Kodiak’s annual rodeo and state fair is this weekend, Sep. 4-6. The event showcases the relationship between horse and rider in various sports, including calf roping and barrel racing. But there’s a new horse sport in town that tests not just horse and rider, but riders together as a team.
Horses whinny to each other from trailers and trucks even out the bumps in the gravel roads at the Kodiak Island fairgrounds. It’s a few days before the island’s annual Labor Day rodeo, and people and horses have arrived from all across Alaska to compete in pole bending, barrel racing, and more.
Among the many people here to practice for the event is the island’s new drill team.
Tatiana Vaudrin is one of the coaches for the drill team along with fellow coach Sylvia Cavanaugh. Vaudrin said this is the first year that Kodiak has had a drill team since 2010. Horse drill teams are made up of four or more pairs of horses and riders. Like dance drill teams, Vaudrin said horse drill teams perform a choreographed routine to a song of their choice.
Horse and rider pairs have to change gait and direction in time with the music and move in sync with everyone else on the team to make formations and patterns, sometimes while carrying props like flags.
There are several drill teams across Alaska, some of which got their start over a decade ago. Kodiak’s team of eight riders of all ages and their seven horses–plus one mule–just started practicing together in June. But Vaudrin said they’re showing promise.
“This group of ladies has been phenomenal to coach, and it's been really fun to watch from our first practice till now," Vaudrin said. "There's been a lot of growth and a lot of teamwork too.”
Being part of a team is new for most of the riders, like Naamah North. She usually competes in solo events, where she only has to focus on herself and her horse. North said learning how to move in sync with other horses and riders has been tough at times.
“Some of the horses are naturally slower paced, and then we have the other horses that are naturally faster paced," North explained. "You have to kind of time like the slower horses to be more on the inside, and the faster horses to be more on the outside.”
Still, she said the people have made it fun. Pretty much everyone on the drill team already knows each other, and many of them are pairs of mothers and daughters, or sisters. North practices alongside her sister Jael, and their mom Emily is also on the team. North said she’s a lifelong horse girl
“I got my first horse when I was eight, and then I haven't stopped riding since," she said. "I love it. It's my life. It's everything.”
The lifestyle doesn’t come without cost. Mariah Hiner has two daughters on the team. She said horses are expensive, especially in Kodiak. Most people import their horses from the lower 48, which can cost thousands of dollars on top of the purchase price. And looking after them once they’re here isn’t cheap either.
“The hay alone, compared to the lower 48, you're doubling it just getting it to the island,” Hiner said.
Still, she said it’s worth it to see her daughter’s dreams come true, and see the bonds they’ve developed with their horses.
"She can ask him to do different things, and from a viewer's eye, it looks like she's just sitting on the horse," Hiner said. "But it's just subtle movements that she knows how to ask him, and he listens, it's pretty incredible."
As practice winds down, there are still some kinks to iron out, and North has to take her horse out of practice early. Vaudrin said it’s been tough coordinating these practices on top of having a brand new baby. But she said she’s excited to see how the team grows.
“I think we're just starting back up on something that has the potential to to be something really cool and something that can maybe become a tradition," Vaudrin said.
The team ended up having to cancel their performances over the weekend because of some last minute difficulties. But Vaudrin said she’s proud of what the team accomplished in their first year, and excited to see what they’ll do next.
