Cowgirls up!

Charity event brings spirit of the frontier to New England with rodeo events including drill team, roping, music, and more

By Mark Arsenault, Globe Correspondent  |  June 25, 2009

Galloping on horseback in tight quarters with a group of teenage riders was not the type of riding 63-year-old Rita Silva had signed up for.

“I came here to learn how to trot,’’ said Silva, during a brief break at a recent dress rehearsal of the Barnstable Barn Burners, a precision equestrian drill team that will perform this weekend in Marshfield. Silva was dressed in a red shirt with blue trim and white tassels, and new white chaps. “Now look what they’ve done to me.’’

Moments later Silva was racing her horse, Grace, through choreographed routines with other riders to the music of Big & Rich, which pounded from a PA system. The horses passed so close together that the riders barely missed brushing one another. Flying hooves flung clumps of dirt.

The Barn Burners will perform at the New England Wild West Fest, June 26 through 28 at the Marshfield Fairgrounds. Even in urbanized Eastern Massachusetts, rodeo, commonly associated with cattle country, draws fans and top-flight competitors. In its second year, the rodeo is a benefit for the Spirit of the American Cowboy Foundation, a nonprofit charity in Boston that raises money for pediatric cancer research. The foundation’s primary beneficiary is The Jimmy Fund, which supports the work of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

The all-woman Barn Burners are from throughout Cape Cod, said Cathy Hill, the team’s coach, who also runs CJ’s Ranch in West Barnstable, where the team trains and practices its routines. What began years ago as “a little 4-H riding group’’ has become a year-round commitment for girls as young as 13, said Hill. The Barn Burners perform at parades and well-known regional fairs, such as the Topsfield and Barnstable County fairs, said Hill.

When they practice, the riders show deep concentration on their faces. A wrong move could lead to a collision. Nobody looks more intense than Hill, who leads the team on a horse named Tequila, and blasts a whistle to cue critical turns during the routine. She stops practice several times to bark out instructions to fine-tune the drill. The Barn Burners’ routine is something like that of a choreographed marching band, except much faster and on horseback.

Hill, 52, has been riding since her earliest memories. Now she teaches riding. She has two sons, ages 24 and 29, who work as farriers, shoeing horses. “I try to get across to the girls how much the horses teach us about life,’’ she said during a break. “If we don’t learn to be a team, we’re in jeopardy.’’

At the Wild West Fest, Hill will also compete in barrel racing, a rodeo event primarily reserved for women, in which riders push for the fastest time racing their horses through a cloverleaf pattern around three barrels set in a large triangle. “It’s so important that I’m in tune with my horse,’’ said Hill. She’s shooting for a time of around 15 seconds. Every racer gets just one shot to ride. “There are no second chances in rodeo,’’ she said. “That’s one of the things I like about drill - we get five minutes for drill but just 15 seconds for barrel.’’

Silva, from Provincetown, is half-a-century older than her youngest teammate. She had been riding at CJ’s Ranch for several years when Hill suggested she join the drill team.

“It’s probably one of the best things that ever happened to me,’’ said Silva. “My kids are grown; it’s my time now.’’

Silva’s teenage teammates have had a huge influence on her, she said, such as persuading her to quit smoking after some 50 years with the habit. “The kids treat me like I’m one of them. And it keeps me off the streets, you know?’’

Nineteen-year-old Beverly Chagnon of Sandwich has been with the drill team for eight years. She likes traveling with her teammates. She likes riding in front of the crowds. She likes working with her horse, Gomer. “He’s my baby,’’ she said. “If I don’t have confidence in what we’re doing, he’d know, and he wouldn’t do it.’’

The Spirit of the American Cowboy Foundation was founded by Michael Allison, 44, of Mansfield, a Texas native and former rodeo competitor. Cowboy spirit, he said, “is a metaphor for the courage of these children who face a battle with cancer.’’ Young cancer patients possess “the toughness and the spirit of never giving up, which people associate with rodeo cowboys.’’

And if you start a cowboy-themed foundation, you might as well put on a rodeo as your major fund-raiser. “I really wanted a family event,’’ said Allison. “I thought to myself that the world really doesn’t need another charity golf tournament.’’ More than 70 people are working as volunteers to help put on the rodeo, he said.

Allison, a vice president at the Boston financial services company Eaton Vance, competed in rodeo as a young man. “I was away from it for a while and had what you might call a middle-aged crazy comeback in 2002, which reminded me I had definitely aged out and that it was time to move on to another way to play a role in the sport.

“I was a competitor - not a particularly good one and certainly not any kind of award-winning competitor - but it’s something that stays with you your whole life.’’

The foundation’s guest for the Wild West Fest will be Rex Trailer, who will be honored this Sunday with a lifetime achievement award for contributing to “cowboy spirit.’’ Trailer was the host of the children’s’ TV show “Boomtown.’’

Details about the rodeo in Marshfield are available at www.newenglandwildwestfest.com.

Mark Arsenault can be reached at mark0079@comcast.net.