Hi-Line Living: Indian Relay Races thunder through Havre

July 22, spectators packed the Great Northern Fair arena to watch the first Indian Relay Races held during the fair surge around the racetrack.

Riding bareback, in shorts and without helmets, each team's rider raced three horses in the relay. The crowd, many of whom stood up for a better look, cheered after each rapid exchange.

Organizer Tim Rosette Jr. said he hopes the relay races will become an annual tradition at the fair.

So did fair board Chair Tyler Smith.

"I was very happy with how they went," Smith said. "I understand that there were going to be more teams, and I would have liked to see that, but I think that for our initial trial and our initial run with it I'm hugely happy with it. There's no one who's not happy with it. We hope to make it an annual event."

Even before the year closes, Rosette added, the fairgrounds may host a second Indian Relay Race for two days in September.

Rosette said the relays typically run for at least two days.

"Gotta give horses time to cool down," he said. "That was our main goal, not to have any horses or any riders hurt. Pretty lucky this time to not have anybody hurt."

The idea for putting on the event came when Rosette, Jessica Windy Boy and Ron Konesky stumbled into a conversation about Indian Relay Races, he said.

"We were just sitting around doing some work at the (Rocky Boy) clinic," Rosette said.

He and Windy Boy played a video of relay racing for the board members.

"After we showed 'em what it was they said, 'Let's do it,'" Rosette added.

How Indian Relay Races work

"It's one of the most exciting things you'll ever be able to see," Rosette said. "You got one rider, three horses, one mugger, and two holders. You gotta be patient and you gotta be brave. It's exciting, it's fast."

The lone rider of the team, racing bareback and without protective gear, leaps from one horse to the next in front of the grandstands before careening around the track again.

Rosette said the key to the race is how seamlessly the team's holders exchange their rider's horses.

"If you get a good quick, clean exchange, chances are you're gonna end up winning the race," Rosette said.

After the first horse comes around the track, the team's mugger catches the horse.

The back holder, Rosette said, is waiting in the background with the third fresh horse, which the rider will cross the finish line on.

The exchange holder, meanwhile, stands closer to the action, holding the second horse for the rider to leap onto.

"He's setting up that next horse and trying to keep him calm," Rosette said.

The horses at the fair's race often reared up while waiting to race or being mounted.

"They're bred to run and they don't want to stand," Rosette said. "That's a tough duty to get that horse to stand. Usually they're holding their bridle, pulling it back. Each holder is different, each horse is different. You just gotta work something out between you and the horse."

It's important to get to know the horses, Rosette said, like what makes them stand still and whether they're going to be able to stop after the race is over.

"Those are the horses you wanna use as your anchor," he said.

Although only one teammate rides per race, Rosette added, some teams carry a backup rider who will ride a different type of race, like the Chiefs' or Warriors' Races, or be able to fill in for emergencies.

Who races

Women, men and children compete in separate races.

Rosette said the winner of the Women's Race was Autumn Charges Strong of Benteen, Montana, south of Hardin.

"She's a heck of an athlete," he said, adding that Charges Strong won the Ultimate Warriors Race on the Crow Reservation three years in a row.

"Her time was three minutes faster than the men's," he said.

In that event, which happened during Crow Native Days, Charges Strong canoed, ran and relayed alone on three horses, a Tri-State Livestock News article reported. The article says that the women's course equaled the men's for the first time.

Men compete in the Warriors' and Chiefs' Races; youth ride in the Kids' Race.

Rosette said he raced on the Indian Relay circuit for five years and had his own team for three. The youngest rider on his team was about 17 and some of the oldest were racing at 40 years old.  

Riders can start training and racing as young as 12 years old, he said; they might be competing by the time they're 13 or 14.

Younger children can start out by racing in the Kids' Relay on Shetland ponies, he added.

Rosette wants to get more young people in Rocky Boy involved with the relays, he said, as he believes training for the races helps people to keep busy and stay out of trouble.

“It’s relaxing and you get a little adrenaline rush,” he said about relaying. “It’s fun.”

Competition

The relay teams enjoy themselves but are also racing to win, Rosette said.

“Oh, it’s really competitive,” he added.

In the past, the horses chosen to relay were older, but lately, he said, teams are getting younger horses off the race tracks.

Rosette said he had some friends racing in Great Falls recently.

“Their relay horses were winning some gate races,” he said. “Havre got to see some good horses that came here.”

He praised the Mountain River team from Fort Belknap Indian Reservation, whose riders won both the Chiefs’ Race and the Warriors’ Race at the Great Northern Fairgrounds.

“They’re a really good team, they’ve been taking second and third all over,” he said.

Support

Despite the competition, the relay circuit is supportive of each other, he added.

When Rosette started his own team, two experienced relay racers from Crow Agency showed him the ropes, he said.

The late Thorton “Tee” Teal Big Hair showed him a lot about putting a relay on and about the sport in general.

