banner showing how it’s done earning grand champion in that class, followed by Kwin Briscoe in reserve.  For the juniors Ayden DeBruycker had top showing followed by Abigail deVos with reserve champion.  The pre-junior group was led by Cole deVos followed by Ella Fryberger.  Showmanship is about how well the member presents their horse.  The judge encouraged members to show with energy and positivity.  Showmanship classeswere followed by bareback equitation, which was another challenging class.  These classes were split by skill level. 

4-H members are assessed on their skills as part of their lessons and education, which means they must be able to accomplish certain skills and maneuvers with their horse to ensure safety for the member.  Coming in with high marks in the walk-trot class were Ella Fryberger, grand, and Cale Fryberger, reserve.  Level two had Cole deVos on top with Ariana Banner in reserve.  Level three was Abigail deVos as grand and Clancy Fryberger in reserve. Level four McCoy Banner was champion followed by Madelena Preston in reserve.

Looking sharp in her English riding attire and using great posture, Ella Fryberger placed top with Cale Fryberger in reserve. In Western horsemanship level one, Leah Paulson received a purple grand champion designation with Kyndal Becker as reserve.  In Western horsemanship level two Cole deVos had the honors, followed by Ariana Banner.  Western horsemanship three was a large class.  Rising to the top was Clancy Fryberger with grand and blues awarded to the rest of the class. The next classes allowed 4-H members to show their skills with horses of younger ages. Each class had just one competitor, and the judge is not obligated to give a purple grand champion designation; however, the skill was evident and Gage Banner took champion in four-year-old under saddle Western, McCoy was top with three-year-old and Abigail deVos showed her grand skills in green horse level two.  The Western pleasure classes level one-five were place grand and reserve.  Level one – Kyndal Becker, grand and Leah Paulson, reserve; level two – Ella Fryberger, grand and Cale Fryberger, reserve; level three – Kwin Briscoe, grand and Carter Fryberger, reserve; in level four — Madelena Preston, grand and McCoy Banner reserve and level five – Gage Banner, grand.  

The show concluded with the trail classes, which include a series of challenges a rider might see on a trail, including walking over or between poles, over a bridge and turning a complete circle inside poles set in a square.  The class generally also includes opening and closing a gate while mounted and other challenges that were eliminated to reduce the common touch points and need for sanitizing between riders.  In the walk-trot trail class, Kyndal Becker was grand followed by Rylynn Allaire.  In level two, Ella Fryberger was top followed by Cole deVos as reserve. Carter Fryberger came away with the honors in level three with Abigail deVos in the second position.  In the level four trail class, the members were required to back a horse between two poles as one of the first of several challenges.  Showing great skills, Gage Banner placed top and McCoy Banner took the reserve place.  4-H members also voted on a sportsmanship award and Abigail deVos won that prize, which was a PEMF (pulsed electromagnetic field) treatment for her horse donated and performed by Samantha Brooks.

4-H members were awarded points for their placing in each class, which correlated to prizes they were able to select at the end of the show. The prizes were purchased through donations to the 4-H program by North 40 and Ryan and Kelly DeBruycker  as well as by general sponsors to the Teton County 4-H program. The sponsor support of the 4-H horse program is appreciated. The horse show was held for the first time in the 406 Arena, which was a great venue for the event.  Practice arenas were available, along with ample seating for the family members who gathered. Salina deVos and Samantha Brooks provide leadership for the 4-H horse program and devote ample time to planning the horse show as well as arranging educational experiences for youth. Instrumental in planning the horse show were numerous parent and horse leaders.  4-H members started arriving at 7:30 a.m. and the last ones were leaving around four in the afternoon having spent an enjoyable day with each other, their families and their horses.

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by Natalie Boomer

The Down East Border Riders Saddle Club will be hosting a pleasure show on Saturday, Aug. 15.

“We welcome riders of all ages and levels, both club and non-club riders as well. Classes are divided by age and/or riding level that include leadline, peewee, youth and adults in walk/trot and walk/trot/canter divisions,” said Vicki Farley Brown of the DEBRSC. “Most classes are open, accepting both English and Western riders, and there will be two open Western Pleasure stakes classes that day with cash payouts.”

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Jason Groves
 
| Las Cruces Sun-News

LAS CRUCES – Victor Hermanson doesn’t collect accolades or reviews based on his craft, even though he could. 

