The harder Melayna Lockie chases her older sister Laramie Lockie, the more both girls are finding success on Canada’s barrel racing circuit.
But that’s not how their participation in the sport started.
The Goodlands, Man. pair – who both sit among Canada’s top-10 Junior division barrel racers – ride in up to four rodeos a weekend through the spring, summer and fall.
Next week’s Royal Manitoba Winter Fair is the pair’s first competition of the year. Both young athletes – the daughters of Scott and Rosalyn Lockie – have a successful history at the event, which they have attended three times before. Last year, Laramie finished third, while Melayna was reserve champion.
“The fair (RMWF) is our first event on the calendar, but it’s fairly competitive,” Melayna told The Westman Journal. “Things get more competitive as the season goes on.”
The Lockies compete in the Manitoba Rodeo Cowboy Association (MRCA); which incorporates events in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and North Dakota; the Canadian Cowboys Association (CCA) and the Manitoba Barrel Racing Association (MBRA).
In 2016, Laramie earned the Junior championship title in both the MRCA and the CCA. That was one year after Melayna, the younger but more experienced of the two, found herself in the Manitoba Finals Rodeo.
Now 15, Laramie enters this year as the second seeded rider based on 2017’s MRCA results. Melayna, 12, is just behind her in third. They sat just one spot apart in the 2017 CCA rankings as well, with Laramie in eighth and Melayna in ninth.
Both are confident they will see the same results this season.
“I plan to be at the CCA and MRCA finals this year,” said Laramie, adding that she and her sister train together with coach Sharra Sage at Thunderbird Horse Center just south of Brandon. Any sibling rivalry that exists between the two is friendly. “I cheer for Melayna, but always try to do my best.”
“We cheer each other on, but I like to win,” says Melayna.
Motivated by her younger sister’s jump into the sport, Laramie started riding when she was 10, taking only three years to climb to the top of the barrel racing circuit. Melayna, meanwhile, climbed into a racing saddle two season earlier at the age of five.
“That’s when I went to my first jackpot,” Melayna said. “My parents brought me into the sport and I’ve been riding since I can remember. Sharra Sage from the Thunderbird Horse Center has taught me so much. I have been riding with her for seven years.”
Of course, both girls have a love of horses that draws them into the sport as well. Laramie rides a registered quarter horse mare named Peppy Belle, the same animal she sat astride in her championship year two seasons ago. Meanwhile, Melayna has a registered quarter horse gelding named Elvis.
Although both have just a couple years left to compete in the Junior division – which ends at the age of 16 – both plan on participating in the sport for the foreseeable future. Laramie has a one-word answer for how long she will ride.
“Forever,” she says.
The 111th Royal Manitoba Winter Fair opens at the Keystone Centre on Monday and runs through Saturday. The event is the province’s largest indoor agricultural fair and equestrian competition.
For more information on the RMWF’s schedule of events, visit www.provincialexhibition.com/rmwf/schedule.
