Horse

May 09, 2023

Pole bending. it's hit-or-miss.

Apparently in more ways than one.

"Oh my gosh; you either love it or you hate it," competitor Biloxi Shultz siad. "If you're doing good, it's fun. If you're not doing good, you're just dreading it."

Biloxi, 18, is a freshly-minted Abilene High graduate who also competed in barrel racing at the Texas High School Rodeo Association State Finals.

The finals rodeo was Saturday, with the top four in each events - boys and girls - earning a spot on the Texas team that will compete next month in Wyoming at the national finals. Texas will be the defending overall and girls champion. The boys in 2022 were second.

Pole bending shares a similar goal with barrel racing in that the fastest rider wins, and knocking over a pole or barrel adds a 5-second penalty to the run. But whereas a barrel racer weaves her pattern around a triad of barrels, a pole bender has to weave her horse twice back and forth between a line of upright poles.

When done right, the horse appears to wiggle through the course with tips of the poles sometimes brushing the hair of the rider as she goes by.

Biloxi didn't think she's gotten that close as the poles went by, but she does recall them smacking her arms on more than one occasion.

"It's just all timing. You've got to be precise and connected with your horse," she said. "Just in the groove with each other to be able to do it, and do it right."

But when it works, it's something else.

"It's such a cool feeling because it's like a wave that rushes over you and you feel so completed," she said.