THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 30, 1994 TAG: 9410290036
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY IDA KAY JORDAN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 174 lines
THE SAGA OF the Wild West long has fascinated the American public. And many a child has dreamed of riding off into a beautiful sunset to a new day on the other side of the mountain.
For some adults, the dream still lives. As weekend cowboys, they ride trails and rope mustangs. They enjoy being outdoors - and quite a few of them actually smoke Marlboros.
``Sometimes when you're riding the trail through the woods, it's like a flashback to the 1800s,'' said Lee Cherry, whose wife and daughter run Cherry Point Stables. ``For a few minutes, you are like they were, outdoors with your horse and at one with nature. It's really refreshing.''
But, he quickly added, ``all you have to do is get into your car and put your foot on the gas for instant return to 1994.''
Cherry, formerly associated with his family's Cherry Rug Co. here, runs his own carpet company in Norfolk on weekdays.
On weekends, he sheds his coat and tie for jeans and a kerchief and heads for the open spaces on Shoulders Hill Road in Suffolk not too far from Portsmouth.
Cherry teaches Western riding on Saturday and Sunday. Some former students have graduated to the ``posse'' that rides with the novices.
On a recent Sunday morning, the usual Western gang was hanging around the stables. Novices were evident by the shoes they wore.
TOM BAKER OF Norfolk, a 68-year-old retiree from the Navy and the civil service, was there for his second lesson wearing tennis shoes.
``Horses always intrigued me but until last week I hadn't ridden one in 52 years,'' Baker said. ``I like cowboy movies and it's unbelievable what a horse can do.''
Baker found Cherry Point Stables in the telephone book when he was hit with ``a desire to do something different.'' At $20 an hour for a horse and a lesson, he thinks he gets his money's worth.
For David and Jo-Nell Chadwick, a Churchland couple in their early 40s, riding the range is something ``we always talked about doing.''
Last Valentine's Day, David Chadwick, who works in personnel management, made the first move, biting the bit and buying the lessons as a valentine to Jo-Nell, a part-time teacher at Alliance Christian Academy.
Last weekend, the couple ``graduated'' to independent trail-riding, having completed Cherry's course of instruction.
So far, they haven't bought a horse, but you get the feeling there is one, if not two, in their future.
Jo-Nell Chadwick said that they now look at cowboy movies on television.
``We watch how they ride,'' she said. And they try to emulate some of the best, her husband said.
COWBOY-STYLE RIDING appeals to some people because of the attire, Cherry said. Others like Western because it's relaxed and out in the open.
Many people want to ride, he said.
``They just don't want to wear jodphurs and ride around a ring.''
He's been riding all his life and went Western about seven years ago.
His daughter, Christie, 17, meanwhile continues riding for show bringing home honors to the stables.
Christie described the difference between Western and English riding.
Western is ``more pleasurable,'' she said. ``It's a deeper saddle and you're more relaxed.''
An English saddle sits the rider straight up and directly on the horse's center of gravity, she said, to deal with jumping.
When her dad jokingly added ``sissy stuff'' to her description, Christie retorted: ``You think it's sissy, you try jumping over a four-foot fence on a horse.''
Cherry pushed his cowboy hat on his head and hopped on Tradition, his 3 1/2-year-old Arab.
``She's a real cowboy horse,'' Cherry said. ``I teach from the horse and she's trained to take care of everything.''
He demonstrated with Tradition's help the techniques of Western riding.
``The working trot is what the American cowboy used,'' he said. ``It's very relaxed like jogging.''
When Cherry finished, he had the horse take a bow and then dropped on the ground.
``You think this is a bow but really it was a very practical thing in the old West, '' he said. ``When a cowboy was on the ground, his horse put a leg up so the cowboy could grasp it and then he put his head down, so the fallen rider could hang onto the neck and get up.''
A horse's neck is very strong, Cherry said, and that's a good reason for a rider to hang onto the neck in case of a fall. There's no feeling in the mane. That's why the cowboys used the mane rather than the saddle horn to get on and off a horse.
