Cera Kem, Larissa Bjornsen and Jessalyn Seiber placed first among 33 teams in team penning at Sweet Home’s first districtwide equestrian competition, held Friday and Saturday at the state fairgrounds.
Overall, Coach Billie Bjornsen said, she thinks the Huskies were in the top three teams at the event.
The Huskies also placed a second team, Traci Smith, Jessica Blankenship and Rochelle Zamacona, ninth in team penning.
Seiber placed fourth of 40 in individual flags.
Kem placed sixth of 73 in pole bending.
Larissa Bjornsen placed third of 69 in figure eight.
Bjornsen and Seiber finished second of 52 teams in “birangle,” a timed race event, while Zamacona and Kem finished eighth.
Kem placed eighth of 56 in showmanship.
In Canadian flags, a series of flag movements, Kem, Blankenship, Larissa Bjornsen and Seiber placed sixth of 22 teams.
Larissa Bjornsen placed seventh among 63 competitors in the keyhole event.
In drill, Kem, Larissa Bjornsen, Seiber and Meisha Carlin finished fourth of seven teams.
“Right now, we look really good, right in the top three if they keep going the way they’re going,” Billie Bjornsen said of her team. “They worked really good as a team, and they communicated.
“It really showed in team penning.”
The team hasn’t practiced team penning much this year, Bjornsen said. Rather, the Huskies just put in the girls who did it last year, and they explained the event and worked with the second team on the event.
The team’s horses were getting tired by the time they ran drill Saturday night, Bjornsen said. “I think we just need to condition our horses and get them prepared for it.”
The Huskies are strong in the gaming events, she said, and Kem is strong, adding team points, in showmanship and equitation.
“In timed events, we just need to get a little faster,” Bjornsen said, but “overall as a team, they really pulled together and did an awesome job.”
The team had a lot of parent support, Bjornsen said. That was a big plus, and she offered her thanks for it “because I couldn’t do it by myself.”
The Huskies will attend their next districtwide meet at the state fairgrounds on March 28 and March 29.
They will attend the state competition, which will include the top 10 percent of riders in each event, in Redmond in May.