Seventeen-year-old Yelaina May from Roberts Creek has been named to Team Canada for the biennial American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA) youth world cup.
Yelaina is an alternate on the team, which has five competing riders, two alternate riders and three non-competing youth who will serve as leadership members. Riders for Team Canada have been selected from across the country.
Yelaina has been riding and showing horses for years and has earned many circuit championships and year-end high point awards. She has qualified for the AQHA world show and has placed in the top five at the AQHA regional experience show. Yelaina is active on the Coast volunteering with school fundraising, the Coast Academy of Dance and as a camp counsellor. She spends most of her free time with horses or at the dance studio. Yelaina has been an active volunteer for the Lower Mainland Quarter Horse Association and the B.C. Quarter Horse Association. She is presently the secretary of the British Columbia Youth Quarter horse Association. She said she is excited about what the future holds for Team Canada this year.
The Youth World Cup competition is an educational, leadership-based event for youth members from around the world, culminating in showcasing skills learned in an atmosphere of friendly competition.
Canada will be one of 16 countries to field a team at the AQHA Youth World Cup. The event, proudly co-hosted by the Canadian Quarter Horse Association and provincial/regional AQHA affiliates, will be held from July 6 to 13 in London, Ont.
The host country, Canada, will provide the pool of horses of various ability levels, which are subsequently grouped into lots of five horses each. During the opening ceremonies, teams draw to determine their assigned group of five horses. Teams then designate three riders each to compete in western horsemanship, western pleasure, western riding, hunter under saddle, hunt seat equitation, showmanship and trail and two riders each for reining and cutting classes.
