National Cavalry Competition Part I

Photo by City of San Angelo

The competition was held this year at Fort Concho in San Angelo, Texas from 30 September to 3 October. According to the host, the US Cavalry Association, about 70 competitors showed up. In addition to Fort Huachuca, teams from Fort Irwin, Fort Carson, and Fort Riley attended. Fort Hood, although a few hours away, was not able to send a team. However, both Great Britain and Australia sent teams.

The competition was better than it had been in previous years. Both Fort Irwin and Fort Carson sent impressive teams this year which had the affect of spreading out the awards between the military teams a little more evenly. Fort Carson sent a particularly strong team and managed to edge out the other military units in awards.

The drive over was brutal and we arrived late on Monday after a 13 hour drive and a blown tire along the way. The next morning I discovered that one of our horses, Cochise, had gone off his feed due to the trip and also wasn't drinking. Fortunately, we brought our vet team with us and they had a fully stocked vet truck with them. They began treating Cochise for a possible ulcer and kept him hydrated by pumping about nine gallons of water into him daily. He recovered after three days but was not usable for the competition. However, since we brought two spare horses, his rider was still able to compete--a crucial benefit to the team as it turned out.

The first day we were there we practiced on the parade ground at Fort Concho and got the horses acclimated to the environment. They were pretty jumpy at first but eventually calmed down--that is, except for the Wonder Horse--Apache just never settled down the whole week.

The second day we participated in the "School of the Soldier" taught by Ray Thomas and later some of our team members participated in the jumping clinic. It was hot that day but we got some good practice in.

On Thursday, the competition started with Military Horsemanship, Mounted Pistol, and the Major Howze events all occurring the same day. It made for a long day. Our team did pretty well though with a couple ribbons in horsemanship and a couple in pistol including first place finishes in both Level 2 and 3.

Apache and I completely bombed in horsemanship which I thought would be his strong event. We were fifth in the lineup but the third contestant was thrown off his horse requiring an ambulance to be called. In the subsequent delay, Apache became increasingly agitated. By the time we started he was almost completely useless. He entered the dressage area okay but did not stand during mounting and was unable to maintain the trot. He constantly tried to speed up and when we went to the canter, he busted out of the area and we were eliminated. After that I didn't see any point in entering into the pistol competition. On some days it just takes two hands to control Apache.

In the late afternoon, we traveled to a nearby state park for the Major Howze competition. I'm guessing the route was about six miles long. The trail was much flatter than the one we rode in Nebraska the previous year. Once again, we were joined by a couple of riders from Fort Irwin as we did not have enough riders for a full team. The ride began in a wooded area with a narrow trail winding in and out of the trees. I managed to bang my knee on at least one tree before I started using leg cues to bend around the trunks. The rest of the trail was pretty uneventful except for one portion that required walking the horses through a rocky pool of water. Fortunately, the Fort Irwin team had worked on getting their horses through water so we didn't have the problems we had the previous year.

After about 40 minutes we arrived at the target area. The targets were in a confined area and set close together. One of the target sets was placed in front of a tree. Our team leader set us up for the charge with a minimum of commands and we started our attack from what seemed like 100 feet out. I was concerned about being able to hold Apache in but he stayed on the bit all the way to the target. Because of the compactness of the target set and the tendency of the targets to blend into the background, I was not actually able separate out my targets until the last moment. I heard a lot of commotion to my left but resisted the temptation to look and stayed focused on my first target and watched with satisfaction as my blade penetrate into the bulls eye. As I rode through, the target collapsed toward the ground forcing me into a moulinet in order to withdraw the blade and prepare for the second target. Again, I watched the point sink into the bulls eye on the second target and I rode through without incident. Apache, to his credit, never wavered from his lane.

As we passed through to the other side, we reassembled and reformed to complete the event. I later learned that the commotion to my left had been caused by some of the riders being cut off during the charge. It seems that not everyone had held their lane causing confusion at the point of attack. In at least one case, one of our horses had gone right over the top of a target. Despite this, we had a fairly high kill ratio and our time was decent so we managed to get second place in this event.

It had been a long day but successful. The level of competition had been keen and that would not change for the rest of the week. I will summarize the rest of the competition results when able.