The North Topeka Saddle Club welcomes horse lovers to develop their skills
It’s been a decade since Natalie McCrary last competed in a horse race, but July 9 was the right time to get back in the saddle.
“Riding has always been in my blood,” she said. “I’ve always had a horse.”
But it wasn’t really her race that got her there.
Joslyn, her three-year-old daughter, was in charge of the reins as she rode around her Quarter Horse.
The duo attended a game night at the North Topeka Saddle Club, 7341 NW Topeka Blvd., where they had the opportunity to hone their skills alongside other riders.
“To see her on the horse and to have the opportunity to go out here and practice barrel racing is just really special to me,” McCrary said.
A labor of love
As Jason Stoneking, president of the Saddle Club, told the Capital-Journal last week, there is a lot of work involved in maintaining an outdoor arena.
“It’s one of the most beautiful outdoor arenas here in northeast Kansas,” he said.
Stoneking took over the position in January.
“My father-in-law was co-president of the Saddle Club here for many years,” he said, “and I wanted to keep it that way.”
Stoneking says the club was founded in the late 1950s or early 1960s as a meeting place for families to socialize, ride together and improve their riding skills.
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“It’s all volunteer,” he added. “We’re a 501c nonprofit and it takes a lot to keep it running.”
Most nights when the club has an event, you can find Stoneking tackling obstacles on and off the arena floor, either smoothing the surface with his tractor or leading other volunteers – including his wife Christy and daughter Laykin – through the evening.
The club organizes this relaxed practice evening for riders of all ages every first Tuesday of the month from May to September, weather permitting.
Tina Cramer, board member and secretary of the Saddle Club, was responsible for the announcements, timing the riders and recording the points.
“We have 12 different events,” she said. “Some of them are the usual pole bending and barrel racing, and some are absolutely weird things we found.”
Cramer came with her 21-year-old daughter Danali, who has been competing and riding for the club since she was a child.
“It’s as formative as the place where I grew up,” said Danali Cramer.
“Some of my fondest memories are with my friends when I was riding my little pony, which was about this size,” she added, pointing to its size.
In the outdoor arena, she learned to develop her skills and build a bond between rider and horse, which led to her winning riding scholarships to Cloud Community College and becoming a competitive rider in the Extreme Cowboy Association.
“This applies to all horse events: show jumping, lassoing, working with cows, bridges, barrel patterns and things like that,” said Danali Cramer.
Practice, practice, practice
For anyone who wants to learn to ride well, time in the saddle is the most important thing.
For 12-year-old Charlotte Williams, the relaxed atmosphere was just right.
“I’ve never cantered before,” she said of her horse named Dallas. “I feel like when I barrel, like in a real show, I have to canter, but here I can just trot.”
Charlotte traveled from Hoyt with her parents Sarah and Matt Williams and met up with their friend Kristy Caughron, who has been coming here since she was a child and continues to come to practice and build confidence in younger riders.
“I think that’s super important because it gives the younger kids a chance to get involved and not feel any pressure,” Caughron said. “So if something happens, they can start over. That way there’s no pressure on the kids.”
Fourteen-year-old Abby Capes could relate to this as she worked between events to train her new mustang pony named Avalanche – Ava for short.
“I got her untrained last May and have been training her for a while now,” Capes said, scolding Ava for trying to bite a Capital-Journal reporter’s camera.
Capes started riding at age 8 after her neighbors introduced her to it. After leasing a horse for a year, she saved her own money to buy Ava and all the necessary equipment.
“Our family hasn’t always had horses,” she said, “so this is all new to us.”
Capes’ mother, Ariel Unselt, said that without the Saddle Club and access to the training facility, purchasing a horse would not have been an option.
“If we hadn’t just asked questions and made it clear, like, ‘Hey, we’re new here. We don’t know anything, but she wants a horse,’ and that’s how we found Ava,” Unselt said.
The fact that she ran after Ava for days without being able to catch her and then learned to organize a barrel race on the Mustang was a testament to her talent, she added.
“Compared to what she accomplished just over a year ago,” she said, “it’s incredible. And she did all the training on her own.”
Not her first rodeo
In addition to the monthly game nights, the Saddle Club hosts weekly team roping nights on Thursdays at 7:00 p.m., weather permitting.
“It’s an opportunity for the guys to get together, go out, lasso and have fun,” said Kim Vann, committee chair of the Big 94.5 Country Topeka PRCA Rodeo, which has been hosted by the Saddle Club one weekend in August since 2012.
Many of the Thursday night participants work on ranches or are professional rodeo cowboys looking to perfect their craft.
The skills acquired in team roping require tremendous concentration, balance and technical ability that are applicable to real-world situations.
“They’re out there treating livestock and everything,” Vann said. “They lasso the animals and treat them the same way, decapitate them and heal them, stretch them out and that’s how they can treat them.”
Vann, a former lasso team pro, stood at a cattle gate to release a mix of steers with Saddle Club President Stoneking.
“A lot of people don’t realize how hard lassoing is,” Vann said. “These guys make it look as easy as they do it, but it’s actually pretty hard.”
When Vann and Stoneking had released an ox from the hunt, the riders stood ready, one on each side.
Troy Callaway of Maple Hill started as a header position to the left while Lois Terrazas of Gardner worked as a heeler to the right. Callaway’s first quick move secured the head to control the steer’s movement while Terrazas followed with a throw to the back to hold him in place.
The team completed the drill quickly. Callaway and Terrazas have been doing this since they were young, and Callaway is a rider in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association.
“It’s very important to have a facility like this because it gives everyone the opportunity to get away from home and train with their horses,” Callaway said.
Saddle Club allows local 4-H and FFA clubs to use the arena free of charge
The club also offers its arena free of charge to local 4-H and FFA clubs.
This year’s Big 94.5 Country Topeka PRCA Rodeo will take place on August 23 and 24.
For more information about the Saddle Club, visit their Facebook page and website.
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