Open Range Saddle Club

04/26/2023

**PROGRAMMING UPDATE**
Our club has finalized many of the dates for our 2023 season and we are ready to pack as much time together in the saddle as we can! I am posting a calendar update, in case any of our followers have been waiting on it. If you, your kids or the entire family are looking for a riding club family with vast opportunities, please reach out to us!

We are also open to expanding our coaching and volunteer team, as we have seen growth and expect more throughout the year.
We'd love to bring your expertise to our members. As a not-for-profit organization, our club is operated by dedicated volunteers.

T

02/10/2023

Hello ORSC friends and followers!

As the club's Founder and President, I wanted to shout out to one of my fellow Coaches, Lori and our phenominal Event Planner and Assistant, LeeAnn. As our club's events ramp up, these ladies not only support our success as executive members of the Board; but go further to develop our skills in the saddle.

Lori is a skilled equestrian mentor; she is an enthusiastic, passionate Coach with a focus on safety and building a solid foundation from the ground up, helping you and your horse work together to connect and be the best united team. Lori has been riding since she was four years old, with experience coaching for multiple 4H clubs, and her personal clients. Her teaching, and training consists of basic horsemanship, english, western, dressage,reining and cutting. She has successfully shown/competed in dressage, cutting, and english/western pleasure.

Our ride this past Saturday was geared towards a lesson style focusing on technical skills in the saddle. Posture was a big topic of discussion, Lori worked on riders body position, adjustments to be made and how it affects our horse and our ride. We look forward to more training from Lori; the lesson was definately a hit, and will pair nicely with our fun game days for the winter months.

02/04/2023

I am a little late posting the photos from our ride on January 21st; better late than never 🙈😬
T

01/10/2023

Our club had a great ride this past Saturday!
We played a few games, and finished our day with a stacked pattern for members to ride through.

In true ORSC fashion, the ride was full of laughs and we enjoyed getting to know all of the new faces that have joined our riding club family in the past few weeks. One of our newest littles even had her very first lope 🙌

We are looking forward to doing it again on the 21st at Haymaker! Our new winter arena sure does impress.

12/24/2022

Warm wishes from our riding club family, to yours.

12/04/2022

My final dump of photos for a while! I've been slacking :)

Brenda and Dianne shared photos of the first ride at Haymaker! What a great facility. We forsee much fun in our future here throughout the winter, when weather allows us to haul.

I'm including additional photos of miscellaneous club rides from throughout the year as well.

12/04/2022

Our fall clinics were a success!

We completed a clinic with Dustin Grams in September that focused on horsemanship and cow work; the buffalo were a great tool for this clinic and was a hit with our members! Some horses had to ease into the Buffalo work, while others were stars in the ring right off the hop!

In October, we had Carol Hollinger run a clinic at Galloway Arena for the club. She focused on horsemanship and trail. This clinic had a smaller turnout so we saw a lot of personal growth and Carol refined many fundamental skills, while also working through challenges with each team of horse and rider. The showmanship/trail pattern was super fun! Unfortunately, we have very few photos of this clinic.

12/04/2022

Better late than never ☺️
Photos from our club's trail ride before the snow flew. It was a beautiful day and we were so happy to enjoy our horses together; some of us fleeing new scenery and one of our little members having their first trail ride with the group!

11/19/2022

A warm hello to our friends and followers!

Our club has seen many changes over the past year; there have been changes to our membership, with our main facility partner and current volunteers/coaches based further North than where the club was originally established. We still wish to invite equestrians from all communities to join the fun, however Peace Hills no longer represents our club, or our main area of operations.

With that in mind, our club has decided on a name change. With the same invaluable vision, mission and purpose we started with; we will now call our organization Open Range Saddle Club. Along with our name change, we have also scheduled club riding dates at the Thorsby Haymaker Arena; in addition to our arena partner East of Leduc.

We sincerely thank the community of Wetaskiwin for the support that we have received as your Peace Hills Riders. We hope that we have impacted the community in a positive way.

10/12/2022

I'm late posting! Here are the photos from our annual club campout! It was a packed weekend of trail riding, Equos Animal Sports Therapy Demo - Thank you Cas Bullis and some partner games by our volunteer EAL coach, Rose.
The venue was Y-Knott Ranch, what a spectacular place to be! A big shout-out to Terri for coming to the rescue with a spare horse.

Cannot wait to do it again!

