Two Rosetown-area youth qualify for national, international high school rodeo finals

By David McIver

Two local young people have qualified for the Canadian high school rodeo championships and also the international high school rodeo finals in the United States.

Jayce Rieger of the D'Arcy area rides a bull at the Canadian Cowboys Association finals in North Battleford in October. Rieger has qualified for both the Canadian High School Finals Rodeo in Vermilion, Alta., in August and the National High School Finals Rodeo in Lincoln, Nebraska, in July. PHOTO COURTESY OF JANELLE RIEGER

Shayla Aylward of Rosetown and her horse French Toast go around a barrel at the Kerrobert Rodeo in August 2025. PHOTO COURTESY OF TRENT AYLWARD

Shayla Aylward of Rosetown and Jayce Rieger of the D'Arcy area are to take part in the National High School Finals Rodeo held in Lincoln, Nebraska, on July 19-25 and the Canadian high school finals in Vermilion, Alta., on Aug. 7-9.

Rieger qualified by finishing third in bull riding at the provincial high school finals rodeo in Swift Current on May 22-24.

Aylward qualified by placing fourth in barrel racing at the same finals in Swift Current.

Rieger, who recently turned 18 and is in Grade 12, was competing late last week at a rodeo in Meadow Lake before going on the weekend to rodeos in Manitoba.

Aylward, 17 and in Gr. 11, has been doing barrel racing since Gr. 5 but racing competitively for the past six years.

She attributes all of her success to the horses she's had. "It wouldn't happen without any of the horses I've rode."

Aylward had qualified once before for the Canadian finals, in 2022 with her mother's horse Nick, "a really good horse," then about 18 years old, before he got too old for racing.

She did "not great" at those 2022 finals because Nick had gotten hurt at the start of the season and hadn't fully recovered by the time of the finals.

Aylward then started riding the horse she'd qualified with this time: a 10-year-old filly, French Toast, which she's been riding for about five years. Like Nick, French Toast has been trained by her mother.

"I usually place top 15 at a rodeo. I came in 19th to finals (at Swift Current), so I had a really good week there."

French Toast "really, really liked . . . that deep, deep ground there . . . It holds her up a bit better, so she doesn't slip," she said.

While Aylward has heard that the ground at the Lincoln arena is good, either way, French Toast "will try her best," she said.

Her fourth-place finish is her highest achievement ever at the provincial finals, her previous best being sixth when in Gr. 8 in 2022, said her father, Trent Aylward.

While Jayce Rieger's third-place finish at last month's high school provincial rodeo was his top accomplishment so far, his winning the six-entrant junior division of bull riding at the Dakota Buttar Invitational in Kindersley last fall would have been his best previous performance, said his mother, Janelle Rieger.

Jayce first rode mini ponies and then moved on to riding steers before getting to bulls at age 11, said his father, Dustin Rieger.

Since then, he's won two Canadian Cowboys Association rodeos, including one in Unity on the May 30-31 weekend, prior to his travels to Meadow Lake and Gruenthal and MacGregor, Man., said his father.

"He loves it, so we support him for it."

Jayce's parents have sent him to bull-riding schools, one of them put on by Dakota Buttar in Biggar, along with getting private lessons from Buttar, said Dustin Rieger. The two keep in touch; if Jayce is having trouble, he will send Buttar a video and ask for his opinion, he said.

Another "really good" Saskatchewan bull rider, Aaron Roy, has also helped teach Jayce, said his father.

Jayce usually rides in the winter but this past winter he didn't do as much, preferring to commit his time to his last season in under-18 hockey, particularly being the team captain, said Dustin Rieger.

He wants to take post-secondary education at a U.S. college that has bull riding as a sport.

A lot of those schools will have representatives at the national high school finals rodeo, said his father.

The top four in each event, including goat tying and roping, qualify for the rodeo, said Trent Aylward.

Qualifiers can be from associations in each of 47 states and provinces and Mexico and Australia.

Over 1,500 contestants compete annually, according to the rodeo website.

"It's the biggest rodeo in the world by contestants," said Trent Aylward.