Hermanson is a gifted saddle maker who resides on the outskirts of Las Cruces. Hermanson is self taught, and he would rather spend his time passing his knowledge to others than collecting industry accolades.

“There are things like that where you can enter competitions and get judged on saddles,” Hermanson said. “I really just like the idea of interacting with people and making a product that can better their life. Throughout the years, I’ve learned that if you ride horses and you have a bad horse or a bad saddle, it’s a pretty miserable experience.”

Customers seek out Hermanson for his 35 years of experience and his ability to fit the needs of competitive rodeo cowboys, ranchers and folks who want a high-end display piece.

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“I don’t do it the same way as everyone else and sometimes my students don’t continue doing it the same way,” Hermanson said. “I do it the traditional way, but I lay in the leather ground seats where I carve it to fit the rider. My custom saddles are about the fit of the rider and the horse and the discipline.”

Hermanson, who grew up around horses on a Montana ranch, built his first saddle as a 12-year-old.

“I told my parents I wanted to build a saddle and they bought me a tanning kit,” Hermanson said. “I told them that it wasn’t good enough. It was just a toy. So they bought me a tree and some leather. I had a knife, and I built my first saddle on my bedroom floor.”

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After serving in the Navy, Hermanson found himself in Bishop, California, where he established a school to teach others his method. 

He moved to Las Cruces in 2005, where he worked out of a few locations before building a shop on his property near the Rio Grande in 2006. 

He used to teach as many as 15 students at a time, though COVID-19 has forced him to reduce numbers. 

“It’s pretty in depth and pretty intense,” said Wayne Wise, a professional rodeo announcer who took Hermanson’s seminar in November last year. “There is quite a learning curve from someone standing there helping you versus doing it on your own.”

Wise said he found Hermanson’s seminar after a Google search for saddle makers.

Wise drove from Texas to Las Cruces for Hermanson’s five-week seminar, staying on site in a bunk house for students.

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Wise said he still reaches out to Hermanson as he begins to work on his first saddle.

“I have been in the leather business on the side for a long time and I wanted something to take it to another level,” Wise said.

“What I really wanted to get out of it was a basic idea of how to build a saddle. One of my main concerns was that I could never get the ground seat in right. People never see it, but it’s a very important part of a saddle.”

While Hermanson’s passion remains on teaching others, he remains busy building saddles. 

His saddles range from a basic setup for $2,250 through $10,000, which was a saddle for a Western pleasure competition.

“It’s kind of like the fashion show of horse riding,” Hermanson said. “It was mostly high-end silver on it with gold inlay. You can get a lot higher than that, but nobody uses them.”

Hermanson was close to building a saddle for actor Robert Duvall, but never got the go ahead. He has built saddles for Roy Yates, who held the record for the longest slide in the reining discipline

“All of the different disciplines require different things,” Hermanson said. “Team ropers don’t want a bunch of swing in their stirrups. They will stand up and shoot and they want to have more stability. For cutters, they want really narrow fenders, so they have to have more freedom of movement. Reiners want a seat where they can stay in the saddle.”

Even during a time where business has slowed, Hermanson will still talk potential customers out of a sale if their horsemanship skills aren’t up to par. 

“A lot of times I will tell them not to put this much money into a saddle because you don’t need it right now,” Hermanson said. “They could have buyer’s remorse because they aren’t ready for it. You want to treat people with respect, but you also want to help that person get to the next level.”

Jason Groves can be reached at jgroves@lcsun-news.com or @JPGroves on Twitter.

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The Humane Organization Representing Suffering Equines (H.O.R.S.E. of Connecticut) will hold a two-day tack sale Saturday and Sunday, Jan. 30 and 31, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 43 Wilbur Road.
The event will benefit the organization’s many rescues and to help with feed, veterinary and farrier costs. Among items available will be new and lightly used saddles, both English and Western, bridles, various weight blankets, saddle pads, chaps, boots and helmets, all sold at a portion of original costs.
Social distancing and masks are required.
Those unable to attend but who would like to make a donation, visit horseofct.org or call 860-868-1960.

One of the horses on site at the H.O.R.S.E. of Connecticut’s grounds in Washington, Conn.

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CARMEL — Danna Burns Shaw, a fifth-generation owner of Burns Saddlery divides her time between Carmel and Utah, where more than 50 artisans engage in old-school craftsmanship of equestrian products.

