By the last day it was obvious that I had caught some sort of virus. I had no events to ride in so I opted to be a photographer for the last day. The cavalrymen were all assembled for a last ceremony on the parade ground before the final events. They rode up from the horse barns in a column of fours and looked magnificent. I managed to get a few decent photos although the camera I had was not all that good. No one had a horse wreck this time and the whole ceremony came off well.
As I was taking photos I remembered an incident that had occurred during the opening ceremony two days earlier. As we were waiting for the ceremony to start the Wonder Horse decided to rub his head on his buddy Charlie to our right. Before I could snatch his head away he managed to get his bridle snagged on the link strap on Charlie's halter. The link strap has a little snap on the end of it so you can link horses together during dismounted fighting. Apache's head was now firmly attached to Charlie's head. Charlie's rider, Pete, saw what happened and calmly handed his saber to the rider to his right (we were at carry sabers at the time). As Pete tried to untangle the bridles, I spurred Apache forward to keep his head close to Charlie's. If Apache had pulled away both horses would have panicked. Pete managed to unhook the straps but then I noticed that Apache's bridle had pulled forward over his ears. Now it was my turn to pass my saber to Pete while I reached forward and hauled the bridle back onto Apache's head. I retrieved my saber from Pete just as we were ordered to move forward. It is amazing how much trouble you can get into while you're just sitting on a horse.
After the ceremony the troopers rode over to the arena and helped set up for the Bolte Cup competition. This competition is for the top riders in Level 3. They design a course that includes all three cavalry weapons--pistol, carbine, and saber. It involves an elaborate series of obstacles with targets scattered throughout. The first portion is composed of saber targets including one portion where the rider must attack a circle of targets with a burlap bag in the middle. The bag represents a wounded friendly trooper and you must not step on him with your horse while you're attacking the surrounding targets. After this the rider must ride his horse into a box marked out on the ground and dismount. He then picks up a carbine and shoots a target and remounts his horse without either of them stepping outside of the box. Next, the rider weaves through some poles, draws his pistol, and engages a series of balloon targets. It is very entertaining to watch and requires some decent riding skills. We managed to get one of our Level 3 riders into this competition but due to a pistol malfunction during his second run wound up in 8th Place. He otherwise would have placed much higher.
That evening we held the awards banquet where everyone is presented with their ribbons and we all find out who won the competition. We were also requested to be the color guard during this event and the guys looked magnificent as they posted the colors. We ended up with the following ribbons:
1st Place - Major Howze competition
1st Place - Indian Wars Period Authenticity
2nd Place - Level 2 Military Horsemanship
3rd Place - Level 2 Military Horsemanship
3rd place - Level 2 Mounted Pistol
3rd Place - Level 1 Field Jumping
It was not a bad showing given the level of competition this year. The overall winner was a re-enactor named Dick Ross who has been riding in these competitions for the past six years and won it all previously in 2005.
The next National Cavalry Competition will be held at Fort Concho near San Angelo, Texas in late September. Hopefully, we will be able to go again.
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