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The older kids also take the films “How the West Was seriously their role in keeping Won” and “Stagecoach.”The the younger riders safe. Brian Red Team performed for the Davis, an alumnus, remembers Summit of Eight in 1997. the time when he was acting as President Bill Clinton later said a safety spotter for a girl whose that the Westernaires were the foot slipped out of a strap highlight of the trip. that held her to her cantering The group hasn’t since horse as she did a back bend. performed for the leaders of She would have been dragged the Western World; the venues had Davis not raced out and change annually with the grabbed the horse. The girl exception of some standard, covered her head the way she’d ongoing engagements — the been taught, he remembers. National Western Stock Show, “It’s really rare, though, that for instance, where they first something goes wrong like performed in 1954, making this that,” he says. their 60th year. Once, however, something For McDaniel, sometimes the The varsity Big Red Team takes seriously its went nightmarishly worse. On smaller venues are the ones that role in keeping the younger riders safe. July 4, 1993, Katie Nielsen’s mean the most. “Marcus, Iowa, horse panicked and the girl was saved up for three years to get dragged to her death, her boot stuck in her stirrup. “That was us there, and the whole town treated us like royalty,” she says. one of the toughest times of my life,” says Keller. “Not a lot of teenagers get to experience something like that.” Bill Scebbi, executive director of the Colorado Horse Council Sonja Lawrence, an alum, found out about Westernaires when and a man who raised his own children with horses, believes the her sister, Sheena, came home from school one day, clutching risk is worth it. “The Westernaires are doing what we all need a Westernaires flyer and bawling. Sheena finally calmed down to be doing as individuals, in assisting kids in being all they can enough to tell her mother why she was crying. “I want to do this be,” he says. “Every state should have a youth program like the so bad but I know it will be too expensive,” she said. Westernaires. Every county and every city. You wouldn’t need Smart girl: Horses are expensive. horse rescue organizations if you had more of these programs. But their mother made the call and learned they didn’t have to It’s perfect for people who need a new home for their horse and own a horse and that the fees were affordable. it gives the benefits of a horse to kids whose families can’t own When Sheena made the elite Red Team, the girls’ father was one.” dying. Both girls were, as Sonja says, “distracted.” Sonja was The kids do love the horses. They also make lifelong friends a good horsewoman and was offered an early spot on the Red with other humans. Team. “Mr. Keller was so good to us,” she says. “And I ended up The Precisionettes, the team just below the Red Team, perbeing number one in the training class.” formed at the Breckenridge Rodeo last summer. They were fully Everyone hoped the girls’ dad would see his daughters ride in costumed, awaiting their grand entry, when the skies opened. the 2000 National Western Stock Show. Fate dictated otherwise; Afterward, they waited for their next event, a drill. “We were he died two days before their first performance. all soaking wet,” laughs Hollie Schuetz. “We really bonded over “We were both crying during that performance,” Sonja that.” Lawrence says. “The entire team was holding onto us, keeping us Davis, now a medical student at the University of Colorado, together.” was best man recently at his best friend’s wedding. That was a On a recent Saturday, Sonja watched as her 11-year-old son friendship welded together through the Westernaires. The group Skylar rode a tall horse in a class full of boys whose horses were changed his life in other ways as well, says Davis. “It builds trotting and running first in one direction and then another. character and self-confidence. You understand that you need to “Very different from girls,” she laughs. “Girls would all be in a both take responsibility and rely on yourself and your horse, but neat line.” also work as a team member.” Her 2-year-old, Colton, was collecting rocks at her feet, now Davis explains the Westernaires to people who aren’t familiar and then watching as the horses and the boys on them wheeled with the group by saying that it was like a high school sport — a by under the wide Colorado sky. sport that proved to be a winning subject for his essay for medi“I hope Colton will want to be part of the Westernaires too,” cal school admission. says Sonja. “Of course I do.” Those who aren’t familiar with the Westernaires are almost certainly not from Colorado, or even from the West: The group Kristen Hannum, a Colorado native, is a freelance writer and is that well-known. Hollywood even knows the Westernaires: editor who lives in Denver. They appeared in the television mini series “Centennial,” and in ColoradoCountryLife.coop January 2014 19