Besides being an active light horse club, members of the Reigning Riders 4-H Club are busy at other levels.
Member Keltye Blais is one of four youth delegates to sit on the youth advisory council. This is a position that allows Keltye to be the voice of all the Northwest 4-H members to the Saskatchewan 4-H board.
Rayna Yasieniuk is the North Battleford District No. 34 president. As president, Rayna decided to organize a District No. 34 fun day in North Battleford. Her idea was very popular and approximately 38 4-H members gathered at the Bowlarena to go glow bowling May 8. It was a nice way to have members and parents from various clubs get together to get to know one another a little better and have fun.
The light horse members held a two-day barrel racing clinic at Hafford at the end of May. We had Ronda Sayers for our clinician.
Ronda is a local barrel racing and roping champion and role model, and all of us girls learned so much from having her out. Whether you follow the rodeo circuit or are a little Cloverbud, Ronda was able to share her knowledge, give guidance and ideas and explained everything in detail to all of the clinic participants. She taught us all so much!
The North Battleford 4-H Regional Show was the weekend after the clinic. It was a beautiful day outside and the club had a blast. Everyone made a little money at the horse show, gymkhana and in the multiple show, but, more importantly, we all created some new friends and memories.
One great experience happened at the end of the day. We were lucky enough to have crossed paths with the people from Communities for Veterans, the Ride Across Canada Foundation. They happened to be staying at the ag grounds while we were there.
After supper they gave an informative presentation on veterans and then some clubs presented them with donations, which they were very thankful for. After that we went back to their campsite and visited. We laughed, danced and played music with them. We wished them safe travels as they continue their way, riding horses all the way to Newfoundland.
Next weekend the light horse girls will be in Hafford working to receive their certification of Equi-Health, Canada’s Equine Health and Emergency First Aid course. Instruction will be given by Michelle Woodall. We will be taught how to prepare, how to react and how to handle equine emergency situations while waiting for a vet to arrive. Vital signs, lacerations, colic, punctures, choke, casting, pain source ID and more will be covered.
Not to be outdone by the girls, our three boys, Ty, Lane, and Riley, who are in trapping and tracking, have also been busy. They hired an outfitter friend, Tyler Boyle, for five separate outings. Before that they had Tyler take them muskrat trapping a couple of times.
Tyler is such a fun, wise and professional outfitter. They learned a ton from him. Tyler showed them signs of rodents such as muskrats, when to trap, how to trap and then how to clean, stretch, dry and sell the fur.
After muskrat season was snow goose hunting. Tyler explained about the spring hunt for snow geese and how the birds are over-grazing and irreversibly damaging the tundra. He told us all stories about the overpopulation of these birds and explained responsible conservation of such species. One example is that to have a positive influence by this bird there should be two million of them, and right now the population has exploded to approximately 14 million. Besides destroying habitat, farmers’ crops may be damaged during their migration.
Due to the overabundance of these birds, they ended up having an extremely successful hunt.
Then Tyler suggested they try sturgeon fishing in the North Saskatchewan River. The boys met at the river with Tyler twice and again were taught so much. Sturgeon fishing is a catch and release process, and Tyler again made their trips enjoyable and informative.
Riley was also able to attend a local 4-H archery shoot, and was the archery judge for the North Battleford Regional Show.
We think our club is really living the 4-H motto, “Learn to do by Doing.”
