If you’ve raced at Grand River Raceway recently, you’ve met Courtney Rogerson. Next time the 16-year-old collects your horse’s filthy saddle pad in the paddock, keep in mind she rubbed shoulders with royalty
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Rogerson was one of 12 Ontario youths selected to ride with Their Royal Highnesses, Prince Charles and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, as they officially opened this year’s Royal Agricultural Winter Fair in Toronto on November 6.
Pony Club members from the Western Ontario, Central Ontario and Saint Lawrence-Ottawa Valley Regions provided a mounted escort for the royal couple’s landau as it entered the Ricoh Coliseum for the opening ceremonies.
Rogerson rode a seven-year old 16.3 hh Les Craigie crossbred mare named Ice Wine and nicknamed Strawberry — a grey foal she picked and trained herself. Riding since age seven, Rogerson has been a member of Mill Ridge Pony Club for five years, and is a C Level Pony Clubber.
While competing at Pony Club Rallies, as well as Regional Dressage and Show Jumping events, she also works with her father managing their Clyde Hackney Thoroughbred breeding farm in nearby Fergus, ON and caring for their herd of more than 150 horses.
“Life on the farm has taught me that rewards do not always have a dollar (value) attached to them,” she says. The highschool student’s goal is to attend the veterinary medicine program at the University of Guelph .
Rogerson works in the backstretch on race nights collecting and sanitizing saddle pads and head numbers. Her mother, Pat, also works in at the Elora, ON track, in the gift shop.
(Grand River Raceway)