Page 12 - Special Edition • Morrow County Fair and Rodeo • Heppner Gazette-Times, Wednesday, August 7, 2019
Popular Wild Horse Racing back again
Prepare yourself for the wildest event in rodeo
The popular wild horse
race will be back again at the
Oregon Trail Pro Rodeo Friday
and Saturday. For those who
haven’t experienced wild horse
racing it’s worth a trip just to
see the fun and excitement.
How it works:
A Wild Horse Race team
consists of three people, posi-
tions are known as shankman,
mugger and rider, and none
of the positions are any easier
than the other.
The event works like this:
The stock contractor loads
the chutes and the horses are
closed into individual chutes.
As soon as this is accom-
plished the contestants and a
representative draw numbers
from a hat. The number drawn
applies to the chute in which
they will put halters on their
horses. Halters are made of
heavy leather with sheepskin
lining to protect the horse from
injury. A team cannot win if the
horse is accidentally injured,
so it is important not to afflict
injury to the horse. Many of
the halters have leather handles
making it easier for the mug-
ger to get ahold of the halter
instead of grabbing the animal.
The lead shank is a maximum
length of 16 feet and made of
cotton/hemp or braided nylon.
Usually the shanks are 1” – 2”
in diameter. The shanks being
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of a large diameter decrease the
chance of injury to both animal
and contestant.
Now that all is ready, it’s
time for the excitement to be-
gin. The whistle is blown, the
chute gates are opened and the
spectators do not know which
way to look. Amongst all the
chaos, the shankman holds
the horse in a position so that
the mugger can move up the
shank and grab the horse by
the halter. The next moment,
the rider sets the saddle on
the horse and secures it by the
quick cinch. This cinch has a
quick release built in so that
it may be quickly removed if
a problem occurs. The rider
climbs aboard the horse and
stays on the horse until it
crosses a pre-designated finish
line. Most arena races have an
imaginary line between the
fence and a barrel. The finish
is approximately 30 – 35 feet
long. In arena races the win-
ning team usually crosses in
30-40 seconds, while other less
fortunate teams may take up
to the two-minute time limit.
Prepare yourself for the wildest
event in rodeo.
Shankman, mugger and rider work as a team. -File Photo.