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Bertie Willoughby Saddle Club Competes at Ontario Saddle Club Youth Team Tournament
By Amber Gilbert Bertie Willoughby Saddle Club Inc President & Youth Tem adviser
The Awaited Civic Weekend had arrived, the weekend of the Ontario Saddle Club Youth Team Tournament. The weekend started Early for some team members and advisers as we hit the road by 9:30am, with a quick stop in Carluke to purchase some baked goods on the way, while other team members made their way after work. Once pulling into the Paris Fairgrounds this year we were staying in the valley (ringside) it was time to find our stalls and bed them down for the horses. Once the horses were set is was time to set camp for the humans for the weekend, let’s just say the wind was not a help while trying to set the tents up once the tents where up a few of the youth members rode while the parents sat back in the shade out of the hot/humid weather to relax. Friday Night has always been a find your own supper night so once Supper was over with the youth members and some parents headed for the barns to get their horses ready for Showing on Saturday it was time to bath, band/braid, clip which proved to be interesting as we were losing daylight and had a number of horses and handlers trying to be under the lights provided. Bathing, banding, Clipping and good laughs all around. Once the horses were stalled for the night many of the team members got ready for bed while others (the older members) sat up with parents and advisers for stories of when we were on the youth team with lots of laughs. Before long it was after midnight we all turned in for the night. Read more:
Bertie Willoughby Saddle Club Inc hands out year end awards
See article:
Local Saddle Club competes at Ontario Saddle Club Youth Team Tournament
The long awaited civic holiday weekend had finally arrived. The weekend of the Ontario Saddle Club Youth Team Tournament in Paris Ontario. The weekend started early for some of the Bertie Willoughby Saddle Club youth team members and advisers, as they packed their trucks and trailers for the weekend ahead. Once arriving at the Paris fairgrounds the team settled their horses into their homes for the weekend. Once that was done it was time to set up camp for ourselves complete with a kitchen and dining area. The team was to fend for themselves for dinner Friday night. After dinner, everyone set out for the barn to get the horses ready for Saturday morning, bathing, and banding/braiding and clipping. Come Saturday morning everyone was up early to get ready for the show pen. The classes for the day where Showmanship, Leadline, Walk jog, Barrels, English Pleasure, English Equitation, and Hunter Hack. .The day started out grey and dull and then by the time the showmanship class had started, the rain had started and out came the rain gear. We has five team members compete in the 
showmanship with 63 youth riders. We had no one to compete in the lead line class this year, so we moved onto the Walk Jog class open tack, the club had one rider in this class unfortunately we did not make the cut, so we moved onto the barrel race. The Team had two riders in this class and they were competing against 60 other riders. We them moved onto the English classes with no luck in the first two English classes we moved onto the hunter hack class where there was a total of 30 riders in this class and the BWSC youth team had 3 riders in this class a they went through the list of riders they announced the riders that made the cut and we had two rider make the call back everyone was so very happy! As all the riders made there way back into the ring we counted the horses and there was only ten make the cut so BWSC would get 2 ribbons in hunter hack we ended up with a 10th place from Elysa Lournessen and a 4th place from Taylor Lawrie. The team was very happy for these two young ladies. This was a great way to end a wet day. We ended the day with a team meal. Following dinner, everyone looked after their horses and most of the team and some of the advisers went to a dance that was organized by the OSCYTT. We where very happy to have found some dry ground. After having fun at the dance, we all went to bed.
Around came Sunday morning and already the day was looking better there was now sign of rain clouds. The classes for the day consisted of Trail, Pole bending, Western Pleasure, Stake race and Horsemanship. The day started out with a pancake and bacon breakfast cooked by Fred Walter as some of the team where having their breakfast other team members were already down at the show pen for the trail class. BWSC had three entries in the trail class this year and unfortunately, we did not make the call backs, so we continued the hunt for our next ribbon. We moved onto Pole Bending again our times did not stand up to the tough competition of the this size of show, so we moved on once again to Western pleasure and thing where not looking any better for this class; Then we moved onto the Stake race, BWSC was in charge of setting up the pattern for this class, and also we needed to rack after every 7 horses the competed. Claire Richardson was the third entry into the ring; Claire had a great time of 8.7 seconds Claire’s mom was keeping track of the times in this class and we were down to the final two entries in this class and Claire was sitting in 10th place the final two runs pushed Claire back to 12th place. Claire was very happy with her placing, as this was her first time competing at a show of this size. With smiles on their faces the riders in Horsemanship prepared for the last class of the weekend, again we did not make the calls backs looking around I was still seeing smiles on the teams faces; some already asking if they could be on the team for 2011. So after the last class was over it was time to start taking down camp down. As the parents started doing that the team was, getting things packed up in the barn area. Once we had the barn are ready to go the team that was still there went back to the show pen for the awards ceremony the final number where in, there was a total of 215 entries split between 12 classes and 15 saddle clubs and 22 teams entered. Everyone from the BWSC enjoyed themselves and are looking forward to next year.
For more information about the Ontario Saddle Club Youth Team Tournament contact Meagan Robertson @ 1-519-468-6654 or email her @ OSCYTT@hotmail.com or call Sharon Wright @ 1-519-449-5878 after 7pm
By Amber Gilbert BWSC President & youth team adviser
