Archives for June 2018

Plans are underway for a fun new event this month as Saint Mary’s Catholic Church presents “Summer on the Slab,” a night of open air dancing and music, on Saturday, June 23, on the COEA grounds.

Gates and dinner concessions will open at 5:30 p.m. with dance lessons being offered from 5:45 to 7 p.m.

The Texas Pearl Snaps will perform from 7:00 to 9:00, and then JW Lane & County Road X will take the stage. The evening will close with a Cowboy Breakfast after midnight at 12:15.

Gate fees are $20 per person with a cooler charge of $10 per cooler. VIP packages are available. All proceeds will benefit St. Mary’s building fund.

The public is invited to attend as equestrian vaulting teams from Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico participate in a Funfest competition this weekend at the Clarendon College Livestock & Equine Center.

Equestrian vaulting is a sport that combines dance and gymnastics on a horse walking, trotting, or cantering in a 60-foot diameter circle on the end of a lunge line. The Funfest event is open to the public, and there is no charge for admission.

Clarendon was chosen as the location for this Funfest and clinic because it is approximately half way between the Vaulters del Sol of the Albuquerque area and the Gold Star Pacesetters from Fort Worth area, which are the two groups responsible for planning then event.

Gold Star Pacesetters founder and head coach Frank Pace also said Clarendon College was most gracious and helpful in allowing the use the arena and other facilities.

“Quite a few of the horses will be great big draft and draft-cross with Clydesdales, Percherons, and Belgians being the most common,” Pace said. “Our Percheron/Quarter Horse cross gelding is 17 hands tall and weighs right at 1,800 pounds. Just to see these gentle giants is worth coming to the vaulting.”

Pace reports that the vaulters will arrive Friday, June 8, with vaulters’ clinics beginning at 9 a.m. on Saturday, June 9.
The Funfest competition that is open to the public will then commence at 2 p.m. Competition will start up again at 9 a.m. on Sunday, June 10, and will run until all classes are completed.

All vaulters, world-wide, do the same set of compulsory moves. Vaulters then do free-style routines with from one to three vaulters on the horse at one time. There are competitions for one vaulter, two vaulters or doubles, teams of four (again only three vaulters on the horse at any one time) and teams of six (again, only three.)

The youngest vaulter this weekend is six years old, and the oldest is the mother of one of the young vaulters. Alejandra Orozco, an international level vaulter from Mexico, will judge the Funfest and will instruct the vaulters in a clinic both before and after the Funfest competition.

This Funfest is being conducted using the rules and guidelines set by the American Vaulting Association, but some classes may be modified so that newer vaulters will get their first taste of competition in a less stressful situation. Other modification will be made to facilitate those vaulters who are wanting to move up from one gait to the next level, such as from a walk to a trot.

Equestrian vaulting is similar to Western Trick Riding but also very different. Trick riders perform their tricks on the horse at a full gallop around the arena; vaulters are on the horse at a walk, trot or canter as the horse moves on the circle under the control of the person lunging.

Trick riders each have their own horse; vaulters share the same horse. Only one person at a time trick rides; up to three vaulters at a time. Trick riding has no compulsory moves; vaulting compulsories are world-wide. Trick riding requires no music; vaulting freestyle is very much choreographed to music that fits the vaulter(s) and the horse.

For more information about equestrian vaulting, visit www.goldstarpacesetters.com.

The Clarendon City Council approved bids totaling more than $3.1 million for improvements to the city’s water distribution system during a called meeting May 29.

The three separate bids are part of a USDA-funded grant-loan project the city has been pursuing for several years. Work on the project is expected to begin in late July, according to City Administrator David Dockery.

The first bid awarded was to Circle P Welding Inc., for the construction of a new standpipe on the east side of town at a cost of $338,048.

The second award was $410,186.94 to Western Industrial Supply for the purchase and installation of auto-read water meters in a project that will replace all the existing meters in town. The awarded bid was not the low bid in this instance, but City Hall said the low bidder did not meet the specifications set out for the bid.

The third and largest bid was awarded to L.A. Fuller & Sons Constriction, Ltd., for $2,356,302 to replace approximately six miles of cast iron distribution pipes.

In other city business, the council revisited its action from March that would have closed a portion of Allen Street and Bugbee Avenue to through traffic. Keith Floyd addressed the council in favor of keeping those thoroughfares open, while Suzan Chassande-Baroz was back before council as the one who had asked those streets to be closed. No action was taken.

The council authorized Mayor Sandy Skelton to sign a grant agreement with the Don & Sybil Harrington Foundation, and aldermen also approved a resolution expressing the city’s appreciation to the foundation for its $100,000 award in support of the city’s water recreation project.

The council also approved a bid on tax delinquent property as presented.