A friendly sibling rivalry can bring out the best in an athlete — and her horse.
Veronica Swales won the Calgary Stampede’s Working Cow Horse Classic Open Bridle title on July 11, outlasting her brothers John and Clint Swales.
“It felt good to beat my brothers because they have both won it,” said Swales, a 2004 graduate of Oilfields High School. “At Calgary, they both do very, very well. It made me feel good to sneak by them this time.
“It’s good when any of us win.”
Veronica won riding her 10-year-old quarter-horse gelding Annie’s Playin Cat with a score of 293.5 at the Nutrien Western Event Centre. John was third on board Cat’s Picasso at 291.5. Clint was fifth at 284.5, he was riding Glow A Smooth Cat.
Working cow horse has horse and rider competing in rein work in which they are judged on patterns, stops and other disciplines. They are also judged on fence work — keeping a cow in control at the end of the arena and then taking the animal up-and-down a fence line.
“I was feeling really good coming into this event, my horse is a real tough fence horse, he does really well down the fence,” said Swales, who now lives in Mossleigh. “The rein work has been our weaker part but this year he has really come on in reining and has put the big marks up in that too.”
It showed.
Swales and Annie had the top score among the eight competitors with a 148.5 after the rein work.
With fence work, being Annie’s forte, there was room for optimism, but a good cow is needed.
“The cow can really make and break you, especially when you have to make certain manoeuvres,” Swales said. “We have to do them in a certain way, and if you get a cow that won’t co-operate…”
She said her cow wasn’t ideal, but was still able to post a 145 to put her in first-place at 293.5.
However, she still had to wait for two riders to make their fence run — including a guy by the name of Clint Swales.
“I was a little bit worried because I had two people to follow, Clint and Geoff Hoar,” she said. “But a 293 was a pretty good score to wait with.”
Her score stood up and Veronica had won her first Calgary Stampede Open Bridle title and a $5,120 cheque to go with it.
She wasn’t the only Swales to win at the Calgary Stampede.
John won the Cow Horse Fence Spectacular on Cats Picasso on July 12, with a 294 total for his two runs on the fence (the score included the fence run during the working cow horse competition on July 11).
Veronica was third with 288.5, but with a major assist from her brother.
John showed Annie’s Playin Cat on Friday as Veronica had another commitment.
Veronica bought Annie as a two-year-old and started showing him a year later.
“My goal was to get him to be bridal horse and have him for the big events,” Veronica said.
She plans to compete with Annie at the World’s Greatest Horsemen competition in 2020.
