Riding bareback

Shakopee Valley News

As his sons paint the horses before the upcoming race, Richard Long Feather is hoping for a better outcome.

It’s the second night of three for the Indian Horse Relays at Canterbury Park. Last night, on Thursday, the team did OK. The negative moment that sticks in Long Feather’s head is when a woman crossed the track when she wasn’t supposed to, after the flag was dropped and the horses were sprinting down the track.

Luckily, the riders were able to pull away the horses in time.

“I’m hoping nothing like that (happens),” he said.

Long Feather is from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in North Dakota and South Dakota — yes, that Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.

The annual Indian Horse Relay is invitational only, and it’s the second year for his team. He’s the captain.

It’s a family affair. Long Feather is at the relays with his wife and two biological sons and a son he’s raising. He was taught to ride horses bareback by his grandparents, who raised him and taught him the Lakota language. He’s one of the last fluent speakers in his tribe.

In turn, he taught his sons to race, and they are now the riders for the team in the relays. They’re the ones painting the horses for later this evening, with dots around the eyes and feathers on the flank. Some of the paint is neon green, the team color.

Native life is hard, Long Feather said. Horse racing helps keeps his sons and other youth from the pitfalls many others fall into by giving them something to do.

“If you don’t find them some fun with the horses they lose track — they go to drugs, they go to alcohol,” Long Feather said. “We don’t want that. For myself, I do want to try and better our young and create a better living with the horses and relay racing.”

Besides being fun, horse racing is exciting. The teams go three times around the track and switch horses twice. Unlike regular horse racing, the Indian relays are bareback. When the riders reach a certain point in the race, they jump off one horse to another and go.

“The adrenaline is just so awesome,” Long Feather said. “It’s the split second of hopping on a horse. Here they got it kind of easy where they sit on a horse and start. Our races, we are like on the ground, some of the horses are fired up, rearing and ready to go — but that’s part of the action.”

The racing is more than just a competition for a lot of Native Americans, Long Feather said. At home in North Dakota, he is with horses all day long. He raises colts. To get them to trust him, he gives them massages — which the horses remember. Even when they’re adults, they get close to him so he’ll rub their back.

“That’s just a natural thing with being a native,” Long Feather said.

As the night begins, it’s gently raining. Long Feather and his team are in the second heat. It’s delayed for a bit but finally, the team is on the track.

On the first lap, the team and rider looks good. They’re not first, but they’re keeping up. However, during the switch, the team takes a significant hit when the rider takes a few tries to jump on the back of the next horse. In that time, the other teams have already taken off.

At this point, it’s pouring.

The rider is unable to catch up. Long Feather, standing on the track, turns around and shrugs, like “what are you going to do?”

It’s just part of the sport — and there’s always tomorrow.

Canterbury Park officials cancelled the final three races, due to lightning in the area, but the races go on tonight at 6 p.m.