Representing Canada on the international stage

Shannon LeClair
Times Reporter

 

Local trick rider Avery Aleman, 11, is getting the opportunity some riders only dream about. On April 3, in Sydney, Australia, Aleman will be representing Canada at the Sydney Royal Easter Show.
Aleman is a member of the Canadian Trick Riding Association and recently won the title of Elite Trick Rider for 2014. She, and her fellow Canadian Champions Cora Croteu (Sundre) and Shelby Pierson (Cessford), make up Team Canada.
“Very few people get to go and have this opportunity. I’m very inspired to go and do it with some amazing people like Jerri Duce (and) Paige Callaway. I am very thankful that we get to use horses that are down there too,” said Aleman.
Her love for horses has always been there, but it was watching the sport of trick riding at the Strathmore Stampede that sparked the flame.
“When I was four I saw Niki Flundra perform at Strathmore Stampede and that really inspired me to kind of push forward,” said Aleman. “I had always rode but I wanted to try trick riding, so my mom brought me out to Jerri Duce’s place. I trick rode for the first time there and I loved it. It was one of my favourite sports and I never stopped talking about it.”
She signed up with Jerri Duce, who had been teaching out of Carseland at the time, and began to learn the ropes.
“The biggest thing with Avery is she loves to perform, she’s an all-around cowgirl, so she barrel races, pole bends, goat ties, ropes and everything else,” said her mom Christa Aleman.
“She loves the thrill of trick riding … the opportunity to perform and of course this is just an opportunity that’s phenomenal, to be able to travel across the world and compete at a competition with girls that have the same love that they have is pretty cool.”
Duce began coaching Avery when she was four, and also took on Croteu at the age of four. Both girls now ride as professional partners, attending different events together in Canada and the U.S throughout the year.
‘They have a wonderful act … they are amazingly talented little girls, and were right from day one. They just seemed to know what they wanted to be and were very good at it,” said Duce.
The Association was created when the leaders of the trick riding industry- Duce, Callaway, Niki Flundra, Amber Wright, Kelsey Yule and Rae-Lynn Armstrong- saw the need to work together with a single mission of opening doors and creating opportunities for all levels of trick riders. Thanks to the creation of the association the girls are given new opportunities to perform. By attending three of the four competition events the riders are able to qualify for nationals. From there the Canadian Champions will have the opportunity to represent Canada the following year on the international stage.
“It’s thrilling to watch them go on and be able to do in the international thing at such a young age,” said Duce.