[Video by Steve Koch]
The Texas State Fair: the aroma of fried food served “on a stick” fills the cool evening air, announcing the advent of Fall. The annual festival, started in 1886, has become a Texas staple, if not a regional destination. The fair is not only made possible by those who plan and set it up, but also by an unnoticeable force that we take for granted: The Dallas Police Department Mounted Unit.
On Tuesday, September 16th, the Dallas Police Department asked a small group of Jesuit Ursuline Ranger Band members to help “stress-train the horses” for the upcoming State Fair at Fair Park. The squad consisted of eight students who missed the greater portion of the morning doing this service. Mr. Putnam, co-chair of the Fine Arts Department and Head Band Director, observed that one of the more interesting things about the group was that “seven of those eight played instruments that they don’t normally play in band. Some of them were wind players that picked up a drum for the first time, some of them were percussionists that don’t play necessarily in the drum line, but they play keyboard instruments.” Mr. Putnam added, “There was a brand-new drum line, per se. They were playing by ear.” The group departed Jesuit at about eight o’clock in the morning for the Texas Fair Grounds in Fair Park. They returned at about ten o’clock. The horse stables which house the DPD Mounted Unit serves as their home year-round.
Mr. Putnam explained how this opportunity was brought to him, saying, “Over the years, one of the officers [at Fair Park] has worked many Jesuit events and is part of the mounted unit. It hasn’t quite worked out [because] we couldn’t go to them or they couldn’t come here…Then, the athletic director, Mr. Koch, called me and asked if we were available on Tuesday morning and if we could go. At the time, yes, it sounded like a good idea, but after we left town for Strake Jesuit, a lot of people missed school and had to do makeup work which is why a lot of the drum line members couldn’t go, which is why we just had volunteers.”
The official term for this special horse training is “stress training.” The name says it all, for the most part, but it comes in many different forms. For example, the drum line participated by preparing the horse’s ears for loud, jarring sounds. This training brings the horses in close contact with a natural fear and allows them to eventuall
y conquer it. Ms. Morton, Music Appreciation Teacher, explains that “[The riders] have a real relationship with these animals. They have the riders of the horses on them while the drums were playing really loud, like petting them and rubbing them telling them that it’s ok, so the horse was gaining that trust that the rider was going to keep them safe. It was extremely interesting.”
Patrick Rodenbaugh ’18, expressed his appreciation of the day trip by saying, “I thought it would be a fun experience… to see how they train the horses, and to scare the horses to help them conquer their fears. We started out playing some cadences pretty quietly, and then we worked our volume up to approximately ‘full blast.'” Patrick believes that the drumline playing for the horses “shows that Jesuit is willing to get out there and try anything to help the community.”
Similarly, John Galindo ’16 , Vice President of the Band, explains that “a lot of people go to the State Fair each year, but we got to see a part that not many people get to experience and you notice a lot of the preparation that goes into it… I thought it would be a good opportunity to just try something different, get a good viewpoint of the fair, and talk to some really neat people.” John believes the significance of the trip was “that [the DPD] could have chosen anybody in the DISD area… It shows that we like to branch out and help our community that way.”
Ms. Morton says that one of the best parts was “[having] one officer from the mounted unit come [over] and express his appreciation for the fact that we came to do this, and he told them what the benefit was and what they were doing was trying to desensitize the horses… Horses tend to be a little skittish sometimes and you don’t want that to happen with a 1,200 pound animal in a crowd of people… They split up the drum line into two different places in the barn and there was a lot of noise. They took them out on the Fair Grounds as well, [which] was really impressive and nice.”
For Mr. Putnam, the significance of this event is “that when the community needs some kind of volunteer work, [they] think of Jesuit first because they know that we send a lot of guys out to various locations to help and do things. Also, I think it says a lot about our guys; we had a lot of guys miss school Friday, so they had a lot of makeup work… It said a lot about the talent level of our guys because they can play flute and grab a snare drum and rock out. It wasn’t perfect, but it wasn’t bad.”
So, for those attending the Fair this year, keep an eye out for the Dallas Police Department Mounted Unit, and remember to appreciate them because they do keep you safe into the latter part of the year.
