This past weekend, the family flew out to Ojai, California, to be a part of the Gymkhana Weekend at Cruzzie’s school. This “Gymkhana” is the culmination of Thacher’s mandatory freshman horse program. As a freshman, you are given a horse for the year, where you are responsible for them, day in and day out. EVERY SINGLE DAY, the freshmen have to muck (before classes — rain or shine, Saturday and Sunday), feed (every evening), and learn how to ride (5 afternoons per week). This program teaches discipline, routine, courage, care, and skills. Gymkhana is one of Thacher’s central traditions where the ninth graders (and many upperclassmen who continue to ride) compete on teams in all sorts of horse races: barrels and poles, the rescue race, ring spearing, even the notoriously-difficult Silver Dollar Pick-up. It was a one of a kind weekend — so proud of Cruzzie, so proud of his classmates, and in awe with their hardworking, dedication, skills, and heart.
Practice on Friday afternoon when we arrived.
Beautiful sunny day. There are SO many horse fields (in addition to all the sports fields) on campus.
Cruz was on the blue team. I loved the team spirit of this family who came with so many family members, and supporters (local Cali people, obviously).
Saturday was a cold day (of course — seasonably unusual and way colder than normal).
It was like a a sporting event — or someone described it as a track event. All these different events that were happening at the same time, and you just followed your rider. They were on their horses for 7 hours. SEVEN HOURS.
Cuzzie gearing up to enter his first competition.
Barrels. Cruz was ranked “8” and so they vests to showcase the top 10.
Cruz and Hero. And blue paint for team spirit.
Me and my hero, Cruzzie.
A break for lunch which was BBQ.
picnic tables outside. These people were obviously on the orange team. EVERYONE got all dressed up in spirit colors.
Proud of my boy.
Even had a Photo Booth — so very modern!
A great weekend! And yes, not a typical high school experience — and something that Cruz will carry with him for his entirety.