10/12/2022

Our club completed our 2022 community event on August 27th; we participated in delivering some fun events as our contribution to the Millet Harvest Fair! First, we must thank the Millet Rec & Ag Society who brings this amazing event to the community; they sure put on a great fair and the Agriplex grounds was packed full of happy faces. An organization that truly puts the community at the centre of their focus, they invest a lot of heart into what they do.

Our club contributed a mini-putt station and magician for the festivities. We must put our sponsors in the spotlight, as we must say that we could not have done it without them!
These amazing sponsors are:
Dominion Lending Centres Maximal Mortgages, The Mortgage Gal & Guy - Sherwood Park
Delaney Veterinary Services - Sherwood Park
Devin Newman Realtor
Doctors Eyecare – Wetaskiwin

We also need to thank Bob Robinson, a local legend who delivered roping lessons for both the kids, and adults!

Finally, thank you to our volunteers. Every person is so instrumental in our success, but Brenda and Dianne definitely towed the line on this one, for ensuring our mini-putt station arrived, and bringing plenty of balloons for the littles.

It was such a success, we look forward to the prospect of contributing next year as well :)

10/10/2022

Happy Thanksgiving from our club, to you. We are incredibly thankful for our community, members, volunteers, sponsors and partners. We've had an amazing year together so far 💗

07/29/2022

We will be there! Hope you can join us!

Mark your calendars! We have expanded our Harvest Fair to 4 days, August 25-28! Hope to see you there!

07/25/2022

A huge shout-out, rave and thank you goes to
Horse Racing Alberta and the HBPA of Alberta, as well as Theresa who was instrumental in providing us this amazing opportunity. We must also send a special thanks to trainer Rod Cone for sharing his knowledge and letting our members visit his wing in the barn before the race 🥰

06/18/2022

Our club had a fabulous time at our volunteer event at the Wetaskiwin Mall for Western Week! Brenda lost her hat as she zoomed through the pole bending, Shiloh had a lesson at lunging, Jeremy dominated in the "roping pen", Chloe worked on her leadership skills as she assisted our guests, LeeAnn brought smiles to many through lollipops, Bev taught everyone a thing or two about roping, Dianne provided top-notch photography services and Tamara caught her first steer head with a loop; just a few of the highlights from the afternoon. Plenty of laughs and a whole lotta fun! We gathered donations for the Wetaskiwin Food Bank. A huge shout-out and thank you to our volunteers who helped coordinate, plan and gather supplies as well as those who set-up and ran our stations.
Thank you to Edie for inviting our club to host western events at this community gathering and those who contributed to our food bank box!

P.S. - Yes, we sometimes rope the children for fun.
Dislaimer: No children were harmed in the roping experience.

06/11/2022

Come on down and see us today! We will have free games set-up for the kids, and there's plenty of other events going on as well (rain or shine, east entrance or by Scotiabank). Be sure to register for the fashion show at 2:00. Rodeo starts at 4 p.m.
Please assist our food drive for the Wetaskiwin Food Bank with a non-perishable donation.
Hope to see you there!

06/06/2022

Youth Spotlight!

I'd like to introduce our Club Reporters to our followers, friends and community. These girls put in a great effort to bring you updates and submit their article on their club's business and initiatives to the Pipestone Flyer for your viewing pleasure. They are enthusiastic in their task and are sure to impress with their ongoing excitement about their equine adventures and club happenings.

Keep rockin' it Kayleah, Prea and Chloe! I've included photos of our three girls that are the faces behind the reports that you read on our page, and in the local paper.

06/06/2022

A big shout-out to the Willow Inn/Westview RV Park in Wetaskiwin. Although we are no longer able to utilize their Aspen Room for club events, their sponsorship deserves a special shout-out as we were able to use the room for a few of our meetings! Thank you to Carol and family.

If you are unfamiliar with the facility, you should check it out for your lodging and event needs! A beautiful, well kept gem in our community! You can find them on Facebook Westview RV Park
https://www.facebook.com/Willow-Inn-627941974497642

We will have some exciting news to share soon regarding our new club home for non-mounted events but for now, we wanted to share our gratitude and let y'all know that this place has a lot to offer if you're looking to host an event locally, or need beautifully renovated lodging for out-of-town visitors!

05/25/2022

A photo compilation from our recent clinic! Check out our Tiktok page for more videos 😀

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMLEAsNoH/?k=1

05/25/2022

A video compilation from our most recent clinic!

