Scott Swanson
Of The New Era
With one regional competition under their belts, things are looking good for the Sweet Home equestrian team as they head into a new season, says Coach Teri Rush.
Rush, a 2004 Lebanon graduate who has served as Sweet Home Rodeo Queen, competed for Lebanon as an equestrian for four years, qualifying for state and serving as captain for three years. In her first year at the helm for Sweet Home, she takes over for Billie Bjornsen, who is serving as an adviser to the team this year.
“Billie takes care of all the paperwork,” Rush said. “I get to deal with just coaching kids, which is kind of nice. I think Billie has the more stressful job.”
The Huskies return four team members from last year’s team, which earned reserve champion in the small teams division at state. Sweet Home’s season consists of three regional meets, all held at the state fairgrounds in Salem, and, if they qualify, the state finals in Redmond.
Back are juniors Cera Kem and Larissa Bjornsen, who are co-captains of this year’s team, along with Tracy Smith and Vance Wolfe, also juniors.
New this year are freshman Rochelle Zamacona and junior Kyle Dauley.
Equestrian competitions include five individual event that range from English and western showing to gaming , which includes barrel racing, roping and team penning – all speed events
Riders compete in five individual events, and their points add up in a team trophy competition.
Rush acknowledged that it’s unusual to have two boys on a small team such as Sweet Home. Generally, she said, equestrian teams are about 90 to 95 percent female.
She said that Dauley joined the team to learn more about horses, since he has one.
“This is his first year of competing at any level,” she said. “He’s already learned so much from the experience. You can see a difference in his riding.”
Dauley also participates in another sport – track and field – which means he has a busy spring.
Kem is one of three juniors back for their third year. She competes in western showmanship, gaming and team penning.
Bjornsen, another third-year team member, competes in all gaming events.
“She has a really fast little horse that she rides,” Rush said. “She’s riding her sister’s equestrian team horse, which is exciting because the horse has done it before.”
Also back for a third year is Smith, who specializes in gaming, team penning and reining, a show event that is faster than most of the other showmanship events.
Wolfe took last year off, she said, but is back to concentrate on gaming and cow events.
Zamacona is “trying a little bit of everything,” Rush said – gaming, showing and team penning.
“She and Kyle are just learning from scratch. She wants to learn everything and anything she can about horses, which is really neat.”
In their first competition, last weekend, the Huskies scored in the top 10 percent, which is what they need to do in each of the next two if they want to make it to state in May.
Kem did “really well,” Rush said, taking fourth place in the stock seat western riding class, which is “competitive.”
Wolfe finished in the top 10 percent with a fifth place in keyhole, a timed event, which, Rush said, “was really good, considering he wasn’t even supposed to be in that class. He got switched in at the last minute.”
Smith and Bjornsen both finished in the top 10 percent in individual flags, an event where riders have to retrieve a flag and drop it in a barrel – within 10 seconds.
“We did really well last weekend,” Rush said. “We got a lot of top-10 finishes, which is really good.”