The Canadian Cowgirls are headed to the Fergus Fall Fair this September.
“We’re doing a stand-alone show so … it’s almost a full hour performance,” said Canadian Cowgirl rider Chloe Boydell in an interview with the Advertiser. “We do a couple of different drills and a couple of different paces.
“There will be some pretty spectacular stuff.”
The Canadian Cowgirls are a rodeo-style precision drill horseback riding team from the Chatham area.
“This is not our job this is our hobby,” Boydell said.
The team will be performing at the Fergus Fall Fair on both Sept. 17 and 18 at the Centre Wellington Community Sportsplex and entry to the performance is included with general fair admission.
The cowgirls perform musical drills throughout the hour-long performance but as for highlights, Boydell wouldn’t give away any tricks. She did say the audience would be impressed, “seeing the precision, seeing these horses that know their jobs.”
She added, “We do a really nice salute to the military.”
There are between 20 and 25 cowgirls in any given year, Boydell said. This year there are about 20 riders on the team with anywhere from eight to 16 riders attending each performance.
Throughout the summer Boydell said the team performs on average three of four weekends per month and in the winter the riders participate in weekly practices.
The Canadian Cowgirls have performed at the Calgary Stampede and they have represented Canada in the Kentucky Derby’s Pegasus Parade and the Indianapolis’ 500 Festival Parade.
The group was also chosen to stand as the honour guard for Prince Charles and Duchess Camilla when they visited Canada recently.
In 2013 the riders were at the Tournament of Roses parade in Pasadena, California on New Years Day. The parade takes place before the Rose Bowl football game.
The Canadian Cowgirls team consists of riders from all different disciplines, ranging from hunter/jumpers to barrel racers to reiners, Boydell explained.
“I think riding is such a diverse sport, there’s so many different disciplines that you can take into it, that you can branch off in but fundamentally they’re all the same and you can learn something from everybody,” she said. “You can learn something from every discipline.”
The Canadian Cowgirls will be bringing their precision drill show to the Fergus Fall Fair on Sept. 17 and 18.
