WEYBURN - Charlize Hallberg had tears in her eyes and a big smile when her name was announced as the 2021 Queen for the Saskatchewan Riding Clubs Association recently, at their provincial riding competition in Moose Jaw.
The 17-year-old Grade 12 student from the Weyburn Comprehensive School loves her horses, and has been riding since she was six or seven years old.
“When I was nine, we got our first horses, Jack and Baby,” explained Charlize, noting she rode Jack and her younger sister Brie rode Baby. Later on, her sister gradually stopped riding her horse, so Charlize made Baby her main riding horse. More recently, her sister got another horse, Belle, and all of the horses are housed at their grandparents farm just east of Weyburn.
Charlize is in her eighth year as a member of the Lomond Light Horse 4-H Club, and has been riding, learning about horses and horse-training. For the first time this year she entered the riding competitions held by the Sun Country Riding Club.
“Any kind of chance I get to take the horses somewhere to ride, I try to take that chance,” said Charlize, adding her leader in the riding club then asked if she might be interested in entering the Queen contest for the SRCA provincials.
“I thought that sounds like so much fun,” she said, explaining there were a number of components to running for the SRCA Queen. These included a requirement to do 12 hours of volunteer work, getting sponsorships from local businesses and for belt buckles at the SRCA provincials, and earning points by getting forms filled out by friends and fellow riders.
She was able to raise just over $4,000 in sponsorships, plus she lined up five belt buckle sponsors. In addition, she did some volunteering at the provincial competition, including sitting at the 50-50 table, selling programs, and by just helping out wherever she could, like opening gates in the arena or helping out younger children taking part in the competition.
In the riding competitions at provincials, she competed in Western pleasure, Western horsemanship, reining, and took part in barrels, poles and the stake race.
In addition, for the Queen competition, Charlize had a showmanship component where she met with a judge who asked her questions about her horse and horses in general. She then had to take Baby over to a bucket of brushes, and she was given 10 minutes to brush down her horse and get it show-ready.
As they later lined up in the arena for the announcement of the winners of the King/Queen contest, Charlize recalled her leader, who is the vice-president of the SRCA, asked if she was nervous.
“I said I’ve been nervous this whole weekend. Then when the announcer said the first place winner for the queen was Charlize Hallberg, I had tears in my eyes and a big grin on my face. It was pretty exciting,” she said, adding she then had photos taken of her with Baby and a special prize saddle.
Asked what plans she has for after graduation, she said she would like to take training as a pediatric nurse, and is hoping to do horse-training of colts on the side. Charlize is currently training two horses, one for a client and one of her own, a four-year-old named Kansas who was untrained when she bought her last winter.
She learned some techniques for horse training at her 4-H club, from her leader who took schooling to be a horse trainer. “We all got young horses that year and she helped all of us learn how to train them, and taught us different techniques,” she said.
“I’ll be a 4-H member as long as I can. It’s so much fun, it’s a great opportunity for any kid or any adult too,” added Charlize, saying she also loves being in the riding club as it’s open to any age of people who like riding horses. She noted there are very young children who take part all the way up to a rider who is 90 years old.
“It’s such a great experience, and everybody’s so supportive of each other,” she said.
