Eighteen-year-old Larissa Price, an up-and-coming rider in the cutting horse world, now lives in Walnut Grove, B.C. But she grew up and honed her horsemanship abilities here in Central Alberta.
Price's grandparents, Dennis and Georgette Horne, live just east of Olds, where they owned a feedlot. It was there that she learned to ride.
"She's always rode and helped grandpa in the pen," says Price's mother Sandy. "We checked cattle in the feedlot each day to make sure they're healthy. So she's been riding out there since she was three."
Last month, Price was the reserve champion at the Calgary Stampede Youth Cutting Showcase, winning a belt buckle and $1,500 in scholarship money from the Bill Collins Youth Excellence Scholarship.
Cutting is an equestrian competition where the rider enters the herd to separate one of the cows. The horse keeps the cow in the middle of the pen, preventing it from re-joining the herd.
Price will return to Alberta this fall to compete in the Canadian Supreme and the Cutting Horse Futurity.
In 2013, she, her mother and Carstairs' Laura Bird captured a team penning championship at the Calgary Stampede, winning a total $26,000 purse, which they then split three ways.
Price plans to attend the University of Fraser Valley and study business.
"She's been riding out there since she was three."she's been riding out there since she was three."SANDYMOTHER OF LARISSA PRICE
