16/ SEPTEMBER 2023 THE RIDER VISIT OUR WEBSITE


www.orha.on.ca


Ontario Reining Horse Association


President, Banquet Dan Fletcher president@orha.on.ca


1st Vice-President Rules & Disciplinary John Purdie


2nd Vice-President/ Treasurer Terri Purdie, finance@orha.on.ca


Past President Gary Yaghdjian


Elected Director - Secretary


Joanne Milton


Elected Director - Futurity Programs Leona McAtee orhafuturity@orha.on.ca / ob- bofuturity1991@gmail.com


Appointed Director - ORHA Futurity Programs Tracy Nelson nelsontracy@gmail.com


Appointed Directors - Professional Committee/ Sponsorships Loris Epis


Elected Director - Memberships


Samantha Speed - memberships@orha.on.ca


Appointed Director - Youth Advisor


Rebecca Nelles - oryha@orha.on.ca


Appointed Director - Media/Marketing


Alyssa VanKleek - socialmedia@orha.on.ca


Appointed Director - Print Media/Show Support


Ashley Janzen - ashleyjjanzen@gmail.com


Elected Director – Shows Mike Munroe, shows@orha.on.ca


ORHA’s Brooklyn Shannon at the AQHA Youth World Cup By Ashley Janzen Another rather


unique experience Brook- lyn had this year was rep- resenting Canada on a team in the AQHA Youth World Cup in Texas. Here is her own account of the event!


To start with, the You may recognize Brooklyn Shannon as an active ORHA


competitor and Vice President of the ORHyA. The vibrant 17 year old lives in Oro-Medonte with parents, Dale and Shilo. She recently graduated from Eastview Secondary School in Barrie, and currently works at HQ Taphouse in Craighurst. She is torn between pathways leading to a few career destinations: business, teaching, or becoming


majority of my team flew down to Texas. I, on the other hand, undertook a 25 hour drive with my par- ents to College Station. I quite enjoyed the journey down because we got to travel through some states that I had not been through before. To get to College Station, we went through Ontario (obvi- ously), Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, and Arkansas. On the way


down, we stopped at the sketchiest motel created by mankind in Arkansas. On the way back, we drove straight


through.


That was quite a jaunt, and to say I was sore for a cou- ple days after is an understatement. The day after we


arrived in Texas, my parents dropped me off to meet my team at the hotel I’d be staying at. All of the


a pilot! The world is her oyster… At just 5 years old, Brooklyn begged her parents to let her take


riding lessons, and eventually they caved! She started out with Eng- lish lessons at a local farm, but switched to Western disciplines when she was 7. She par- ticipated in halter, showmanship, and western


in


YWC teams stayed at the same hotel. My roommate for the 14 days was Hailey Olson from Saskatchewan. She was an awesome room- mate, and we had so many laughs and fun times, such as sneaking out to get toothbrushes and annoying our Australian neighbours. Our room was the only adjoining room, so we also “shared” with Lauren Irwin and Taylor Carney - both from Ontario. Our room was definitely the party room. Like most teenagers, I like to sleep in. But this experience to-


with her first horse, Ruby,


pleasure open


shows, and later added hunter under saddle, equitation, trail, and horseman- ship to her resume with a horse named Tex, on the APHA circuit. Brooklyn moved


into the AQHA world next, but her mom really wanted her to try reining, and after just one lesson, her fate was sealed! Brooklyn and her


current horse, Sparks From A Dually - af- fectionately known as Lil Man - recently travelled to Okla-


homa to compete in the 100x Reining Classic Non Pro Derby. She had modest goals of gaining experience and scoring above a 205, so was shocked and delighted when they beat out 124 competitors to place 4th in the Novice Horse, 5th in the L1, and 9th in the L2! “It was our best ride to date in the pen together, and it was so cool to have such a good ride in a pen and place like that,” Brooklyn recalls. Now that bar is raised for herself and Lil Man, and her next goal is to win a Derby with a trophy bronze or belt buckle, which would be her first reining “hardware”.


