'Between you and the horse'

Most cowboys would agree that bareback riding is the most physically demanding event in the sport of rodeo.

But in the eyes of world champion Benny Begay, bareback riding is just as much mental as it is physical.

"When you go out and see Benny Begay at a rodeo and you start saying, 'Oh man, Benny Begay is here' you're already putting yourself down," Begay told his students at the Triple B bareback riding school.

"Don't every do that because it's between you and your horse," he said. "Whatever draw you got, you don't ever look around for people.

"Mentally you should think about yourself and then your horse," he added.

Begay was one of three featured riders who provided instruction at the Tsinnijiini's Arena in Many Farms on July 30. He was assisted by legends Gerald Alex and Harrison Curley. They taught seven students who paid the $20 tuition fee.

In their presentation, all three said the key to bareback riding was "lifting in your body" to counteract the horse's power.

"You see some of the PRCA bareback riders that have huge guns," Begay said. "You don't need to have the biggest arm in the world to ride a good horse. If you can lift, you can ride anything."

After going through the fundamentals on a bareback riding apparatus, the students then moved up to the bucking machine.

According to Begay, the idea was to help them practice their spurring motion.

"What you're trying to do is take out a lot of power from that horse," Begay said. "When the horse is ready to hit the ground you should be aiming for his mane. That is where you want to hit that every time he comes back down. You want your leg up there because you take a lot of power away from that horse."

"That's what you call the hang time," Alex added. "If you look at those photographs of those PRCA bareback riders, the horse will be still flying about a foot off the ground and the riders would already have their feet up."

Besides the techniques, they also talked about safety issues related to bareback riding. The important thing they stressed was the dismount.

"The last thing you want to do is get hurt," Begay said. "But sometimes you can feel your hand sliding (out of your handhold) and you should already tell yourself that you need to squeeze and lift a little more."

"It happens to everyone, but if you should get hung up the important thing is to stay on your feet," he added. "You want to minimize the damage."

Later in the day, the students had a chance to get some hands-on training with live horses provided by the Triangle Rodeo Company.

"This is my second time getting on a horse," Delvin Tsosie said. "I have got on one other bronc at a different school, but as soon as I heard Benny Begay's name I had to come."

Tsosie said he had to call in to work so he could make it out to Many Farms from Crownpoint. But on the way over he blew out a tire and arrived 30 minutes late.

"To me it's all worth it," he said.

As for what was presented, Tsosie said that he's been taught the same material before, but it just helped reinforced the things he's learned.

"You learn new things every day, but what they did was refreshed some of the stuff that I learned," Tsosie said. "But they taught some of finer points of becoming a successful bareback rider."

Justin Tsosie (no relation) said he was inspired to give bareback riding a try because of his younger brother Ferlin Tsosie.

"He qualified to the IIFR (International Indian Finals Rodeo) last year," Justin said. "He pushed me towards riding bareback because since 2006 I had been just riding bulls."

Of the two sports, the Rock Point cowboys feel that bareback riding is a lot safer than bull riding, even though there's that chance of getting hung up.

"It's all mental and in bulls they're trying to hook you, so this is less dangerous," Justin said, who rode two horses on Saturday afternoon.

Ferlin, meanwhile, sat this one out because he was nursing an injury he suffered at a recent rodeo.

"I got kicked in the leg, but I want to get back on," he said. "I want to let it heal before I get back on."

Other students taking part in the riding school were EJ Kalemsa of Polacca, Tyson Houston of Gallup, Rodney Begay of Rock Point and Filberto Vecenti of Lukachukai.