The Stampeders and A Dream

This post did not originally come with pictures. Let me explain why.

I spent approximately one and a half hours with my mouth somewhat agape, eyes widened, absorbing each and every word my hostess with the Stampeders, Jimmie Hurley, spoke to me as I watched some of the best horse riding I've ever seen. Granted, I am not an experienced horse-riding spectator, but even a townie-type girl that was born in New York would know that what she was seeing was superb. I did, and it was.

Before I located Jimmie, my favorite loyal assistant (my daughter) and I made our way into the arena. We were nervous about entering, because at the other arenas we'd been to, there were obviously different entrances for the horses, and for people minus horses. I'm not sure if we were expecting an alarm or something to go off, but we were timid about it. Finally a passerby named Lori told us to just 'go on in'. We followed her.

We found our way to some stadium seats, where there were several family members watching their riders. 'Lori' happened to be a trainer for one of the girl's horses, so I asked her several questions. Overhearing two other women sitting nearby that mentioned that the lights the horses wore weren't placed on them for the first time until the night before the performance, I became very curious. I couldn't imagine putting bright lights on an animal for the first time (in the dark, no less, that's what they perform in!)...and having it come out all right, injury-free. Did the horse...freak out? What happened? I leaned over to the women and called out over the noise of the galloping horses, "How do the horses do with the lights?" And they answered in a good-humored way, "We'll see!"

Later on I heard repeatedly from those around me was that there was generally not an issue with the lights... These horses, I assumed, were so well-trained (desensitized, they called it) that they did not have a violent reaction to the multitude of lights that were attached to both the horse and its rider. Bright lights right near the eyeballs seemed so unnatural to me, but the horses, from recent reports, didn't seem to mind much.

Getting settled in a bit more, we watched as the music began to play. It appeared that the horses were galloping to the actual beat of the song.Whether this was planned or not, I did not know but.... Wow.

It didn't take long for Jimmie Hurley to spot us from her platform, where she watched the rehearsals. She was off her stand and walking toward us before we knew it. We were about to be escorted to the best seats in the house...thrilling. Jimmie grinned and held out her hand as we approached. A slight woman with a warm smile, I liked her right away. This was the mastermind behind the first lighted horse drill team. I couldn't wait to ask her a whole lot of questions. I didn't have to wait long; but I also didn't have to do much asking. She offered a multitude of information without my prompting. She seemed anxious to share the origins of her brain-child, the Stampeders.

"How's this for a good seat?" Jimmie asked us as we got situated on the stand, next to her chair of honor. We were right near the coach, who was calling out over the PA system to the riders, and it was all so very... electric. I watched as riders criss-crossed right in front of each other with what I was sure would end in collision.I was temped to hide my eyes, not wanting to watch an accident. But there weren't any; not once. It was both worrisome and exciting to view, all at the same time. I found that although I was tense, I couldn't take my eyes off the horses and riders. I looked at my daughter to gauge her reaction. She said in a trance-like way, "I want to do that." I felt the same way, as if I were in a trance, watching this....horse ballet.

Then Jimmie began: "The Stampeders were created in 1997; the same year that the Snake River Stampede moved from the old green arena outside to the indoor Idaho Center. Because the Stampeders were something that had never been done before, we had to 'invent' ourselves. There were no other lighted horse drill teams to draw information from; this was un-chartered territory. She seemed to sigh as she looked at me and said, "I still can't believe it, even after all these years...that something I dreamed up has materialized in such a way, and has been going strong for fourteen years, now....to see my 'dream'...HAPPEN...is so neat...the places we've gone, the things we've accomplished..." She looked out fondly over the eighteen riders; sixteen team members and two alternates.

"These are my girls."

I had heard from one of the riders that the feeling was mutual; they all called her 'Mama Jimmie'. She told me that she is so proud of 'her girls'. So many of them have been rodeo queens, and have won awards. She said that just goes to prove that they have picked the 'cream of the crop' to join the Stampeders, year after year. When I asked how many practices she attends, Jimmie firmly stated, "All of them."

Jimmie explained that we were seeing working girls, college students, young mothers. Two of the riders were a mother-daughter set. I was wondering how soon, in her opinion, a woman could get back on a horse after giving birth. Jimmie laughed and said, "Pretty soon!" I wasn't sure if this was with or without a doctor's okay, but got the impression that a girl that loves to ride a horse that much will get back in the saddle just as soon as she can, childbirth or not. I wondered what the shortest break was for this that Jimmie knew of; but I didn't dare ask.I wondered if the answer would shock me.

I caught myself openly gawking at the choreographed formations. Snake-like lines in perfect curving motion. Solid lines suddenly splitting off, then re-joining just as suddenly. And they weren't just prancing around, these horses...they were galloping at moderate speeds, aimed right towards each other. It was right about then that Jimmie mentioned that the Stampeders had performed at the 2002 Olympics. I was not at all surprised.

