Relayhorse e-magazine March 2018 RHeM Feb 2018 2 26 2 | Page 7

by the holder. Timing is everything, said Abrahamson, from
when to start and when to jump, and “every second, every
horse-length counts.”
“And it’s all done bareback,” said Abrahamson.
Abrahamson said he picked up some knowledge of relay racing
from his uncle Jonathan Abrahamson who had been a member
of the Omak Express team and is now part of Abrahamson
Relay. The bulk of his Indian Relay education, however, came
from watching videos on YouTube and then putting in long
hours on the track. It has taken him two years of consistent
practice to become a championship rider.
The competition season begins for him in June, though practice
begins in spring. Over the summer, he and his team fami-
ly-owned Abrahamson Relay, are on the track every day prac-
ticing exchanges and working with the horses to ensure sure
they’ll stand still and keep calm when it comes to race day. It
takes dedication. Abrahamson lives in Coulee Dam, but travels
45 minutes each way to Omak to practice daily during the sum-
mer. The race season extends into the school year.
“Once school starts, I don’t ever get to practice, because we go
straight to the races on the weekend,” said Abrahamson. It also
becomes a challenge to balance his schoolwork. “It’s hard. I try
to finish everything by Friday or even Thursday. One race was in
Pendleton during exam week. It was tough. I didn’t really get
to study.”
They took first place in Indian Relay at Pendleton Roundup this
fall, however, and Abrahamson is also doing well in his courses.
He treats his academics with equal dedication and has found
success in the classroom as well as on the racetrack. Abraham-
son was nominated by his tribe for the MOU Tribal Scholarship
and was selected for the WSU Tribal Nation Building Leadership
Program that prepares students with the skills needed to be fu-
ture tribal leaders. He plans to use his mechanical engineering
degree to go back and work on his reservation as an engineer
at Grand Coulee Dam. His engineer’s salary will go to “buy more
horses and better horse trailers.”
When on the track, Abrahamson does his best to stay
focused on the race and use the other competitors as a
source of motivation, adding, “everyone makes everyone
better and we kind of push each other.” The final event for
Indian Relay 2017 was the “Champion of Champions Indian
Relay Race” in Billings, MT, during the last weekend of Sep-
tember, hosted by the Horse Nations Indian Relay Council.
Before the race, there was an issue of whether or not the
rain was going to be a tough factor all weekend. There
were weather predictions for possible rain all weekend. Be-
cause of the heavy rainfall, the dirt
track at the MetraPark stadium
turned into thick mud before the
weekend
came. Race
officials
decided
to still
hold the
race. For
his team,
Abrahamson recalls
racing in mud before but not to the extent of the thickness
there.
“[The mud] was so deep and muddy. We just wanted to
keep the horses safe.” To do so, the team made sure they
wrapped the horse’s ankles well to give them stability and
strength to combat the track.
While at the “Champion of Champions” race, Abrahamson
Relay had a couple goals in mind: to do better than last
year’s race and to continue their winning streak that they
were currently on.
“We just wanted to keep our motivation, everything go-
ing… as we went into the race.”
7