By Pat Hammert/Staff Writer

Horses and young riders from Canadian County brought home drill team gold recently at national competition held in Canton, Texas.

Freedom Riders, a group of 25 youth ages 8 to 18, took three national championships in the youth amateur, open drill and adult-youth mixed color guard competition, said coach Betty Baker of Mustang.

“They were competing sometimes against about 15 other teams in the competition,” Baker said. Horse and rider synchronizing their movements around the ring is a sight to watch, she said.

A crowd favorite in the youth open division is when eight riders, carrying official-size American flags, move as one around the arena.

“Carrying flags. And that’s pretty hard to do on horseback and hold them up straight,” Baker said.

The youngsters, from Piedmont, El Reno, Yukon, Newcastle, Oklahoma City and Mustang, practice once a week 11 months out of the year, either at Cedar Springs in Mustang or the Yukon rodeo arena.

“You wouldn’t believe how hard they work. But they just do it because they love horses and they love to ride,” she said.

Freedom Riders belong to Canadian County 4-H that provides sponsorship, but contests and shows are expensive and what time the youth aren’t practicing they are fund-raising. Throughout the year, the group sells pre-cooked pork products and a raffle is under way now.

Motel, entries fees and boarding a horse for a three-day event can add up, particularly when an entry fee can be as much as $100 and a horse stall $45 a night.

But the money, time and energy paid off as the team came home from Canton with national championship trophies and arms full of ribbons, flags and a little prize money, she said.

A crowd-pleaser was horse and rider prancing to the theme from “Dirty Dancing.” For that presentation, the team earned a third place in the theme division and fifth place in the grand national class. In the youth color guard competition, the “Dirty Dancing” team earned second place.

Also, Pony Express, a newly formed component, was named national champion in the youth novice division and in the 12-and-under color guard class. The team also took the national champion-ship in the theatrical theme class with a tribute to Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical “Oklahoma!” When horse and rider present the drill to “Oklahoma!,” half the team is cowboys and the other half farmers.

“You can look at their faces when they’re doing their drills in contest and they have the biggest smiles,” Baker said. The coach said she’d “been around drills for 40 years,” as a member and later coach of the Canadian Valley Rangerettes.

She said people should not miss out on a chance to see the teams perform their winning drills on Friday and Saturday at the Yukon Rodeo.
New members are always being recruited.

“There are horse clubs in the county for kids but they are for the ones who have show-quality horses. This club is for kids with ‘plain ole’ horses that they just love to ride,” Baker said.