Round pen shootout will showcase horse training abilities
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RONAN — Don’t ride it if it ain’t broke might be a better cliché for the round pen shootout this weekend, where three young horse trainers are each fixin’ to take an unbroken colt and within two days, ride the horse through an obstacle course.
The event showcases what trainers do, and will be held at the Lake County Fairground arena Friday and Saturday evening, Aug. 9 and 10.
The competition begins with three foals, all unstarted, who have never had a saddle on, nor have they gone through any pre-training or desensitizing.
“(The horses) might be halter broke, and have been touched a bit, but they have no other formal training,” explained organizer Ashley Schweigert of the Rocky Mountain Breeders Association.
The competitors draw for their choice, and pick the colt they want to start. Day one is spent in the round pen, desensitizing the equine.
“Everybody uses different props: ropes, flicker, buckets, tarps, whatever they have in their arsenal to desensitize and train the horse to accept the saddle and accept the rider,” Schweigert said. “They all need to learn ‘go,’ ‘turn,’ ‘stop’ before they can go on.”
On the second day, the trainers ride the foals in the arena, and work them through an obstacle course that includes an arched wooden bridge, a rope gate, and ground and standing poles.
The trainers must also be able to rope a barrel while riding the colt.
“It’s basic horsemanship. From there, they can go on and learn different disciplines. Some will become a cutting or reining cow horse, or just a ranch horse, or a pleasure horse, or used for barrel racing, rodeo events, or a show horse,” Schweigert explained.
This year’s two-year-old colts will come from Terry Pitts’ ranch in Dixon.
“They’re very well bred: two fillies and two geldings,” she said. “They are evenly matched to each other for an even playing field.”
In addition to the three trainers and colts, a fourth trainer and horse stand by as alternates, should one of the first three not be able to continue in the competition.
This year, the “young guns” will be in the spotlight. All competitors are from Ronan.
• Levi Guenzler, 24, has been training horses for nine years, mostly on the family ranch. Levi also rodeos, competing in steer wrestling and roping.
• Levi Walchuk, 23, won all around cowboy at state high school rodeo in 2009. Levi has been training horses for eight years, and spent most of last year in Texas working for a cutting horse trainer.
• Josh Senecal, 28, was raised on a ranch in Avon but has trained horses on a Ronan ranch for the past three years. Josh has been training horses for six years.
• Trent Metzger, 24, is the alternate. He has been starting colts for about a year.
The round pen shootout has three goals. At the heart of it, it’s a competition between three trainers; but watchers can learn why they do what they do to teach the colt. The event also promotes the trainers to help get their names out there, explained Schweigert.
The event begins Friday at 6:30 and includes an opening ceremony and a fundraising Calcutta where members of the audience can bid on who they think will win the competition. For five years, the Rocky Mountain Breeders Association has organized the event, and the Calcutta helps offset expenses.
At 10 a.m. Saturday, the association will put on various riding clinics. The round pen shootout continues at 6 p.m., when the trainers will ride their freshly-broken colts through the obstacle course, and awards will be presented. The trainers are competing to split a purse of $2,000 plus additional awards, including a belt buckle.
Following the awards, a meet and greet offers an opportunity for viewers to talk to the young trainers.
This year’s judges include Dick Vrooman of Proctor, Blake Nuffer of Ramsey and Gene Hayes of Missoula. Announcers are Reed Tobel and Jim Eli.
“Reed is one of the big farmers here in Ronan, and knows these (competitors), so there will be a lot of harassment for these guys,” Schweigert said with a chuckle.
Although there are “a lot of really great female trainers” out there, they have yet to compete in Ronan’s round pen shootout, according to Schweigert.
Organizers are still looking for sponsors and advertising, and vendors who want to pay a small fee for a booth to sell their home-based products or services.
For more information, call Ashley Schweigert at (208) 861-6811.
