Jim Wakefield rides up to the window at the Evergreen Assisted Living Residence in O’Neill, Neb., as resident Rosanne Cullen and med aide Deb Barrelman (standing) watch. The horse, Chester, was the first head horse ridden by Riley’s older brother, Brady, who died in a vehicle accident in 2015. PHOTOS COURTESY NANCY SCHMITZ:
Knights in Shining Armor
T
BY RUTH NICOLAUS
wo “knights in shining armor” “rescued” the residents of the Evergreen Assisted Living Residence in O’Neill, Neb. from the gloom of quarantine. On April 8, Riley Wakefield and his dad, Jim, entertained the 50 residents through their windows, on horseback, with Riley’s trick roping, and with Strawberry, the family goat. Riley, who is a senior at Northwestern Oklahoma State in Alva, Okla., is home in O’Neill, due to the virus, and is busy with
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TRI-STATE LIVESTOCK NEWS
classes. But when his dad suggested “visiting” the assisted living residence, he was game. So they loaded up Chester, Riley’s horse, and the goat, and headed to town. “I put on my cowboy clothes and my chaps and did my rope tricks in front of their windows,” he said. An accomplished tie-down roper and steer wrestler, Riley knows a few rope tricks: the butterfly and the ocean wave being among them, so he entertained, even standing on horseback spinning a rope while Chester munched green grass. “Dad led the goat up to the window, so they could get a better view,” Riley said.
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