“We’re trying to keep the traditional skillsets alive,” said Burns Shaw. “Senior artisans train younger ones in saddle-building and, on the fashion side, in custom hats, boots, buckles — the accessories that represent the spirit of the west.”

On New Year’s Eve, 1993, Burns Shaw, who has lived in the equestrian culture her whole life, established Blackhawk Arena, the ultimate all-season equestrian event center in Salina, Utah, a venue where youth and adults develop and showcase skills.

“As the community became more involved, we started putting on bigger equestrian events of all kinds,” she said. “We knew, as we continued to grow, that we needed to shift from manual to online entry and event tracking systems.”

System Saddle-Up

Through mutual friend, the Hon. Julie Culver, a judge for the Monterey County Superior Court, and an accomplished equestrienne, Danna Burns Shaw met Paul Hanson of Carmel Valley, who had an idea for a cloud-based mobile solution for event management.

“Paul and I sat at il Fornaio in Carmel to brainstorm the different needs of equestrian sports, and the potential for an online system that could serve us,” said Burns Shaw. “I was so excited about Paul’s openness, his energy and spirit; I just wanted to lock arms and create something with him. It was exciting to consult with Paul on something that could help our events management.”

Hanson went on to create “Saddlebook,” an online system that receives, organizes and helps manage all entries, schedules, and results for equestrian events, anywhere and anytime.

“Saddlebook enables you to promote your event, receive entries and payments, manage your show-day schedule, and publish scores and results, all in one place,” said Hanson, CEO of the company. “Our mission is to allow riders to spend more time with their horse, by making it easier for them to enter an event, see results, and share them with their followers. Event producers are usually riders who can’t compete because of administration efforts. Now they can ride in their own event.”

With the facility of Saddlebook, Burns Shaw has been able to build her event roster, including an “Xtreme Million” barrel race, principally for women.

“We never had a system strong enough to support our vision to host big events, which typically have a lot of moving parts,” she said. “We had more than 1,000 entries to the Xtreme Million, and Paul was there to help us manage it. He listens, he understands, and he’s very intelligent—a perfect fit for us.”

Burns Shaw facilitated an introduction between Hanson and her daughter, Destiny Crane, a sixth-generation member of the Burns equestrian dynasty, who worked with Hanson to customize the Saddlebook program to suit their events.

“Destiny understood the bones of what we needed, and Paul knew what needed to happen on the tech side of it,” Burns Shaw said. “It’s a big network, which not only captures the history of an event but what’s happening during an event. I can go to Saddlebook and see who’s running and the standings, in real-time, which is phenomenal.”

The Saddlebook name references Facebook, yet is customized to bring “saddles” together. It doesn’t matter what kind of saddle you’re throwing on your horse, says Burns, Saddlebook will support what you’re doing.

Horse heritage

Wandering into Burns Saddlery on Ocean Avenue in Carmel is like going into an art gallery for the equestrian world. Spend a moment admiring the artisan-made belt buckles, the bison boots, custom cowboy hats, apparel and hand-built saddles and you either feel at home or like you’ve fallen into a whole new wonderland. Slip on a cowboy hat and you’re practically in the saddle.

Founded in 1876 by patriarch Miles Lamonie Burns, a revered cowboy, fine-leather craftsman, blacksmith, and musician, Burns Saddlery is the oldest same-family-owned western retail business in the world.

For 145 years, Burns, based in Salina, has had six different shop names and six generations of ownership, but one family, one legacy, one culture: cowboy. And cowgirl.

Danna Burns Shaw will always remember that her grandfather, Vern Burns, kept a stable of workhorses on the ranch. He used to tell her his horses made more money than he did because they did all the work.

“A workhorse is a real thing, the original horsepower that made the west,” she said. “He is such a revered animal, this big useful horse. My father’s love of the horse focused, instead, on racehorses — quarter horses and thoroughbreds. He competed in riding clubs.”

When Burns Shaw was young and participating in riding clubs, herself, she did some arena-style competing, but her true love has been going up into the mountains of Red Rock to trail ride.

“Different things trigger our adrenaline at different times,” she said, “and I’ve moved off the need for speed.”

What’s great about equestrian sports, says Burns Shaw, is that kids can start riding very young. They learn about responsibility, confidence, and character, which is always mirrored in the horse.