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cd_uMpTjY5E/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

Florida Georgia Line • This Is How We Roll (feat. Luke Bryan)

05/22/2022

Tamara's equine journey started around the age of 12, when her parents purchased an acreage and her first equine partner. She spent her teen years exploring the roadside and trails with her friends, under the wing of her mother whom was a competitive equestrian for many years and worked at a training barn in her younger teen years. Young adulthood brought the opportunity for her to purchase her own partner; after many years riding the family horses. This led her to a slightly handled gelding that she'd call her very own. After a 60 day start at the trainer, she took him her way. Adulthood and acquiring a horse trailer has brought a few new opportunities to gain some additional knowledge, by helping with gathering cows and attending clinics; online tools became of interest where she invested heavily to learn further horsemanship skills and understand then apply the methods for the more fine tuned maneuvers, working to find the buttons to accomplish counter arch, two tracking, side pass, lead changes and so on. With many years spent only pleasure riding and a resume that is not full of eye catching experiences, she feels well accomplished with all things considered. Having over two decades of horse experience, great mentors, overcoming hurdles with her green horses and a immense amount of time spent on personal growth and understanding; through online tools and research into other riders and trainers methods, Tamara can get around a horse pretty well and has a base of knowledge and methods to share with our beginner riders. She enjoys establishing a solid foundation and teaching beginner lessons to the youth, with her own plans to expand her knowledge and expertise within the penning, sorting and reining disciplines.

Being invested in not only the riding portion of the club, Tamara also runs the Structured Youth Program; alongside a few other dedicated volunteers. She is also the Founder and President of the Peace Hills Riders and is passionate about our club, the SYP that we offer and our investment within and to support our communities.

Tamara is certified in Standard First Aid CPR-C with AED Level C through St. John's Ambulance. **Training provided by Bruller Corp. Wetaskiwin as a sponsorship** and has completed Commit to Kids training modules.

05/22/2022

Our 2022 summer programming offer bi-monthly lessons with Dustin Grams. Dustin is an outside coach that offers paid lessons to the club. Dustin has been training horses and coaching since 1984; he trains performance horses in various disciplines such as reining, cutting, barrel racing, team penning and two man sorting. A big part of Dustin's business has been focusing on the reined cow horse discipline, in both training and coaching clients.

05/22/2022

Rose has been riding horses since she could walk . As a wee child, she did gymkhana. As a teenager, she was unable to own her own horse until she was 20; that is when she bought her 1st heart horse. Rose participated in gymkhana once again for 25 years. In between that, she worked as a trainer in the standardbred horse racing industry and gained a few years of expertise working for a horse vet. Rose has been on countless cancer rides and done a lot of trail riding. Rose has worked and trained as an EAL facilitator the past few years, and is now certified in her field. She is currently working with horses as a trainer/groom and certified EAL facilitator. Horses have been her passion for all of her, and we are thrilled to have her bring Equine Assisted Learning to our club. She has big ideas, offering such excitement and passion as we explore EAL with the Peace Hills Riders!
Rose is certified in Standard First Aid CPR Level C.

05/22/2022

Lori is an enthusiastic, passionate coach with a focus on safety and building a solid foundation from the ground up, helping you and your horse work together to connect and be the best united team. Lori has been riding since she was four years old, with experience coaching for multiple 4H clubs, and her personal clients. Her teaching, and training consists of basic horsemanship, english, western, dressage,reining and cutting. She has successfully shown/competed in dressage, cutting , and english and western pleasure. Lori will assist with our Structured Youth Program out of the saddle when she is able as well!
Lori is also our newest executive member and fills the role of Vice President; she has adequate experience having filled roles as an executive, and has sat on different committees. She is well suited to help us deliver our clubs mission, build our skills in the saddle and will be an instrumental part of our PHR family as both an executive, and a coach.

05/15/2022

What a blast Friday night was! Our members attended an obstacle/cowboy challenge clinic, hosted by Star Struck Horsemanship. Milestones were hit and we had a blast! What a great way to start our weekend 🙌

05/07/2022

Thank you to our members and volunteers that were able to assist the club with highway clean-up this year 👏🙌 We sure do appreciate everyone who helps to make this happen!
Next year, we'll have a couple more of our littles from the club that are nearing the minimum required age to join us 🤠

05/07/2022

As our club heads into our summer season/programming; we must take a moment to thank Galloway Arena for having us this winter.
We have another shout-out to Coach Alycia who has now joined our club's coaching team, she put together a fabulous ride on May 1st where we worked on some drills and dabbled in a bit of barrel racing! The feedback from the members was amazing, and we are so lucky to have her; Alycia and her training were a huge hit! Fun, supportive and engaging; we sure have a lot that we can learn from her mentorship, to improve both horse and rider. Alycia is a HSR 2X Canadian qualifier and 1X Canadian college rodeo qualifier. She started with reining and got into rodeo 10 years ago, she has competed in all events (barrels, poles, goat tying, team roping & breakaway), but her ‘expertise’ would be barrel racing, pole bending and horsemanship with a background in 4H.

