Port Alberni's Makenna Cyr made her debut at the Calgary Stampede in more ways that one. Not only was it her first time competing in team penning but it was also her first time attending the massive Alberta event.
"I wasn't really prepared for how big the arena facilities and the crowds were. It was something totally different from any other competition," Cyr said after returning to the Island from the Stampede. While she had watched videos from the Stampede in years prior, she wasn't expecting it to be so big.
While there, not only did Cyr compete in front of huge crowds, but she got to interact with people, let children pet her horses and tell them about the sport and farming.
"It's something I've always wanted to do since I started team penning," she said. "It's the biggest stage to get to show your skills in that sport. It's just so different than anything else."
Her team came 13th out of 235 teams in the team penning event.
Team penning includes three riders on horses and 30 cattle. Each of those cattle are tagged with a number from zero to nine, a random number is called out and competitors must collect the three cattle with that number and return them to the pen.
"It's a big huge arena and the cows are down at one end and there's a pen at the opposite end of the arena; your team and you cross a timer line and when you cross that line, your clock starts," Cyr explained.
The goal is to collect all three of the cattle as quickly as possible without bringing along any of what Cyr called "trash cows," or cows tagged with the wrong number.
"It's a lot of different brains that all have to work together. The cows will have a mind of their own, as much as we're riding the horses and it's a partnership with our horse, they also have a little bit of a mind of their own. And then you have three people: they really have to communicate and make a plan together because a lot can go sideways really fast," Cyr said.
During the event's first two rounds, teams competed an hour outside of Calgary. Cyr's team was in first place after those two rounds. She said a good time in an arena the size she competed in is between 35 and 40 seconds with under 30 seconds being extremely good. Her team's second qualifying round was just 26.53 seconds.
Moving on to the next round, Cyr went to downtown Calgary to compete with the other top 20 teams at the Nutrien Western Event Centre. Cyr said as it was her first time competing at the Stampede, moving on to the top 20 was a big deal and was a bit unexpected.
"It was pretty amazing, I came out of my run and I had a couple tears in my eyes," Cyr said.
Cyr didn't always compete in team penning, she started around eight years ago.
"I was barrel racing for quite awhile, that's kind of when I started competing with horses," she said. At a barrel racing event in Comox, there was an event called sorting which is similar to team penning.
Growing up in 4-H, Cyr had worked with both horses and cattle so trying something that combined both skills seemed fun to her.
"It's a lot more unpredictable, there's a lot more adrenaline going on than if you're just going in and running a barrel pattern or a reining pattern," she said. "There's a lot that can happen. So you really have to be on your toes and aware of your surroundings."
When Cyr started with 4-H it wasn't with a cow, horse, pigs or event chickens. She didn't grow up on any kind of farm but loves animals and wanted to get involved with the organization that promotes agriculture.
"I joined 4-H with my pet guinea pig when I was 11," she said. She did work her way up to cows and horses throughout her years with 4-H and said she fell in love with animals and farming by being involved. She now works in agriculture on top of competing in team penning events.
"If I didn't have the opportunity to get involved, I wouldn't be where I am now in my life."
Cyr added the community support has made her feel amazing.
"It was great to see people that I knew and hadn't spoken to in years or people that I didn't know sharing about my journey out there," she said. "It was really cool to see how the community kind of embraced one of their own making it all the way out there."
She named a few businesses and organizations that sponsored her, which allowed Cyr to go all the way to Calgary to compete. Those include Twin City Brewing, Alberni District Co-Op, The Knotty Cowgirl, Evolution Equestrian, Circle M Farm in Qualicum Beach and Island Horse Blanket Cleaning and Repair.
"These local businesses were really the reason that I was able to make it there," she said.
"Without them, I would not have been able to do this."
