The Tarleton Stock Horse Team: Where perseverance is proven

BY BETHANY KILPATRICK

Multimedia Journalist

The cowboy lifestyle takes grit and determination, making it unfit for many. However, 21 Tarleton State University students choose it every day as members of the Tarleton Stock Horse Team.

Team members focus on developing their horsemanship abilities year-round to compete in diverse ranch-style competitions that require well-trained horses and capable riders.

The team primarily shows through Stock Horse of Texas, the oldest versatile stock horse association in the country, which offers a division for every skill level.

The team consists of competitive and non-competitive members and is led by head coach Bobbie Walton, assistant coach Teghan Brooke, President Bodie Vicars and four other student officers.

Vicars is a senior at Tarleton from Beeville, Texas. He contributes much to the team as president. He leads monthly team meetings, recruits new members and organizes events.

Sophomore Cooper Leather is from Wahoo, Nebraska, and is the vice president, as well as the risk management officer. Leather’s father is a horse trainer, and Leather plans to follow in his footsteps after he graduates.

“I grew up showing a lot of reining horses,” Leather said. “When I got to Tarleton, I joined the Tarleton Stock Horse Team and was introduced to cow work and more of the ranch-type performance for the stock team. It was a lot of new experiences.”

Leather explains that the competitive nature of the stock horse industry began as a simple pastime among cattlemen.

“The shows are broken up into four different competitive events,” Leather said. “All four competitive events were founded on cowboys who got together and wanted to show off their horses to see who had the best horse. That’s how all of those foundations have been started within the horse community.”

The four events are ranch pleasure, ranch trail, ranch training and cow work.

Ranch pleasure focuses on smooth transitions and completing patterns, while ranch trail focuses on the versatility of the horse’s ability to complete ranch duties.

Ranch training includes riders completing drawn-out patterns that involve many maneuvers. Cow work varies the most from the other categories.

“There are three different divisions you can be in,” Leather said. “There is boxing, drop box drive and fence work. You have to demonstrate to the judge how you can work that cow to the best of your ability. Each cow is different; it depends on how you work that cow.”

While rodeo events are scored based on  time, stock horse shows focus on the performance of the horse and its rider rather than how quickly the event is completed.

There are currently nine competitive members on the team; however, only four will be selected to represent Tarleton.

“When we go to a show, you can have as many members of the team show there,” Leather said. “But the coach will choose four competitive members of that team. And those four scores go together, and so those four scores will represent Tarleton.”

Vicars’ goal for the team this year is to win the national title at the show in Amarillo, Texas.

“Four years ago, my freshman year, we were half a point away from being national champions,” Vicars said. “I want to win. You get a national championship title, and there is a trailer that you get if you win, too.”

Before the team travels to Amarillo, the first goal is to perform successfully in Bryan-College Station, Texas, at their first competition of the season on Sept. 25-28.

In preparation for the upcoming season, the team collectively practices every Tuesday and Thursday night at the Tarleton Agriculture Annex, in addition to individual time spent training.

Faye Klenda, secretary for the team, is a junior at Tarleton from Fort Morgan, Colorado. The current season marks her second year on the team; however, she has been showing her whole life.

While each athlete competes individually, all team officers are in agreement that the team performs best when working together.

“It can be a very individual sport if you want to make it individual, because we all get judged individually,” Klenda said. “But the biggest part of the stockhorse team is having that team aspect, making friends and being a tight-knit group.”

In addition to competing, team members also partake in additional events such as assisting in the Four Sixes Ranch’s Remuda Sale, participating in Bridles and Brains in Fort Worth, Texas, as well as hosting clinics to instruct younger competitors.

The most recent event the team took part in was assisting in the Hoppin’ in Hamilton show in Hamilton, Texas. The stock show was not a collegiate show through Stock Horse of Texas, but the team came to assist in its operation.

“We were just running around helping our coach, Bobby Walton, who was organizing the whole thing,” Klenda said. “We were just helping out, and we get half of the profit from the show for this semester and next semester to fund our shows.”

Regardless of one’s prior knowledge of the sport, all Tarleton students are encouraged to consider becoming a member if interested.

“Anyone who wants to come, we’re always open arms to them, and that can be someone who has never been into horses,” Leather said. "We have had members in the past who come straight from the city, and over time, they developed and have come to love this industry and lifestyle.”

With a busy and exciting year ahead of them, the team is ready to work hard and represent Tarleton to the best of their ability.

“It’s not easy,” Klenda said. “We take it very seriously, and we are very proud of what we do, but we also have a lot of fun doing it.”