A Lorne Akins student will ride to the land down under next year to represent Canada at an international horse-riding competition.
Lorne Akins Grade 9 student Paige Hewko has been picked as one of the five people who will compete as part of Team Canada next year at the 2020 International Mounted Games Exchange in Australia.
The exchange is an international tournament aimed at 15-year-olds and is part of the larger Prince Philip Games program, which sees youths aged 6 to 25 compete in team-based relay events on horseback.
The Games were first established in the 1950s by Britain’s Prince Philip, who wanted to create a team sport anyone could participate in, said Jane Goodliffe, the Prince Philip Games chair for the Alberta North region. They are typically played with ponies, which are shorter and easier to hop on and off at speed than horses.
The Games see teams of four riders (plus an alternate) race at top speed through various relay-type events with names like 3 Mug, Pyramid and Wizard’s Castle, Goodliffe said. Competitors may have to stab cones or rings using swords, snag tennis balls from posts or drop old socks in buckets.
“All of the games require incredible hand-eye co-ordination,” she said, as well as teamwork. Players also need to be accomplished riders, as they don’t get to ride their own ponies (the horses are provided by whichever club is hosting the games).
“It’s a very exciting spectator sport.”
While there are regional and national Games events, riders get just one shot at the Exchange, as you must be 15 to take part in it, Goodliffe said.
Goodliffe said Hewko was one of nine people nominated by regional Pony Clubs to go to the Team Canada tryouts in New Brunswick Oct. 4 to 6, and one of the five picked for the squad. Participants had to show their skills in a mini-tournament and were also judged based on their teamwork and character. Hewko was one of two Albertans on the team, the other being Mary Spark of Strathcona County.
Training ahead
Hewko said she started riding with Pony Club about five years ago and started participating in Games events for fun.
“People underestimate the intensity of it,” she said, as they don’t realize the events are done while riding a horse at full speed.
“You feel the rush of adrenaline when you’re doing the race,” she said, and you’re often jumping on and off a moving animal.
Hewko said she practiced once or twice a week all summer to prepare for the tryouts and took part in a training camp in Thorsby.
“I honestly thought some of the other girls were more prepared than me,” she said, and she was surprised she was picked for the team – while the Games are open to girls and boys, this year’s tryout had all girls.
The Exchange will see the team spend about two weeks touring Australia in late August or early September, Goodliffe said (the exact date and location haven’t been set yet), during which they will take part in various thrilling activities and meet new friends from around the world. The tour wraps up with a one-day 20-event tournament, with the winner taking home the Prince Philip Cup.
“It’s a life-altering experience to go on one of these tours,” Goodliffe said, with many participants forming lifelong friendships.
Hewko said she didn’t think the games would affect her last year at Lorne Akins, but was a bit worried about Grade 10, as she would likely have catch up on a lot of missed classes.
Hewko said she’ll start training for the games next spring with a coach and will also attend a weeklong training camp with her teammates. In the meantime, she has to start saving up to fund her trip to Australia.
Hewko encouraged anyone with an interest in horses to check out Pony Club and the Games.
