South County Pony Clubbers are currently practicing 16 different
games on horseback in preparation for their first Games Rally in
Santa Cruz County April 1.
South County Pony Clubbers are currently practicing 16 different games on horseback in preparation for their first Games Rally in Santa Cruz County April 1. The diverse paraphernalia on hand at the practices give something away as to the zany nature of the games: riders are required to dismount and step through hula hoops, transfer milk cartons to laundry baskets, and scoop trash off the ground, all at racing speed, of course.
One of the new games the team is learning involves a long dowel with a cross bar; the game is aptly named ‘sword.’ “You take a dowel and you ride along and flick the rings off the pole and then pass off the ‘sword’ to the next rider,” explained parent Anne SeCoy.
What could go wrong? Just about anything. Trainer Juliet Clarke takes pains to preempt game-day chaos by unmasking all possible errors. A rider could knock a pole down, miss the ring, grab two rings instead of one, weave around the wrong pole, or worse, and in most cases the mistake must be corrected before the team can move forward.
But who corrects the mistake, the incoming or outgoing rider? It depends. It always depends and that’s why Pony Clubbers spend so much time pouring over the manual and trouble shooting before the fact.
A favorite for team captain Shelby Sanders is the mug shuffle: mount your horse and ride down hard on a line of striped poles with mugs perched on top. Masterfully spear a mug on the end of your ‘sword’ and gracefully relocate it one pole down. Lovely. No wonder they have to practice so much.
