Photos by Eloise Ogden/MDN Minot Trail Riders take part in the 2018 North Dakota State Fair Parade in Minot.

The Minot Trail Riders isn’t a new name in the area, having been around since 1940. However the organization is constantly looking for ways to challenge people and their horses while bringing fun, safe and family friendly entertainment to the community.

The organization sees membership from a wide array of towns outside of Minot, including Ryder, Velva, Mohall, Maxbass and Berthold.

“I can’t imagine anywhere else people can go to in this area to get this kind of an experience with their horse,” said Joni Haner, board member and club secretary.

Haner and her family became members of the Trail Riders in 1997 after they visited an annual meeting on a whim. The meeting sparked their interest and the friendliness of the group and wanting to do more with their horses got them in.

“We very much encourage everyone to come out, with or without a horse, and experience what we have going on Wednesday nights in the summertime,” Haner said.

Minot Trail Riders meet every Wednesday over the summer months for their family fun nights, which include supper and socializing along with working with the horses. The club also tries to be supportive of local 4-H programs and will offer up their arena for a livestock and horse workout day in the spring.

“We have an annual competition that we call the ‘Extreme Obstacle Challenge,'” Haner said. “It’s an annual event that we put on that is becoming bigger and bigger and people are starting to take note of it outside of the area.”

The Extreme Obstacle Challenge puts horses and their riders in situations that wouldn’t typically be seen in the wild. Some of the challenges include leading horses through a tunnel of pool noodles, under covered wagons, onto platforms and over tires.

Overall, the event consists of 10 challenging obstacles within the MTR arena and is timed. Scoring is based off of the time and number of obstacles completed with the competition split into three age groups. The obstacle challenge also has prize money up for grabs that draws attention as well. 2019 will bring the seventh annual Extreme Obstacle Challenge to Minot.

Last year, MTR started a Versatility Ranch Horse Competition, which was well received with plans to make that an annual event.

Ranch Horse Competitions promote the athletic ability and versatility of a horse according to the American Quarter Horse Association.

The competition is broken up into multiple classes — Ranch Trail, Reining and Ranch Riding — and entrants can enter one or each class. Each class paid out money and then there was an overall winner of the day for those who participated in each class.

“For our first year, we were really impressed. We had 40 entries and it was quite a long day but it was a fun day,” Haner said. “So I’m sure we will be doing that again.”

For the Ranch Riding class, horses show individually while judges are looking for relaxed, responsive horses with soft and cadenced gaits.

Reining measures the horse’s ability to perform basic handling maneuvers.

In the Ranch Trail class, obstacles that can be found on a ranch are arranged approximate to how they can be found during the course of everyday work. Judges look for a well-trained, responsive horse and well-mannered horse that can correctly navigate and negotiate the course.

“People come not just to compete and be on their animals, but I think it’s fun to come and have supper and fun to come and see friends,” Haner said. “It’s quite a social thing in the summertime.”

Haner considers the Minot Trail Riders a hidden gem to the Minot community due to the fact that many might not know it’s there or know what it’s about.

“We have a really nice facility and people that come out to our arena and come out to our grounds are very complimentary,” she said. “I don’t know if people really realize our grounds are out there…It’s good fresh air and good, clean fun.”