I listened to the coach, Leslie Todd, calling out to the girls. Phrases whose meanings I could only guess at: "Knee-to-knee!" "Two-horse spaces!" "Keep your lines straighter!" "Push in, girls! Push, push, push!" "Remember your straight lines, right towards the center cones!"

I couldn't stand it; I had to know if there had ever been a collision. Jimmie answered in her gentle way, "Well...there have been horses that have slipped down. There have been lights that have gone out. But no collisions." I was amazed.

Over the coach's voice, Jimmie continued her tale. The first year, Jimmie told me, they used Christmas lights; and it was tough, with lots of wires breaking, and the dangerous 'black-outs' of both horse and rider while performing. Dangerous because the team performs in virtual darkness, and a blacked-out horse and rider were invisible to the others, up until they got close. Yikes.

Eventually, sturdier lights were found, and they developed a custom-made saddle bag to hold the battery packs. The light system, nowadays, is overseen by Tony Bussert, who the Stampeders call their 'Light Man'. He's been with them a long time; they depend on him. He's worked miracles for them over the years, troubleshooting and designing whatever Jimmie could come up with, and going with the Stampeders on all of their trips. He is, they say, the reason that they can just flip a switch, instead of the burdensome 'plugging in' of yesteryear. The way their lighting has evolved is the work of a keen engineering mind.

I asked Jimmie if she had been a former rodeo queen, like so many of her girls. She said no. I asked her if she rode. She laughed and said no. Perplexed, I asked her if she's EVER ridden.

"Oh, I've ridden a horse before, " she said humbly. I was still trying to understand how she got involved with something so....equestrian...if she really...wasn't. She looked at me with that humble grin and said, "I don't ride at all....I just dream." (I found out later that she'd written for some Western magazines, and had been asked to be the Snake River Stampede's publicist in 1977. She was now their Executive Secretary year-round, keeping things organized, paying bills, and doing some accounting.)

I was curious as to what Jimmie meant about the 'dreaming'....

She then gave me some examples.

It was the year of 9/11. Patriotism was running much higher than in years past. Jimmie, who had pulled several strings in recent years with a manager she knew to make sure her girls performed at the National Finals Rodeo, had them riding there again that year; something she was very proud of. (Truth be told, she had initially told that manager, Shawn Davis: "If you don't take them to the NFR, it's YOUR loss!")

He took them.

She'd wanted the event that year to be extremely memorable, a theme that would match the mood of a people that were newly re-examining the love and loyalty of their country..and licking their wounds from the unexpected and unprovoked attack of September eleventh on their homeland. We'd lost loved ones. Heroes had been made overnight. Now their sons, husbands, wives and daughters were donning military uniforms to protect and defend those they loved. This could be no ordinary year. This could be no ordinary performance.

"I could envision an American flag, waving in the wind, " she recalled, "and I could just picture it in my mind that way. So I called up Tony the Light Man, and I told him I wanted an American flag. He said that he could construct a solid rectangular frame, and attach some lighting to it, that shouldn't be too hard. But then I explained to him that this wouldn't do; I wanted it to....furl."

"---You want it to.....FURL?" Tony had repeated, as if he couldn't quite believe the latest request. No doubt he was already shaking his head at the engineering that this would require.

"Yes," said Jimmie, "...Like it's waving in the wind..."

I can only imagine the expression on Tony Bussert's face. But weeks later, a lone Stampeder, dressed in white and carrying that 'furling' American flag full of brilliant lights, rode into the arena of the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas. She had more lights on her than any other rider; the spotlight was right where it should be; on our nation's emblem, the American flag.

The music began. It was, of course, our 'other' unofficial National Anthem; Lee Greenwood's 'God Bless The U.S.A.'

More horses and riders followed, bathed in red lights, white lights, or blue lights. The girl carrying the furling flag was in a conspicuous corner, with the spotlight kept on her the entire time, as the riders did their galloping routines in the virtual darkness. I could practically hear the words, and see our country's proud colors in my mind: "And I'll gladly stand up....next to you and defend Her still, today. Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land.....GOD BLESS THE U.S.A."

Jimmie was looking at me intently, with that steady gaze of hers.

"People were crying," Jimmie said, and then: "They were given a standing ovation." She paused for a moment, probably re-living it in her mind once more. And then she grinned again and said simply, "That's what I do... I dream."

I was still in a trance-like state as my daughter and I shook hands heartily with Jimmie for sharing her story with us, thanking her for the generosity of her time. I was still thinking about twinkling lights and patriotism and the excitement of the horses running towards each other and....all of it. By the time the 'trance' started to wear off, and I began to come to my senses, I was pulling into my driveway at home. It was then that I realized I had not taken one single picture.

The reason? Pure and simple; I was in a trance...the one that all the spectators that have ever watched the Stampeders have fallen under. You must see this one for yourself.

The Stampede is calling you.

Visit http://www.snakeriverstampede.com/ to see pictures of this incredible, lighted, equestrian drill team.

Copyright (c) Amy Larson 2010. All Rights Reserved.