Novice Western riders get a lot of history and physiology during Cherry's lessons.
``But I was glad he had told us about going for the neck if you were falling,'' Jo-Nell Chadwick said. ``I was falling and I just wrapped my arms around the horse's neck and slid to the ground.''
Everything the cowboys did and wore was practical, Cherry said.
Cowboys boots are designed with pointed toes to fit the stirrups and offer support to the ankles at the same time. In addition, they protect the rider from snakebites on the ground. The kerchief is not just for show, but for sweat and dust and to serve as a makeshift bandage or tourniquet.
ALTHOUGH SHE'S HEARD it all before, Jaci Edwards, a 15-year-old Nansemond River High School student, listened as Cherry explained Western traditions.
She has been riding Sundays for almost a year.
Why?
``It's fun! It's energetic! It's relaxing!'' she replied.
Newport New motorcycle policeman Glenn Johnson has been hanging around even longer than Jaci.
``I'm sort of like a ranch hand,'' he said. ``I work the fences and keep mechanical things going.''
Johnson said he had tried to get Newport News to start a horse patrol but so far no money had been appropriated.
The motorcycle is the next best assignment, he said.
``So I ride a motorcycle Monday through Friday and horses on weekends,'' Johnson said.
Wearing jeans and a plaid shirt with boots, he lit a Marlboro and headed off to work on a pickup that had gone dead Sunday morning.
THE MOST WESTERN-IZED of all are Ralph and Patti Tarnowski, of Siesta Gardens.
On weekdays, he manufactures concrete ornamental statues in Virginia Beach and she works in carpet sales. On weekends, they head for the stables.
``When you pull off the road, it's like everything disappears,'' Patti Tarnowski said. ``It's a mental health holiday every weekend. You take off your high heels and put on your boots and you get dirty and you ride through the beautiful woods and you see the sun set. It's wonderful.''
She always was ``horse crazy,'' said her husband.
``We came out here to go trail riding and within weeks, we had bought one horse and then we got another,'' she said. ``You get involved with it.''
For some, taking Western riding lessons is a matter of saving face on a vacation.
``Some people going out West on vacation come take a few lessons, so when they get to a dude ranch, they'll know a little bit about riding,'' Cherry said. ``We teach them how to get on and off a horse and things like that.''
Meanwhile, some people use Cherry Point for family outings.
Last Sunday, Craig and Darlene Randel of Churchland brought their three sons and a cousin to take a trail ride.
``I rode in high school, but this is the first time since then,'' Darlene Randel said. ``The boys have never tried.''
And, she added, the outcome of the first venture would determine future outtings.
FAMILY BY FAMILY, the Western gang grows. Cherry estimates that he's taught about 150 people how to ride like a cowboy.
``We're even going to set up a western village out here,'' he said.
A tack room and canteen, it'll be a place specially for the Western riders. The frame building that will house the canteen is small and looks straight off a movie set.
That's appropriate for a new breed of weekend cowboys whose knowledge of the Wild West first came from celluloid shots. ILLUSTRATION: Photos by GARY C. KNAPP
ON THE COVER
Lee Cherry gives some pointers to cowboys learning the ropes while
riding the trails.
After a long day on the trail, weekend cowboys walk their horses
back to the stable to cool off.
Photos by GARY C. KNAPP
Peter Getz, top, prepares to rope a horse. Getz is a student at
Virginia Tech, where he is studying to become a veterinarian. He
hopes to specialize in large animal medicine.
Glen Johnson, left, cleans the hooves of his horse. Care of horses
is part of the training Cherry Point Stables.
Lee Cherry lights up while supervising some riders. He may look like
the Marlboro man, but that's not his brand.
Donna Andreozzi, a grandmother and member of the 4-H Club, leads
Jack Edward, Ralph Belfatti and Pam Bynum along a trial.
by CNB