Calgary Stampeders' touchdown rider, Karyn Drake, retires after 23 years
After 200 games, timing was right for new horse and new rider
Anyone who's ever been to a football game at McMahon Stadium over the past couple of decades knows what happens when the Calgary Stampeders score a touchdown. Karyn Drake, waving the team flag, rides Quick Six down the sidelines before the roaring crowd.
But after riding the white touchdown quarter-horse for 23 years and 200 games, Karyn has decided to retire and hand over the reins to her daughter, Chelsea, who took over the tradition at the Canada Day game.
"It just kind of all fell in place … a new coach ... and my horse is getting up there in age and we needed to retire him — the original Quick Six," said Karyn, of her 24-year-old horse, known as Toby off the field.
It only seemed natural that Chelsea Drake, 20, would be the one to take her mom's place for the tradition that's been around since the 1960s.
"I've been riding ever since I was a baby. And I've been going out to the games with my mom for a very long time and I've always looked up to her. She's a huge role model for me," Chelsea told the Eyeopener on Monday.
"Watching her run those games, and I just was like 'how cool would it be to take over this one day' … It was quite special."
Though it was an emotional day for Chelsea and her mom, she easily took to her new role. But finding the new horse was harder and more tricky to train.
"It was very difficult. It's like finding a needle in a haystack because it's got to be white and it's got to be fast, and he's got to be OK with the fireworks and the crowds," says Chelsea.
Horses, skittish by nature, can be trained to adapt to big crowds and loud noises. It takes a bit of experience, Chelsea says, so she's been bring the new horse to the games and letting him learn the ropes from Toby. When they're at home, the training continues with Chelsea playing loud music in the barn.
"I'm slowly easing him into it," she says.
Chelsea meanwhile, is also adapting to her role, with a bit of advice from her mother.
"Just to have fun, to take it all in … it all goes by so fast. And, of course, 'pay attention to the ball game.'"