Rosette also said that Willy Kirkaldie offered his team major support.

“He’s been in the business a long time,” Rosette said. “ … When we first started out, Willy showed us a lot, dos and don’ts, how to set up right, how to get off your horse, exchanges.”

When Rosette’s team started going around to other races, he said, the other competitors knew it was their first time and showed them how to relay safely and quickly.

“Even though they’re competing,” Rosette said, “they don’t wanna see nobody get hurt, nobody lose a horse. It’s really competitive at the same time, ’cause you don’t wanna get beat, but you have respect for those guys, ’cause it takes a lot to do it.”

What it takes to relay

“The teams that are winning — they put the time in and the work,” Rosette said. “They have to keep themselves in shape as well — watching what they eat so they can be jumping up on the horse.”

Relay teammates in all positions must exercise their bodies to prepare, he said, adding that they need all of their muscles, from their legs, to their core to their upper body.

After a bad exchange, he said, the rider has to hang on to the horse while it runs and try to climb back on.

“He’s trying to do everything he can not to get his team disqualified,” Rosette said.

Setting up the track

Rosette said that Scott Doney and Ron Konesky from the fair board helped to prepare the fairgrounds for the race.

“They helped out there a lot. We had, I think, a month and three days to do the track,” he said, adding that they were still working on it by the last day. “From starting to when we finished, it was amazing to see how much was done.”

Indian Relay racing circuit

The track is 60 feet under half a mile, which Rosette said is around the same size as the World Championship Indian Relay Races track at Wyoming’s Sheridan-Wyo-Rodeo.

“Such a big event,” he said, adding that the World Championship is a four-day event in which teams are “only allowed to take five horses to that one; have to strategize,” he said. “We can run him, rest him Thursday, Friday, then he’ll go again Saturday. Gotta know your horse.”

A Montana team, River Road, from the Crow reservation won this year’s World Championship, Rosette said, adding that Charging Strong is the team members’ younger sister.

Rosette said the Indian Relay teams are getting ready for upcoming races in the circuit, including at Crow Fair’s centennial, Aug. 15-20, and Canterbury Park in Minnesota, Aug. 23-25. After taking a couple weeks’ break, Rosette said he hoped the relay teams would then return to Havre in September.

Of the relay race at the Great Northern Fair, Rosette said, there were no major problems; the only challenge was to have two other relay races happen on the same weekend.

“At one time we had all 15 spots filled,” Rosette said, “then a couple horses got hurt, a couple people wanted to follow the World Champions” to try and beat them in another race.

He said the teams who did race at the Great Northern Fair were very happy to have participated. He added that he hopes to get a lot more local teams, such as from Rocky Boy and Fort Belknap, in the future.

“That way we could have a good time,” Rosette said.

New teams and riders

To encourage new people to start their own teams, Rosette said he may start his own again.

“That way they’ll see it happening and wanna do it, hopefully,” he said.

He added that he hopes to expand the Women’s Relay as well.

“We have some good female riders up in Rocky Boy that I think would do really well in those,” he said.

“There’s a lot of horse people out on the Hi-Line,” Rosette said, adding that the relay races give them an opportunity to get a new perspective on horse riding.

“To see the horse, what he’s doing out there — it’s awesome,” he said. “It’s never let me down watching ’em; you’re always gonna have a good show.”

Results of Indian Relay Races at 2018 Great Northern Fair

Relay Teams competing:

Mountain River — Fort Belknap

Plain FeatherS — Fort Belknap/Crow

Blanket Bull — Crow

Goes Ahead Pretty — Crow

Holds Enemy — Washington

Two Nations — Crow

Fights Alone — Crow

Aims Back — Blackfeet

Rides A Pretty Horse — Crow

Heat 1

Plain FeatherS

Blanket Bull

Goes Ahead Pretty

Winner: Goes Ahead Pretty

Heat 2

Holds Enemy

Two Nations

Fights Alone

Winner: Fights Alone

Heat 3

Aimsback

Rides A Pretty Horse

Mountain River

Winner: Mountain River

Consolation 1:

Holds Enemy

Blanket Bull

Rides A Pretty Horse

Winner: Holds Enemy

Consolation 2:

Plain Feather

Aims Back

Two Nations

Winner: Plain Feather

Championship Heat:

Fights Alone

Mountain River

Goes Ahead Pretty

Championship winner: Goes Ahead Pretty

Rider: Holman Real Bird

Women’s Race Champion:

Autumn Charges Strong (Mountain River)

Chiefs Race:

Nolan Werk (Mountain River)

Warriors Race Champion:

Dusty Manuel (Mountain River)

Youth Relay:

Wild Horse Relay (Fort Belknap/Chippewa Cree)

Rider: Carson Campbell

Catcher: Timothy Rosette III

Holder: Tuarie Stiffarm-Rosette

Holder: Treston Cole