A chance to ride

4-H Horse Club building interest in riding

By KURT NESBITT

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- It wasn't too long ago that Katelyn Juni only dreamed of learning to ride a horse. And only recently has her horse, a four-year-old paint named Sugar and Spice, been up to the challenge of teaching an 11-year old girl how to ride.

Katelyn and Sugar, as she's more commonly known among the members of the Brown County 4-H Horse Club, are two of about 20 pairs of new horseback riders and new horses that the club's leaders are hoping will inspire a resurgence of interest in equestrian sports.

When 4-Hers are looking to learn how to ride Western or English, they often turn to Colleen Mattke, who organizes the monthly clinics at the Brown County fairgrounds for the group. For Mattke, it started with a phone call from her neighbors who had found some rescued horses and were looking for riding lessons.

"At that point, I had retired from teaching, but I agreed to help," said Mattke, who breeds thoroughbreds on a farm five miles west of New Ulm and works as a cook at Joni's Restaurant in downtown New Ulm.

As word-of-mouth spread and calls asking for riding lessons became more frequent, Mattke and partner Bruce Wichmann realized that they had to help the 4-Hers. Once again, Mattke is teaching lessons and is actively trying to recruit more people to join the 4-H Horse Club.

Today, the club has dwindled to around 20 members that come mostly from the more rural parts of Brown County and belong to a number of different Brown County 4-H groups. It consists mostly of first-time horse riders and newly broken -- or "green" -- horses.

"Put green horses with novice riders and you've got a recipe for disaster," Mattke said.

The club's main emphasis is on horsemanship for that reason; it's not so much about winning or losing at a horse show, Mattke said. Each clinic and each lesson is meant to introduce the members to a different aspect of horseriding. The 4-H club holds its annual horse show during the Brown County Free Fair, which is Aug. 11-15.

One of the first lessons the group learned about is safety. They were reminded of those lessons during some downtime while they were waiting for a veterinarian to arrive from Sleepy Eye. It is important to keep an eye on your horse while its grazing, said Wichmann, because if you're too far away and your horse spooks at a noise, it will run off in two heartbeats.

"A horse is like a three-year old. When they know they can get away with something, they'll see how far they can get away with it," said Wichmann, who breeds appaloosas ("dalmatian horses", he calls them) near Fairfax.

Saturday's clinic focused on control. Each rider had to maneuver their horse around a series of poles, like a downhill skier taking a slalom course. Mattke stood at the railing of the horse arena and watched each rider, making critical comments along the way. Next came the "egg-and-spoon" game, where the students rode around the ring with eggs on the ends of plastic spoons. Whoever rode with the egg on the end of the spoon for the longest time won the game.

"This is what we're trying to make 4-H about," Mattke said. "Even the little kids can learn."

While most of the members in the club are children, some adults have also come to Mattke for lessons. Jeannie Schwartz of Sanborn is one of those first-year riders. She said she'd rather have her children -- sons Kyle and Cody and daughter Katie- riding horses than playing video games because it gives them a chance to get outside and get some exercise. Schwartz said horseback riding is something she's always wanted to learn.

"I like the personalities," Schwartz said in response to a question about what she enjoys about horseback riding.

"The only drawback is that it's a big animal and you can get hurt," she said.

For Juni, however, the relationship goes deeper. Her horse, Sugar, was rescued from a farm in Watonwan County and was found starved and with her face slashed open. As a result, Sugar has no nerve sense in that area.

Another one of the group's horses, a 20-year old Arabian mare nicknamed Grandma, was barely saved from the glue factory a few days ago. A few more of the horses were just recently broken in by Mattke and Wichmann.

Nonetheless, riding Sugar is a release for Juni, who has been part of the Horse Club since she joined 4-H at age 9. She said she rides about three times a week. Juni reports that Sugar is pregnant with a foal she had with one of the thoroughbred studs on Mattke's farm.

"Just riding a horse is really fun. It's relaxing. If I've had a bad day, I call Colleen and ask if I can come ride Sugar," Juni said.

Mattke sees it like this: "The way I look at it, if we can keep one kid interested, that's one more horse that's saved from the glue factory."