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l a n o i g e R VOLUME 13 NUMBER 46
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2015
Big Valley girl rides to success STACEY LAVALLIE WEEKENDER REPORTER For Big Valley’s Charlene Sereda, working with her quarterhorse Livvy is one of the funnest things she can do — and that fun has recently led Sereda, and Livvy, to earn some accolades. In late August, Sereda and Livvy — whose registered name is Cee Chicadee — headed to the Westerner Grounds in Red Deer to compete in the Canadian National Quarterhorse Show. There, the 19-yearold rider rode in the youth and novice-youth reining competition and the youth and novice-youth ranch riding competition. Sereda turned 19 in June, which meant at the start of the year she was 18, so she was still eligible to compete in the youth categories — though this was her last year. The reining competitions had Sereda riding Livvy in certain patterns, one of 12 or 13 possible ones that are used. “You complete a pattern for the judges,� she explained. “The person with the overall highest score at the end wins. There’s sliding stops, spins, roll-backs, circles and lead changes.� Ranch Riding, which started in the United States and has been in Canada for a couple of years, is very similar — the rider completes a pre-de-
termined pattern set by the competition — but in this, there’s more ranching-specific tasks the rider must complete, which includes everything from reining, but adds slowing down and speeding up, side-passing, and going over obstacles like logs. “These patterns are all designed to test how well controlled your horse is,� Sereda said. “(Ranch Riding adds) basically anything you’d experience on a ranch. I tried it last year and did pretty well, so I wanted to try again this year.� This year, Sereda did more than well — she won in every category in which she competed, bringing home four Canadian Nationals Quarterhorse titles. “It was very neat,� she recalled. “There’s not usually a lot of youth kids. This is one of the first years I’ve had other kids, so it was a real competition.� In the last week of September and the first week of October, Sereda and Livvy returned to the Westerner Grounds for the Canadian Supreme. “It’s a whole another show,� Sereda said. There, she competed in the non-professional “rein-box� competition, which had her complete a reining pattern as in the Canadian Nationals, first, followed by “boxing� a cow in a separate event.
Contributed photos
Charlene Sereda and her horse, Livvy, come to an abrupt halt, spraying dirt before them.
Below: Charlene Sereda and her horse, Cee Chicadee a.k.a. Livvy, pose for a photo.
The two scores are added together. “I went last year for the first time, and I had a lot of fun so I decided I wanted to go back again this year,� Sereda explained, adding that she’s not professional — she trains very little and just mostly has fun with it. Last year, Sereda and Livvy took first place in the rein-box. This year, there were two non-professional divisions in the category, one for people who’ve had less than $1,000 in winnings — for people new to the sport, Sereda explained — and the unlimited “reserve� division. “I’ve been riding my whole life and reining for the last six years,� Sereda
said. And it showed, as this year she won first place again in the lessthan competition — and tied with Helga Rogh to share the first-place finish in the reserve category. “It’s a huge adrenaline rush,� Sereda said. “It’s really exciting, and as far as horse sports go, it’s the most exciting thing I can do with my horse and be completely in control.� Sereda called herself “a bit of a chicken,� saying her lack of interest in racing and going fast has made rodeo events like barrel racing remain off the list of things she wants to try. continued on page 2