Youth to compete at Warrior Relay Races

By Lethbridge Herald on May 12, 2022.

By Dale Woodard

Special to the Herald

A chance encounter on a drive home for Anthony Daniels helped give some youth a second chance.

The result of that second chance will come riding into the Rocky Mountain Turf Club when the Warrior Relay Races take the track Saturday.

Making their Warrior Relay Races debut this weekend are three teams from Eden Valley Reserve #216, Stoney Express, Daniels Relay and Gahna Relay.

And it was two years ago when Daniels – the owner of the teams – spotted the current team members riding horses without permission that ultimately set them on the better path to Warrior Relay Racing.

“They were riding them in this field this one day when I was coming home from work. I stopped to go and talk to them and they took off. I called them back.”

Rather than scold the youth, Daniels reined in their interest in horses and suggested they look into racing instead.

“They’ve been let down so many times,” he said. “I took them in and made them train and ever since then they’ve been out of trouble. It kind of shined a light for them.”

Still, Daniels initial suggestion that the youths take part in the Warrior Relay Races was met with some resistance.

“They looked at me in disbelief first,” said Daniels. “Nobody has ever really taken them seriously. So many times, they have been let down.”

Training started in spring of last year.

“I decided to take them up on it. In spring of last year, I started working with them and in the summer, they enjoyed all the races,” he said. “We kept on going throughout the winter, too.”

One of the conditions of training and competing was to be clean and sober.

“In our culture, you’re not supposed to work with the horses when you’re under the influence of anything,” said Daniels. “You’re supposed to be sober when you’re working the horse because horses are healers and horses are our friends.”

The ages of all three teams range from 16 to 19-years-old.

“In all three spots I put one older person to keep them in check,” said Daniels. “The oldest one is 19 now. But back then they were 17, going on 18. When I first approached them, they were (around) 14 or 15, in that age area.”

With the exception of one rider, all three teams will make their debut at the Rocky Mountain Turf Club this weekend.

“They’re nervous. I tell them to keep calm and take that nervous energy and turn it into positive energy,” said Daniels, adding his riders have put in the necessary work to earn the right to race this weekend. “They’ve worked hard. They come out whenever they want to, which is every single day. They just love horses and always want to be around the horses.”

After this weekend, the teams will compete on a circuit this summer with the next stop slated for Leduc.

The message at this summer’s races remains the same as this weekend.

“Get out there and have some fun,” said Daniels. “I tell them they don’t have to feel bad if they finish dead last.”

Daniels has been joined by Rex Daniels in forming the three teams.

“He has worked with kids his whole life,” said Daniels. “He has worked in a group home for a good 30 years and over the course of 20 years he’s been a foster parent. So he has always been into helping out kids and that’s kind of where I picked it up.

“He said ‘Maybe I’ll put a team in.’ because it looked like we didn’t have room for all the kids who wanted to join.”