Our Featured Junior Riders for June are our Graduating Lancers!
While this year, our graduating riders are not having a traditional school graduation ceremony, we celebrate them at Lancers as always! Our four graduating Lancers are Sophia Andriopoulos, Jenna Murray, Emily Rafuse, and Kate Stewart-Good! Each of them has contributed so much to our Lancer community and organization. They have all been in the Musical Ride, worked as barn monitors and stablehands, and have participated in clinics, training shows, Equestrian Canada’s rider levels, and Leaders-in-Training at Salmon River Camp. Each has been featured before and you can read their features below.
Sophia has been a Lancer for 10 years! Since her feature (October 2018), Sophia has continued to work as a Barn Monitor but has also become an NCCP certified instructor and has been teaching junior and adults at Lancers. Sophia has also been the youth representative of our Board Programming Committee. What hasn’t changed is her adoration of Rupert, her ability to make everyone feel welcome, and her wholehearted commitment to Lancers. Sophia is attending Saint Mary’s University in the autumn so we are pleased to keep her but as a newly minted J-Rider.
Jenna Murray is one of our newer Lancers, joining in 2017, but has embodied the Lancer spirit since day one. She has worked incredibly hard to improve her riding skills and this year she also joined our roster of Barn Monitors. We are thrilled that Jenna will be transitioning into our J-ride this autumn as she is staying in Halifax to attend university.
Jenna provided us with the following statement: “Although I have not been at Lancers for very long, it has become one of the biggest aspects of my life. It has taught me countless lessons in and out of the saddle and it is where I feel most happy. I have made so many friends, had so many amazing experiences (salmon river camp, musical ride, etc) and found a passion and love for horses that I know will last my whole life. I am very fortunate and grateful to have Lancers as such a big part of my life as well as to be able to continue riding with Lancers next year as I enter university”.
Emily Rafuse has been a Lancer for just shy of a decade and it has been wonderful to see her grow as a rider and person! Emily has brought so much to Lancers including being the President of the Junior Executive this year in which she led the very successful community outreach initiative for the Shoebox Project. We are thrilled to have Emily be transitioning into our J-rides and keep her for some time yet! She provided this reflection of her time at Lancers: “Lancers, in every way, has been a second home to me…I cannot thank Lancers enough for all the lifelong lessons, experiences and memories they have given me, and I am ready to see what comes next!”
Kate Stewart-Good has been a Lancer for eight years and also joined our roster of instructors this year. Kate has represented Lancers and participated in the Canadian Pony Club quiz in 2019. She has earned her Canadian Pony Club C1 level and her rider level six. Kate has given so many hours and so much to Lancers.
We say a big congratulations to Sophia, Jenna, Emily, and Kate! Each October Open House, our final Musical Ride performance of the year marks the beginning of an ending of our graduating riders and is marked by the newer tradition of the graduating riders physically and symbolically passing their lance down to the younger riders. It is a moving moment where we, as a community, come together to recognise the hours, energy, passion, and love the riders have given to Lancers. As our motto (Docti Ductui) says, they have been “taught for leadership”; they have led the way and instilled so much in their fellow Lancers.
