The gymkana horse show took place Sunday morning at the Kenosha County Fair.
“The what kind of horse show?” you might ask.
Gymkana is a type of horse competition that consists of exercises run over various courses. The winner completes the course in the shortest amount of time.
For example, I saw three different types of courses Sunday.
In one, riders guided their horses around a series of poles, kind of like a slalom ski course. Here are some examples:
In another, the riders had to guide their horse — preferably at a run — through two sets of parallel poles, called a tunnel. It looks easier than it is, the announcer explained, because horses are naturally somewhat claustrophobic. Here are some examples:
In the last event, riders had to guide their horses through a course that had poles and barrels they had to run around and a jump they had to attempt twice. Here are some examples:
In the other horse shows at the fair, appearance counts big in the score. But, as the announcer explained, in gymkana “you don’t have to have a beautiful horse, you just have to be able to ride.”
