Racing across the field like a bolt of lightening then thundering back up the hill, the Mystery Rider is gone in flash. As the football game continues, her presence is always felt.
While Southwest Louisiana’s greatest mystery will remain disguised, the American Press was given a peek behind the mask of McNeese State University’s legendary Mystery Rider — and she lives up to the hype.
A senior, she is a triple major with plans to graduate next fall with degrees in economic science, animal science and pre-veterinary medicine. Her goal is to attend veterinary school post graduation and become a large-animal veterinarian who travels to where the animals who need her are.
“I’ve narrowed it down over the last couple of years and decided I really want to work with the bucking horses and bulls because no one wants to mess with them. They’re calm, but not all the time. I’ve got a passion for solving problems and animals have problems that not everybody can solve. Animals can’t talk and I’m not a big talker — which is mind-blowing to most people — but I read things real well and I find it easy to read animals and see what they need without them being able to tell us.”
Her gift for calmness and steadiness in a world of distraction made her the perfect choice to be deemed McNeese’s Mystery Rider.
Legend has it, the “Horse and Rider” statue on the corner of Ryan and Sale streets comes to life every football home game to lead the team to the stadium, check that fans are enthusiastic and gather any stragglers.
This year’s Mystery Rider — and she’s already been asked to don the mask next season — trots onto the field on a 12-year-old registered American quarter horse named Mags.
“It’s amazing,” she said. “I had a little old lady come up to me at a game a couple of weeks ago — obviously she didn’t know who I was because I had a mask on — and she said, ‘You know, you’re the only reason I come to these games. I don’t really care about watching football, but I love watching you.’ That made my whole day.”
Keeping Mags at ease as thousands of McNeese fans scream in jubilation hasn’t been a problem.
“At the first game, I was really worried about the cannons going off and then for the Salute to Service game I was really worried about the flyover, but she’s like a rock,” the Mystery Rider said. “Mags has been all over the country. She’s been put through a lot and she handles it all. This is all her. When it’s game time, we get in there and get to it.”
The pair get a minute and 10 seconds each game to perform.
“We spent a lot of time before the season trying to figure out what route we were going to take through the field and decided on a complete full lap around the field, then we run up the middle, we stand on the McNeese logo in the middle and we run out — all while carrying a flag that says ‘Ride For the Brand.’ ”
She said the flag isn’t heavy — she’s carried larger for rodeo appearances — “but I do have to watch it because it’ll smack me in the face.”
Her favorite part is the fans — who make their way past the tailgaters to the back of the football field just to say hello to her and Mags before and after their appearances. What’s unnerving, though, is the jumbotron.
“It’s a different feeling to see yourself up there,” she said. “I don’t lose focus — my mare is super focused, I’m super focused — but it’s a little crazy to see yourself up there while being completely disguised to the world.”
And it can be a bit warm under her layers of disguise — which include boots, jeans, black trench coat, neck gaiter and cowboy hat.
“I’m grateful for the fact it’s going to be cool this weekend. It’s ridiculously hot and by the end of the ride I’m going, ‘Oh my gosh, get this off of me,’ ” she said with a laugh.
Ranked on both national and international stages for showing cutting and cow horses with the American Quarter Horse Association, the Mystery Rider is ranked fifth in the world and has held the national title the past four years.
“For cow horse, a single cow is let out into the arena and we — the horse and rider as a team — have to make the cow do a series of movements,” she said. “We keep the cow on one end of the arena just to show that we are in control of the cow, the cow is not in control of us. Then we send it down the long wall, cut it off and turn it in the opposite direction twice and then we have to make it do circles in both directions.”
Roping isn’t involved; the sport is about control and guidance.
The Mystery Rider said she began riding horses when she was 5 and began showing them at 8.
“I’ve always had the bug,” she said. “My parents didn’t ride. It was just one of those things.”
Right off the bat, she became a title holder in English riding — a style of horse riding characterized by a flat saddle, upright posture and using both hands for precise control of the horse. Eventually, though, she wanted to try something different.
“I had great trainers growing up that showed cutting and cow horses,” she said. “So in high school, I swapped over from riding to cutting and cow horses — and haven’t gone back.”
The Chalmette native said she ultimately chose McNeese for her undergraduate degrees for the chance to learn from retired Air Force Col. Dwight Bertrand, a professor in the Harold and Pearl Dripps School of Agricultural Sciences.
“He can quite literally tell you any student’s entire family tree,” she said. “He really values himself on knowing his students on a deeper level and he really impressed my mom on our campus tour. He’s the whole reason I came here. He’s utterly amazing.”
When she’s not in class, the Mystery Rider can be found training as a member of the McNeese Rodeo Team. In fact, that’s where she was when she was given the gig.
“They called (coach) and said they wanted someone who could handle it and whose horse could handle it and he called me,” she said. “I said, ‘Sure. Let’s go for it.’ I’ve always been good at being able to shut everything out. I started showing horses at 8 so it’s long been part of my mental game. That’s a big thing, the mental game, and it’s big with our rodeo team. Everything starts with your mind. I honestly don’t hear anything once the music starts.”
And when the ride is over, Mags’ celebration begins.
“She likes French fries,” the Mystery Rider said with a laugh. “She’s not your apples, peppermint or carrots kind of horse, she’s French fries and granola bars. After the game, we roll out and she gets to go home, get her fries, and know she did good.”
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