04/17/2022

Wishing you a very Happy Easter, from our PHR family to yours!

04/15/2022

Check out our website information!

ARENA & PROGRAM UPDATE:
The future is bright! Our riding club has found a lovely arena for the summer months; close proximity to Beaumont and Leduc; also, a short commute to Millet, Hay Lakes, New Sarepta, Calmar and Wetaskiwin! Our new structure offers training with Dustin Grams, open ride time, Gymkhana events and coaching by our volunteers through games, obstacles and fun activities.

Looking to get involved and volunteer? Are you interested in joining our Executive Officers, or might you be an equestrian that is passionate about sharing your knowledge and expertise through coaching our members on a monthly, or bi-monthly basis? Please reach out to discuss further!

04/12/2022

How cute is this?!

04/10/2022

We are super excited to be heading here for our PHR campout this summer!
If anyone is looking for a spot to take your group, Y-Knott Ranch has a ton to offer.

04/08/2022

Our club would like to send a big shout-out to Horse Racing Alberta and the HBPA of Alberta. They have sponsored our club by providing an afternoon at the races, to include a behind the scenes barn tour! We are super excited for this adventure in July! Many thanks to this wonderful sponsor.

04/03/2022

Love to learn, love to ride.
Mentor & teach.
Encourage & uplift.
Unity & enjoyment.

OUR PURPOSE is to bring equestrians together to form a place of fellowship, unity, understanding and growth in a fun environment.

OUR MISSION is to deliver opportunity to both youth and adults with an emphasis on our Structured Youth Program; where we will mentor and teach our youth, who are our leaders of tomorrow by building upon key principles.

Registration accepted year-round!

The Peace Hills Riders was established to deliver our equine program to youth and adults from local communities. A dedicated group of volunteers who are enthusiastic and collaborate to deliver an equestrian program, with a large focus on fun and comradery while also offering opportunity and growth. Our Structured Youth Program is built upon a proven foundation to teach life skills, build friendships and community spirit; we have added a twist so that we can also include the whole family and adults in our equine and club adventures.
We offer low fees and a commitment level to fit any family. Experienced coaches, training is provided in many different disciplines. Open ride at your leisure, games, lessons, trail riding, campouts, clinics and gymkhana make up our summer schedule.

Our Structured Youth Program includes non-mounted events; such as scrapbooking, theory, games, training, team building projects, fieldtrips, public speaking, parades, fundraising, crafts, club parties, community service & events and more. We are proud to participate in community enrichment and environmental programs throughout the year.

Please reach out to us if your organization has a volunteer or community enrichment request for our PHR family.

Serving our communities. Each one, teach one.

04/03/2022

**You can donate your bottles to our club at the Leduc Bottle Depot, year-round under account # 2036**

Spring fundraiser! Our first bottle drive. It was great to see the kids grow their confidence, and become eager to speak and engage with club supporters. The gentleman in the photo showed us his spurs and threw on his own cowboy hat, joining in the theme to bring the girls his bottles!

04/01/2022

A few of our families were able to get together and complete our bottle drive posters for our fundraiser tomorrow; our youth got a good start on their scrapbooks that can earn them some cool stuff at the end of the year, the creativity was above-par! Scrapbooking is optional, but the enthusiasm was top notch and the kids ran with the idea. The scissors were busy cutting for collage photos, glitter galore, paint and stamps were plentiful and of course, stickers were a common occurence.
I am incredibly excited to see how our youth will fill their books, and it is great to get them the opportunity to grow together out of the saddle too!

A great kick-off event for the non-mounted portion of the Structured Youth Program!

03/19/2022

A great report done by your PHR Reporters, Kayleah & Prea! Good job girls 🙌

03/10/2022

Here are some photos from our club ride this past weekend; always a great time with friends at Galloway Arena! 💯💗
Thank you to LeeAnn for snapping these shots for us to share.

02/26/2022

😂