MY HEART’S AGLOW at the acts of kindness and generosity of the coaches of the Sequim High School equestrian team for figuring out a way to help the Port Angeles team to compete this year.
“Port Angeles’ team was without a coach this fall, and so all of us put our heads together and came up with a plan so the team could continue,” said Sequim coach Katie Salmon-Newton.
She and fellow coaches Bettina Hoesel and new coach Amy Tucker-Matney helped Shannon Bishop from Chimacum step up to coach the PA team; her daughter, Haley Bishop, was a part of the Port Angeles co-op last year.
Now that her mom has stepped into the role of coach, Bishop is able to compete again this year.
“All of us have stepped in to help and to do whatever is needed to help make the PA team successful,” Salmon-Newton said.
Since they both have “really small teams this year, we’ve been allowed to partner for team events at district and state meets,” she said.
Sequim also has welcomed the PA team to weekly practice sessions at Freedom Farms, and both teams give a big thanks to Freedom Farms’ Mary Gallagher for allowing the teams to practice all winter.
“Our girls get along really well,” Salmon-Newton said. “They are all working together for team events and are excited to be able to partner up.”
Now this is what I call good sportsmanship and working together for the greater good of our youths on the Peninsula.
Having Salmon-Newton and Bishop both coaching teams “is kind of cool,” said Newton, “because we actually showed horses together when we were teens in 4-H!”
And new coach Tucker-Matney is a former WAHSET team member who’s now learning to become a head coach.
“We are so happy to have her,” Salmon-Newton said.
The Sequim team is comprised of team captain Libby Swanberg, Joanna Seelye and Mia Kirner and coached by Bettina Hoesel, Katie Salmon-Newton and Amy Tucker-Matney
The Port Angeles team, cooperating with Chimacum High School, is made up of Haley Bishop, Sydney Hutton, Maggie Anderson and noncompeting member Ava Hairell. They are coached by Shannon Bishop.
Meet results
The teams participated in Meet 1 Jan. 21-23 at the Grays Harbor Fairgrounds in Elma. Here are the results:
• Jumping: Hutton, first; Swanberg, second.
• Reining: Swanberg, third; Bishop, seventh.
• In-hand obstacle relay: Seelye, Bishop, Hutton and Anderson, sixth.
• Huntseat equitation: Hutton, fourth.
• Team versatility: Swanberg, Bishop, Hutton and Anderson, fifth.
• Showmanship: Seelye, 16th.
• Working rancher: Swanberg, second.
• Working pairs: Swanberg and Hutton, first.
• Dressage: Hutton, fourth.
• Individual flags: Swanberg, fourth; Hutton, eighth.
• Two-man birangle: Swanberg and Seelye, fifth; Bishop and Anderson, 11th.
• Pole bending: Bishop, second; Anderson, 10th; and Seelye, 17th.
• Figure-8: Swanberg, third; Bishop, sixth; Anderson, eighth; and Hutton, 13th.
• Keyhole: Anderson, second.
• Team Canadian flags: Swanberg, Bishop, Hutton and Anderson, fifth.
• Barrels: Anderson, eighth; Seelye, 22nd; and Bishop, 26th.
• Breakaway roping: Swanberg, first.
• Steer daubing: Swanberg, third.
• Team cow sorting: Bishop and Hutton, second; Anderson and Swanberg, third.
Meet 2 is scheduled Feb. 24-27 in Elma; Meet 3 is April 7-10, also in Elma; and state finals will be May 19-22 in Moses Lake.
Waste patrol
The state Board of Environmental Health will consider a proposed rule change on the handling of animal excrement by private landowners at a public hearing tentatively scheduled for April. Poorly managed livestock manure and other domestic animal waste, which presents many human health and environmental risks, is a concern. Emissions and discharges can affect neighboring properties, pollute shellfish waters and aquifers and can contribute to other negative effects on the ecosystem.
On the table is WAC 246-203-130: Domestic Animal Waste, which states that a person may not keep or shelter animals in such a way that the animals’ waste creates health hazards or environmental risks.
Some of the draft changes to the rule state that animal waste be collected at sufficient intervals to keep the animals’ areas sanitary and be handed to prevent it from being deposited, leached or run off to another person’s property or into water sources used for drinking, swimming, shellfish harvesting or other activities that may affect human health.
It includes rules for if and when the waste may be stockpiled and how, where and when it may be stored.
There are other addenda to the draft law, and it is on an issue that should concern anyone who owns an animal.
For more information, see tinyurl.com/PDN-Horseplay-WasteRules.
For more information about this rulemaking, or to be added to the interested parties’ list, please email Stuart Glasoe at stuart@sboh.wa.gov or call 360-236-4111.
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Karen Griffiths’ column, Peninsula Horseplay, appears the second and fourth Sunday of each month.
If you have a horse event, clinic or seminar you would like listed, please email Griffiths at kbg@olympus.net at least two weeks in advance. You can also call her at 360-460-6299.
Port Angeles’ Sydney Hutton waits for the signal to “go” in the WAHSET cow sorting competition. (Katie Salmon-Newton)
Port Angeles teammates Sydney Hutton and Haley Bishop won second place in team cow sorting at their first high school equestrian meet of the season. (Katie Salmon-Newton)