In the saddle

For seven years, Sheanna DeForest has produced the annual Ashley’s Journey Barrel Bash, and this was the first year she used Saddlebook. Last year, her computer crashed during the event, and it took two days for her to manually recover all event information.

“I love, as a contestant, that we can go online to enter our own information and then, throughout the event, we can look to see who’s winning what event, where we’re placing, and how much money we’re projected to win. But, as a producer, I love that Saddlebook is accessible on any device that has Internet access. If my computer crashes again, I can log onto my iPad or iPhone, and everything’s right there.”

Ashley’s Journey Barrel Bash, hosted by the Salinas Valley Fairgrounds in King City, is a celebratory event in memory of DeForest’s best friend, Ashley Marie Escobar who, at 26, lost her life to a rare cancer in 2013, after a fierce and fast six-month battle. Which also was the way she ran barrels, DeForest says.

“I produce this two-day event with Ashley’s family,” she said. “This year, we had 450 contestants per day in men’s, women’s, youth (17 and under), and peewee (8 and under) classes, plus a Futurity class for horses (5 and under), who have never competed.”

With 1,100 runs for the weekend, that’s a lot of information to record. Saddlebook makes it easy, says DeForest, who will work with Paul Hanson and his daughter, Naomi Hanson Hernandez, to use the program again in May, when she produces the “Lazy Spade Challenge” in Red Bluff.

“Equestrian events are such a healthy thing for the community,” said Hanson.“And now, through Saddlebook, we have a way to facilitate these events. I believe in getting outside the box, but sometimes that means starting inside the box to figure out what it is before we can get out and make something of it. It’s going to be fun to see how far we can go with Saddlebook.”

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AUBURN, Ala. – The Western corps of the Auburn equestrian team had a successful summer away from the Plains.
 
Representing the Tigers all over the country was fifth-year senior Taylor Searles, seniors Ellie Becker and Rachel Hoopman, sophomores Jacqueline Frimodt, Olivia Marino and Madison Parduhn and freshman Jenna Chiarella.
 
Searles, of Scottsdale, Ariz., had big summer in Las Vegas and Oklahoma. At the Summer Celebration in Las Vegas (July 1-11), she was named champion in four categories – Level 3 Amateur Western Pleasure Circuit, Amateur Western Riding Circuit, 3-year-old Non-Pro Western Pleasure Futurity and 3-year-old Non-Pro Hunter Under Saddle Futurity. In addition, Searles had a Top 5 placing in the Level 3 Amateur Horsemanship.
 
At the 2021 NSBA World Championship in Tulsa (August 12-22), Searles earned reserve champion in BCF 4–6-Year-Old Limited Non-Pro Hunter Under Saddle. She also took home bronze in Amateur Western Riding, Amateur Hunter Under Saddle and BCF 3-Year-Old Intermediate Non-Pro Western Pleasure.
 
Becker kicked off her summer with a reserve champion showing in Amateur All Around at the APHA Zone 2 show (May 26-30). In addition, she was earning finalist in Western Pleasure and Hunt Seat Equitation.
 
The Bellevue, Washington product capped her time away from Auburn with a fourth-place finish in Amateur Color Trail and fifth in Amateur Color Western Riding at the NSBA competition in Tulsa.
 
Hoopman (Coeur d’Alene, Idaho) also competed at the NSBA show, riding in Novice Amateur Trail.
 
Frimodt earned a world champion title this summer, competing at the National Appaloosa Show in Tulsa (July 26-August 1). She took home the world crown in Non-Pro Bareback Horsemanship.
 
Marino was busy at the Tennessee Reining Horse Association show in Murfreesboro, May 13-16. The Birmingham product was co-champion in Novice Horse Level 2 and Limited Non-Pro. She picked up a pair of reserve champion titles in Intermediate Non-Pro and Level 2 7 & up. Marino earned Top 10 finishes in a handful of other categories at the three-day competition.
 
Parduhn traveled to Oklahoma City for the AQHYA World Championship Show (July 28-August 4) and secured a fifth-place finish in Level 3 13-18 Hunt Seat Equitation.
 
Chiarella joined Searles and Becker at The Celebration in Las Vegas, earning a Top 5 place in 14-18 Horsemanship L2/L3 and Trial L2/L3.
 

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