Season already a fun ride for Silver Stars

The Stettler Silver Stars 4-H Horse Club has started the year with 16 members — 10 original members and six new members.

At the first general meeting, elections were held and our new president is Jaycee Murray, our vice-president is Aaryn Lynham, our club secretary is Maleigha Cox and our treasurer is Kennedy Cox.

Since then, our club has held three rides, and two more meetings. A highlight was our Halloween ride, where we invited the Big Valley Rusty Spurs to join us, and all of our horses and riders were dressed for a costume parade and a fun day of games and food.

At our meetings, we have been making plans for the year ahead. We are currently running two club fundraisers. FundScrip is our first fundraiser. We sell holiday gift cards and our club receives a percentage of the cards sold. Thank you to everyone in the community who has supported this fundraiser by purchasing gift cards from us.

Our last order for gift cards went in Tuesday and we will have these cards back in time for Christmas, hopefully on Dec. 12. Gift cards are available for many businesses, including Sobeys, No Frills, Home Hardware, Canadian Tire, Subway and Boston Pizza.

We have just kicked off our second fundraiser for the year. Members will be going door-to-door selling raffle tickets for “Meals for A Week.”

Generous local sponsors have donated a meal from their restaurant, and by purchasing a ticket, you have a chance to win all seven “Meals for a Week” from these local restaurants.

Thank you to Boston Pizza, Maggie Joes, The White Goose, Tasty Wok, Kent’s Café, The Other Side and Smitty’s Family Restaurant. Tickets are for sale for $20 each, and 100 per cent of the proceeds go toward our club. Draw date is Jan. 7 — a great break for mom after Christmas.

In November, two of our members, Nevada Bauer and Jordon Bauer, participated at the bull-a-rama in Stettler, with Jordon winning the miniature bucking bullriding event. Other club members attended the bull-a-rama and sold tickets for our raffle, as well as gift cards. The next day, the Stettler Silver Stars helped to clean up.

Most recently, we held a ride and learned about horse health and how we need to know what our horse’s “normal” is, so that we will know when something is wrong. We learned how to take temperatures, weight, pulse and measure the circulation of the horse.

Our leaders for Stettler Silver Stars are: Becky Jo Baltimore, Jennifer Burks, Davis Cox, Connie Cox, Toni Dorchester and Dwayne Grover.