Independence Day

Waiting to start our demo

For the last ten years or so, celebrating the 4th of July has always meant riding a horse in Veterans Park in Sierra Vista.  B Troop is tasked each year to set up an encampment and deliver a proclamation to the city mayor during a noon-time ceremony.  The ceremony always features a 50-gun salute to each of the states and a fly over of F-16s.  It is a nice little ceremony and it attracts a lot of the local politicians and military dignitaries. 

The fly over

In the old days, our participation also featured pony rides for the kids.  For a small donation we would put kids up on the horses and walk them around in a circle.  I called it the "pony ride death march" as it was always very hot and walking around in the hot sun for four or five hours in a wool uniform was brutal.  However, we eventually learned that it was illegal for us to accept donations as are a military unit and then we had a couple of incidents with the children.  During one of the pony rides, a couple of our horses ran off with children clinging to the saddles.  Thankfully, no one was injured, but we decided after that to discontinue the pony rides. 

Dismounted fighting demo

This year we did our usual encampment and ceremony gig, but there were thunderstorms all around the valley so we had to pull out early.  We still managed to support the ceremony and then hung around for a while so every kid in town could come up and pet the horses.  We were literally surrounded and it was getting a little scary as the crowd surged forward.  Now I know what rock stars go through.