Hammel riding high
As Kurstie Hammel glided around the cross country course at The Event at Rebecca Farm on Friday, she had an unusually large group of spectators for a novice rider. Teams of people on four-wheelers tracked her progress from a distance and from every corner of the course they whooped and hollered as she passed by.
Hammel, who coordinates and corrals the legion of volunteers at the event, was a last minute addition to The Event as a competitor, taking up the last spot after a rider dropped out.
“(Course builder) Bert Wood was going to ride and his horse went lame,” Hammel said. “Wednesday night I got the call that I could take his spot.”
The ride was added to the already mammoth job Hammel does every day at Rebecca Farm. In addition to being the year-round barn manager, during The Event she acts as the coordinator for cross country jump judges, crowd control, score runners, people movers, steeple chase volunteers and roads and tracks volunteers. Putting in long hours over the four-day competition she helps guide the 160-plus volunteers to the right places at the right times, keeping the entire show running smoothly for riders and spectators.
“I don’t even know how she keeps track of it honestly,” said Wood of the job Hammel does. “She’s pretty organized. When a division changes, she needs a judge at the next division in like 20 minutes. And there’s close to 300 jumps out here.”
A competitive rider as a teenager, Hammel grew up with event organizer Sarah Broussard Kelly, traveling to events and competing for years. Then, she moved back to Kalispell to start a family, leaving competition behind but never out of mind.
“It’s just in your blood,” Hammel said. “You can’t get rid of it. If it’s in you it doesn’t go away.”
When the Broussard family started The Event, they brought in Hammel to help coordinate volunteers as a job she could do from home while raising her family. Over the last 10 years, the competition grew from around 60 volunteers to the hundreds they field now, all with Hammel guiding the way.
Two years ago, she decided to give competition a try again after an 18-year hiatus. With friends helping her to get her horse ready as she handled her other duties, she finished 13th in the Novice C division.
“I was crying at the finish,” Hammel said. “It was so perfect. I had all these memories running in my mind, thinking, ‘Why hadn’t I done this in so long?’”
She didn’t compete last year when her horse was injured and nearly didn’t compete this year after taking a fall in May. After a few months to get back in form, she figured she’d be ready, enabling her to sneak in at the last minute.
“We were all very excited for her,” show jumping steward Cathy Rasch said. “We all love The Event. It’s more fun if you can ride. It’s kind of like you get to enjoy some of it as well.”
Now that her kids are older, Hammel said she gets to ride a bit more than she used to. She completed her run on Friday without any faults, to the cheers of the mob of volunteers following her ride.
“Even though we may not ride for a certain period of time, horses are still a big part of our lives,” Broussard Kelly said. “To be able to get back to it just kind of completes us. To see her be able to do that, to get back into riding and enjoy it again is really good. Her kids are getting into it so it’s becoming a family affair now.”
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A video link for The Event at Rebecca Farm by Daily Inter Lake photographer Patrick Record is available at http://youtu.be/Pebqj69UueI
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The Event at Rebecca Farm
Friday’s Results
CIC3* Top Ten after Dressage
1. Kristi Nunnink – R-Star – 50.6.
2. Katherine Groesbeck – Oz the Tin Man – 54.8.
3. Mackenna Shea – Landioso – 55.8.
4. Kristi Walker – Myelusivedream – 56.2.
5. Jolie Wentworth – GoodKnight – 58.0.
6. James Alliston – Tivoli – 58.8.
7. Pam Fisher – Sea Lion – 61.0.
8. James Atkinson – Gustav – 61.0
9. James Atkinson – The Alchemyst – 61.8.
10. Jeanine Allred – Snap Decision II – 65.8.