OklahomaHorses Magazine November 2022

14 OklahomaHorses • November / December 2022 Former Sooner Saddlers Share Memories by Andrea Chancellor F or more than 40 years, a group of young women and men who were skilled in horsemanship clinched top honors, multiple ribbons, and coveted ban- ners at competitions across Oklahoma. Winning was the stock in trade for the Sooner Saddlers (SS), who each started to ride and train at about age eight or nine or younger. The SS built a solid reputation for wins in barrel racing, bareback, western racing, showmanship, musical stalls, poles, and other events. Riders also scored honors in American Quarter Horse Association competitions and at drill-team shows at the Pawhuska Cavalcade Rodeo. “The Sooner Saddlers years were the best,” Christy Graham Brown posted recently on the SS Facebook page. “The thrill of riding a reining horse in a slide stop and a spin — amazing,” another competitor said. The SS Facebook page lists 75 followers and reads like a diary of personal memories. Today, those riders are in their sixties and seventies, yet they still think about their SS sisters and brothers and share stories that are clearly detailed. One incident is probably something few of them will forget. “I remember Mary’s horse biting her, jealous when she got an- other horse,” Jane Gray Farmer posted. Cyndy Squyres Allison of Tulsa recalls when her Bobby, an old cattle cutting horse, got mad at her. “He stopped and peed in the middle of the road,” she said. In another competition, Bobby bucked a bit, it seems, and Allison landed behind the saddle cantle on the back of the horse. Bobby did exactly what he was trained to do — he stood stoically until Allison was settled back into position. The performance continued, and surprisingly, Allison won a ribbon. Her dad checked up on that and learned that she had been presented the Karen Bailey Cooper and Joe Couch were the Sooner Saddlers Best Western Couple. Photo courtesy of Karen Bailey Cooper. They Wore the Chaps Proudly