Caledonia Drill Team Rides Their Way To The Minnesota State Fair | Local News

Hearts and Hooves Drill Team riders Lynzie Woyczik, Adeline Meiners, Ellie Niebeling, Brairy Proulx, Samantha Witt and Paislee Linn line up for practice.

Paislee Linn and horse Prancy take on Adeline Meiners and horse McRae in a friendly pre-practice race.

Samantha (Sammy) Witt maintains great form while riding her horse Beauty.

Brairy Prouly rides horse Dusty around the ring during Hearts and a Hooves Drill Team practice at the County fairgrounds.

Adeline Meiners and horse McRae take a practice lap around the arena at the County fairgrounds.

Caledonia's Hearts and Hooves competition drill team practice speed, spacing and keeping an even tempo with their horses.

Hearts and Hooves Drill Team riders Lynzie Woyczik, Adeline Meiners, Ellie Niebeling, Brairy Proulx, Samantha Witt and Paislee Linn line up for practice.

The Caledonia’s Hearts and Hooves Drill Team has come a long way in eight years.

It started out small with four participants in 2014. However, the program was revamped two years later, in 2016 when Mandi Niebeling took over as the drill team’s coach, after her daughters expressed interest in joining the team and urged the family to get involved.

Niebeling had no previous experience working with or coaching a drill team. As a result, her and the team had to learn as they went along.

“You know, the kids were little enough at the time I thought, 'it’s just an opportunity for them to get together and ride with their friends once a week,'” said coach Niebeling.

Paislee Linn and horse Prancy take on Adeline Meiners and horse McRae in a friendly pre-practice race.

The drill team did compete at state in 2016. However, at that time, there was no regional competition, due to the extracurricular being so new. The drill team therefore did not have to meet any qualifications to compete at the state level.

According to rider Ellie Nibeling, Caledonia’s drill team placed “dead in the middle of the pack,” at the state competition in 2016 and ranked third out of six teams.

“It was a great experience for the kids then, and I guess the whole time since we’ve been trying to get back there,” said coach Niebeling.

After 2016, drill teams became significantly more popular and, in response to this growing interest, the state level 4-H created a regional competition. Caledonia’s Hearts and Hooves Drill Team has competed at this regional competition every year since its enactment in 2017.

Samantha (Sammy) Witt maintains great form while riding her horse Beauty.

However, the drill team has struggled at regionals in previous years, due to a variety of extenuating circumstances. One year, the drill team’s music was not approved, and the team was forced to change their selection an hour before their performance.

“We had to change it at regionals,” said rider Ellie Niebeling. “So, we went in there blind.”

“It was either that or don’t compete,” said coach Niebeling. “We quick changed up our music, and the kids went out and did a great job, but it’s just everyone was kind of flustered.”

Another year, the drill team got into a car accident on the way to regionals. Thankfully, no one was hurt, but the incident did cause the team to be late for the competition and therefore not perform at their best.

2022 is the first year that the team has qualified for state since 2016.

Brairy Prouly rides horse Dusty around the ring during Hearts and a Hooves Drill Team practice at the County fairgrounds.

Though there are currently 15 active members of the Caledonia Hearts and Hooves drill team, the decision was made early on to split these 15 members into two separate teams, with eight members being on a competition team and the additional seven being set as a secondary group.

This decision to split the team in two was made for a few reasons. Those in the secondary group are either new riders with a new horse or are younger and therefore not eligible to compete. Though it's the competition team that qualified for state, the secondary group did perform an exception drill at the Houston County Fair and did well.

There are two types of drills that teams can qualify to perform at state: freestyle drills and compulsory drills.

Freestyle drills are made up internally by the drill team, whereas compulsory drills are dictated by the State Horse Project and are uniform across all drill team competitors.

“All teams do the same drill. They do all the same maneuvers in the same way,” said coach Niebeling.

On Aug. 6 Caledonia’s Hearts and Hooves Drill Team scored 110 out of a possible 130 points at regionals for their freestyle drill and 116 out of a possible 130 points for their compulsory drill.

Caledonia’s compulsory drill score was high enough at regionals to allow them to continue on in the competition and head to state.

“Freestyle is fun, because you can pick whatever you want to do, and then the compulsory is, you know, like I said, more precision and stuff, but everybody's doing the exact same thing, so you have to somehow make yourself stand out a little bit from the rest of the crowd” said coach Niebeling.

Adeline Meiners and horse McRae take a practice lap around the arena at the County fairgrounds.

Drill teams are scored based on their timing, spacing, evenness and consistency, as well as their horsemanship and how well the horses respond to their riders.

The Hearts and Hooves practice one to two times a week during the summer, after school lets out. The team gets together every Tuesday, as well as every other Wednesday.

Coach Niebeling tries to always end practices on a good note. Once the team lands the drill, that’s when practice ends and they are done for the day. Practice times vary as a result and can range from one to three hours.

The team also has meetings once a month during the winter to help organize the team and prepare for competitions.

Caledonia's Hearts and Hooves competition drill team practice speed, spacing and keeping an even tempo with their horses.

Drill team “it’s like a choreographed dance. … or synchronized swimming,” said coach Niebeling.

Reach associate editor Rachel Stock at 507-724-3475.

The Hearts and Hooves Drill Team is always welcome to new members, even if they do not have a horse, as coach Niebeling and others are willing to help new riders lease horses as needed.

Open registration for 4-H starts in October. If anyone in the community is interested in joining the Hearts and Hooves Drill team, they can reach out to coach Mandi Niebeling at 608-406-0147.

The state competition will be hosted at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds on Sept. 17. Though the drill team competition is only a one-day event, many of Caledonia’s drill team members will be competing in other state fair events.

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