There was no sitting on the fence for a young Millarville-area horseman at a prestigious competition last month.
Tyree Swales, 14, and his gelding CD Shiner, coolly and calmly went for it in winning the Youth Bridle Finals at the Celebration of Champions in Fort Worth, Texas on Feb. 19.
“This means a lot to me,” said Swales, a student at Oilfields High School. “I believe I am the first Canadian to ever win it. Up here in Canada it is a lot colder and we don’t have as nice and as big arenas as in Texas, a lot of times we can’t ride as much.
“This means a lot – it shows I have a good horse.”
There are two portions of the youth bridle competition, including reining which has horse and rider doing a set of patterns, circles, fast stops and other manoeuvres. The second portion of the competition, the fence work, had Swales working a cow – with CD Shiner making Nureyev-like moves as he mirrored the cow.
Swales finished second among the 11 finalists in the reining with 218, behind Texas’ Lannie Jo Lisac.
He also finished second in the fencing portion at 221, one point behind Fort Worth horseman Benjamin Self.
Swales credits CD Shiner, who has the barn name Flex, for the strong showing, The fencing competition had Swales controlling a cow on one end of the arena and then moving the cow down the side of the arena.
“He can read a cow really good,” Swales said of Flex. “He has a huge stop and that really helps going down the fence for eye appeal for the judges which gives him higher marks.
“He turns real nice. When I’m going down the fence and I go to stop the cow, he needs the stop and turn to stay in time with the cow.”
Meanwhile, Swales is doing more than just enjoying a nice ride.
“My role is guiding Flex where he needs to go,” Swales explained. “When I go down the fence, I have to make sure he keeps in time with the cow and doesn’t turn it before the centre marker – that is a penalty.
Once he is past the centre I can give him (Flex) the cue to get in front of the cow and stop it.”
Swales’ consistency with finishing second in both portions, gave him a one-point margin over Self at 439 to 438 for the title.
Swales then moved on to the Youth World’s Greatest Horseman competition on Feb. 20. He didn’t win, but turned in a cool performance when he faced some equipment issues.
The competition consists of fence work, reining, steer-stopping and cutting. It was while doing the fence work that he noticed he was driving a one-horse powered engine with half a steering wheel.
“I went through the corner to go down the fence, I realized my left rein had either broken or the snap popped off,” Swales said. “So I continued to go down the fence with that one rein and got the cow turned twice, circled up decent and then after I picked my rein up.”
He said he didn’t panic – well, not totally.
“I was a little panicked at first,” he said with a chuckle. “But I knew I could trust my horse, because he is a very good fence horse. I knew I could trust him to do his job.”
Swales finished seventh in the Youth World’s Greatest Horseman.
While impressive to be the first Canadian to win the youth bridle title in Fort Worth, it is just a few notches ahead of being the first Swales to win the championship.
Tyree’s father John has twice won the World’s Greatest Horseman title in Fort Worth and is a well-known trainer. Tyree’s aunt Veronica has won several competitions and now lives in Texas. Her brother, Clint, trains horses at the family farm between Longview and High River.
“I think they are all very proud and quite impressed – especially that I could go down the fence with just one rein,” Tyree said.
“I feel proud to go down there (Texas) and have that last name, especially with my dad winning. It’s quite well known down there.
“There’s some pressure, if I don’t do 100 per cent, I don’t think I will make the name look bad, but…”
That’s not an issue, especially with a quality athlete like Flex.
“My dad had him a couple of years ago for some clients in B.C.,” Swales said. “I really liked him. We started leasing him last year – I showed him in Texas last year.
“We decided to buy him. He’s got a super-big heart and everything you throw at him he will try and get done. He’s super-talented.”
