he Griffith family is from the Stockholm area and have three children who are members competing in the MHSRA. Sheradyn competes in HS Barrel Racing, HS Goat Tying and HS Pole Bending, while her brothers Dawson and Drydan compete in the roping events.
Their love and enthusiasm for the horses is clearly evident as you watch them with their animals, helping each other to better themselves not only in the sport but also as individuals.
Griffith Family
A big thank you goes out to Lynette Griffith for her description below of how she and the family became involved in the sport of Rodeo and the MHSRA.
Lynette started by saying, “‘Did you know there is a horse tied up in your front yard?’ Is a phone call we received one early Saturday morning back in 2007. From this day forward our family has grown to love horses, and the many aspects of horses from showing to rodeo. My husband and I are not horse people, and hardly knew the first thing about horses. We have grown together as a family learning all that we do now. Our children first took lessons and did some trail riding. As their love for horses grew so did their abilities and desire to do and learn more about them.”
Explaining their involvement with rodeo, she said, “We started doing some showing, and travelled all over Saskatchewan and Manitoba, going to little community shows and meeting lots of great people. We had our weekend show family that we looked forward to seeing each weekend. At most shows, they have a gymkhana section, which is where my daughter, Sheradyn, got hooked on the speed of horses and the thrill of barrel racing and pole bending. Both are events she competes in and does well in MHSRA. For our two boys, Dawson and Drydan, it was the introduction to roping that happened after the shows, and the kids swinging ropes and roping the dummy that got them interested in rodeo.”
The interest in rodeo was ignited in the youth and the love of the lifestyle continued to develop. Lynette said, “We eventually joined our local riding club, Twin Valley riding club, where our children learned more on the rodeo side of riding. One of the families we showed with also became members here and were the first to venture to join MHSRA. After they attended one of their first MHSRA rodeos back in 2014 they called us and encouraged us to also join. Their words to us were ‘There are kids there riding and competing at all levels, you don’t have to feel like you aren’t competitive enough.’ So we decided to give it a try and from that first rodeo we attended in Virden, Manitoba we have been a part of MHSRA.”
Speaking about the important lessons that are ongoing, she said, “These rodeos have provided our children with so many, many life learnings, winning is big and losing is hard. They have learned to be accountable, responsible, compassionate, encouraging, and above all they are great horse-loving individuals. We have spent many hours going up and down the road together as a family which is such a rarity in this day and age for families. Families don’t spend enough time together, but we look forward to spending this time with our children; they also have other family members and friends that take time out of their schedule to come and watch them.”
Lynette Griffith added, “Our children have made some great friends, competing against them in the rodeo arena by getting ice cream together at the end of the day. Not only have our children developed friendships with competitors their own age, but with the many parents of those competitors. Some of these parents help them in the arena at each rodeo. Others are there for support after the rodeo is finished. Parents have great knowledge as many also previously competed, or are still competing in, the rodeo arena and are willing to share their knowledge with the kids. This is one of the great aspects of MHSRA, for that our family is grateful. These friendships will go up and down the road with them wherever they might travel for whatever reason throughout life.”
.png;w=120;h=80;mode=crop)
