ALTON - The Illinois Boots & Saddle Club hosted a series of horse racing events that were free for the public to attend last Saturday, June 17 at 10 a.m. Ariel Weinman, secretary for the Boots & Saddle Club and director of the Barrel Races show, said they plan to host more races and other events later this summer.
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Saturday’s series consisted of two timed events - Barrel Racing and Pole Bending. Weinman described these as “traditional rodeo events” in which the fastest horse wins.
Taylor Peterson, one of the barrel racers competing in the event, said she’s had years of experience and appreciates the way this event is organized.
“I love to barrel race because it’s what I’ve been doing since I was really small and it’s like a huge adrenaline rush,” she said. “It’s really rewarding to know all the hard work I put in pays off when I’m here running.
“I love coming to this arena because the ground is really good, the people who put it on have it very, very organized, and it’s just a really fun time.”
The Illinois Boots & Saddle Club was founded in 1960, which Weinman said makes it an “older saddle club in the area.”
“We have people that come from all over the Metro area that come to our events, and we’ve got a lot of different events that we host here,” Weinman said. Other events include Open Horse Shows, which include “everything from driving horses, western pleasure horses, and gaited horses,” as well as Speed Shows such as the one last Saturday, and Cattle Sortings which will be held later this year.
Sandy Tharp, one of the attendees on Saturday, described the Speed Show as “a great event put on by great people.”
“I really enjoy coming out here - number one, because it’s local - and they put on a great show out here, they have a lot of varieties of riders,” Tharp said. “It’s a great event put on by great people and it’s a good time, and it’s free!”
Weinman noted that she appreciates being able to host events like this in Alton, as most other horse shows are hours away.
“As a contestant myself, it’s great to have this in my backyard, it’s a great facility,” she said. “A lot of times, you have to travel two, three, four hours to go to events like this, so having it close to home is awesome.”
She added that the Boots & Saddle Club is an entirely volunteer-run organization and that everyone involved in these events, from the announcer to the office help, is a volunteer.
All of the club’s events are free and open to the public. The Illinois Boots and Saddle Club is located at 3043 Harris Lane in Alton and can be reached at (618) 377-9002.
For more information about the Illinois Boots and Saddle Club and a schedule of their upcoming events, visit their website or Facebook page. A video from the Speed Show on June 17 can be watched at the top of this story or on Riverbender.com/video.
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