Central’s equestrian club is saddling up for its annual Interscholastic Horse Show Association (IHSA) Double Western Horse Show this Saturday, Nov. 14 and Sunday, Nov. 15 at Orrion Farms.

This western-style event judges horses on pattern, smooth movement, responsiveness to the rider, manners, disposition and ability to change lead foot while in the air, as well as the rider’s ability to maintain a proper position on the horse.

The events start at 9 a.m. on Saturday and 8 a.m. on Sunday.

Central’s equestrian club puts on the show themselves, with the most difficult task being providing horses for the event.

The team must provide 30 horses for riders from all eight competing teams to ride for different events. The team had only secured 24 horses as of last Thursday, but that number rose to 45 over the past weekend. Last year’s event went similarly.

“Last year at our show it was kind of a similar deal,” Churchill said. “It all kind of came together the last week.”

Churchill said the team had to work on tracking down leads heading into the event.

The team lets horse owners know that they will take good care of their horses and treat them as if they were their own.  

According to Churchill, a senior at Central, the team was shooting for 40 horses for the show.

Horses are only allowed to be ridden in three different competitions per day. Club President Gretchen Beyer said that this year most horses will only be rode twice each day.

Horses that the team has secured for the event are coming from all over the state: Ellensburg, Snohomish, Walla Walla, Yakima, Olympia and the Tri-Cities.

The team must secure horses because competitors at the event are not allowed to ride their own horse, creating the challenge of learning how to ride the horse on-the-fly.

“Each horse works completely differently,” said club Vice President Ashley Johnson. “They all have different personalities or are trained differently.”

Churchill added that it gives members without their own horses a chance to compete as well.

Competitors do not get a chance to warm up on the horse they draw before each event; they only get to see a warm-up rider get the horse ready. Also, horse owners give a brief description of each horse to riders. If the owner is in attendance, riders can also seek the owner out to ask questions.

To go along with securing horses for the event, the team must hire judges, find an EMT, invite other schools, design show programs, order award ribbons and find a photographer.

“It’s a lot of kind of busy work to get it ready for the big day,” Churchill said.

Members will also deep-clean the barn before the event. They already take care of the barn and their horses on a daily basis with three shifts throughout the day, divided between members, to feed horses, clean their stalls and give them time to move around.

To go along with their normal practice, riders had a competition this past weekend, which will have them ready for this weekend’s event.

“We’re really fine tuning everyone’s equitation right now,” Churchill said. “They’ve been working really hard the last month and a half, two months, so now we’re being super picky on every little detail.”

The team hopes to put on a great show for the competitors and represent their team well.

“It’s representing our school, our team and this beautiful facility,” Churchill said. “We wanna make everyone proud…we wanna put on a high quality show for us and the riders competing.”