tally ruined my previous sleep schedule, and I now consider myself an early riser! We started our mornings, bright and early, at 4:30 AM. Our team met by the elevators before heading downstairs to join the other teams on the buses. Because of limited bus space, we were lucky if we got a seat. Trust me: when it is 5 in the morning, and you are still half asleep, standing is not ideal! Regardless, we made it to the fairgrounds in one piece. Breakfast was then served. One thing I found funny in Texas was that the majority of meals


were Mexican, including breakfasts! When I say that I was so sick of eating Mexican food every day, I mean it. I have not touched Mex- ican food since I’ve been back! At around 6/6:30, the team and I would head out towards the


barns. Every morning, we would have to muck stalls, check out our horses, fill water buckets, etc. The only thing that we did not have to do was feed (a separate feeding crew was brought in for all of the horses on the grounds). I typically stuck to water bucket duty. There is something about dumping and filling buckets that brings me joy! It is also one of the only tasks that I truly enjoy, seeing as I am ex- tremely allergic to shavings and hay - two essentials to life with horses! I would also bring my ranch riding horse, Hotshot, out for a walk and a graze every morning. On the first few days, there were no show classes, just clinics,


so that riders could get used to their horses. After that, it was game on! Our team was given five horses to work with: Wannabeabigstar (Pumpkin) was shown in showmanship, hunter under saddle, and equitation by Emily Yates. Storminon- themountain (Way- lon) was shown in hunter under sad- dle, equitation, and horsemanship by Taylor Carney, and in ranch riding by Ali Chernoff for the first slate. Terrific Lee Hot (MJ) was shown by Hailey Olsen in hunter under saddle and


equitation, Taylor in showmanship, and Emily in trail and horse- manship. Star Walker Lady (Tuska) was shown by Hailey in show- manship, trail, and horsemanship, and by Ali in ranch for the second state. And finally, Mr Lasts Gold Bar (Hotshot) was shown by me in ranch. Taylor also used him in equa- tion and horseman- ship when Waylon came up sore. I had a lot of


fun with Hotshot. He really did not know much; he was a roping horse who had the whole win- ter off and was back in work for two weeks before coming to this show. Though he was challenging and “green”, we still placed 11th for the first slate of ranch. For the cutting and reining horses, we drew them when they came in for reining day, and when we went to Stillwater for cut- ting day. For cutting, I drew San Sou Si (Stevie). Though I did not do as well as I had hoped with him, I still had a lot of fun and learned a lot of new skills and lessons. For the reining, I drew SNS Uvalde King (Uvalde). I called


him Mr U, and he will go down as one of my all time favourite horses to ride. I trusted him every step of the way during our pattern. I do not think that I have ever trusted a horse as much as him before, es- pecially in the circles. I tried to go for a high degree of difficulty with him, and it paid off: Reserve World Champions, with a 74 under one judge! Even though I trusted him for my pattern, I must admit that I was extremely nervous before I went to show him. I had only ridden him once, that very morning. I felt on the verge of throwing up all day, so to try and calm my nerves down, I skipped lunch and went out an hour before I was supposed to be on him warming up, to slowly tack up and make him look pretty. I would like to personally thank Tylar and Kaidyn for helping me with him that day. Kaidyn was great for banding and Tylar was the one who went out early with me to calm me down and get Mr U ready. I must say, we did one heck of a job making him look stunning. Addition- ally, if Lyle Lovett is reading this, I would like to buy your horse. One of the


biggest drawbacks to this experience was the heat. I have never in my life ex- perienced heat like that. I sweat every- where, and I looked like a mess at the end of the day. The worst day that we had was the cutting day. There was no air conditioning, and no airflow inside the barn whatsoever. There was air outside, but that was where the sun was! I had a cooling rag that I would dunk inside someone’s cooler every 10 minutes to try and cool myself off. I did figure out a trick to surviving the heat though: drink lots of electrolytes and do not care what you look or smell like at the end of the day, because it will not be pretty! Besides riding, there were many fun activities that the whole


YWC association and sometimes our team would do. For example, we went to Big Shots Golf one night. That was a rooftop golfing place that parents were allowed to come to, as well. Abby threw a club from the roof by accident! Another activity that I really liked was visiting the biggest tack store in Texas. I got lots of things there, like elastic bands, spray paint, and boots. There were lots of good deals to be found! I think my favourite part of this trip was making new friends.


I can now say that I have friends from not only across Canada, but around the world: New Zealand, Norway, China, Luxembourg, and more! That is not something that a lot of people can say. This was


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