Dubois, your fun little town

Well, one thing is for sure, Dubois may be small, but there is always something going on! One of the highlights for us so far was the Packhorse Race. Now, I'm sure there aren't too many of this type event around. There were 5 teams in this years contest. It is held in the park just East of the National Bighorn Sheep Center. Here is a condensed version of the rules for this competition.

1. Each team consists of 2 people, 1 pack animal and 2 saddle horses.

2. Each team will compete with the following equipment. 2 western saddles for the riding horses. 1 pack saddle on the pack horse.

3. 1 canvas wall tent at least 8x10, equiped with at least 2 front ties, and 4 side ropes.

4. Minimum 6 tent stakes

5. 1 camp stove

6 1 axe

7. 1 shovel

8. 2 sleeping bags or bed rolls, each at least 20"x60"

9. 1 pack cover

10. Tent ropes and 1 lash ropeand cinch

Tent poles will be furnished. The race is a timed

event with all teams starting at the same time. Each team must take down their tent, gather their gear and load it on their pack horse. If anything falls off during the race, the team will be penalized, so securing the load is imparative. After the pack is set, the team starts on the predetermined route. The route is a 7 mile loop, and the saddle horses must not go faster than a trot, or they will be penalized. There are judges, along the route making sure that each team stays on the route. When the teams complete the 7 mile route, they return to the starting gate, unload their packs and unsaddle their horses. Time is called and a vet is available to check any horse that may be having problems.

After 10 minutes, each team is allowed to resaddle and pack their animal and run the 7 mile route once more. After returning the second time to the starting gate, they must unpack and unsaddle their horses and pitch their tent and put out all of their equipment. At this point their time is called. Both members of each team wore matching shirts, so it was easy to differenciate the red team, blue, yellow, etc. (The red team won!)

The team that won it this year won by a substantial margin, and we were told they were returning champs from last year.

There is a $100.00 entry fee for each open class team, $65.00 for each womens and old timers team. The women and old timers run on Sunday and the Open class is on Saturday.

It was a very fun event to witness. All of the participants were very adept at the task at hand and you could tell had practiced many hours. Ah, only in Dubois!!