A life-threatening health scare is not enough to dash the dreams of the Truco Trick Riders in southeastern Saskatchewan
CARNDUFF, Sask. — Some ride for the adrenalin rush. Some ride for the roar of the crowd. Others ride simply for survival.
After a year in the hospital, Kyla Dyer does not take for granted the fact that she and her horse, Patches, are here tonight at the Carnduff Ag Society grounds to perform. She has not yet regained the strength to do her most difficult stunts, but the fact that she is here at all is a miracle for which she has earned the title “warrior” on her Truco Trick Riders team (Truco means trick in Spanish.)
A group of four southeastern Saskatchewan horse-riding daredevils came together in May 2022 following a Corning, Sask., clinic given by acclaimed Alberta trick rider Amber Miller. Riding at high speeds while hanging off of a horse was the dream of Corning teenager Shayda King, who had imagined being involved in the sport since she was a kid.
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At the time of the inaugural clinic at the King arena, enthusiasm was high among the four trick-riding novices who attended: King, then 13, Jordanna White of Carnduff, then 15; Dyer of Oxbow, Sask., then 15, and Bailey Steeves of Carnduff, then 16.
As the ground work was being laid for gravity-defying tricks such as the upside-down “suicide drag” and the standing “hippodrome,” plans were also falling into place for the brand new Truco Trick Riders to perform at rodeos, shows and fairs across the Prairies.
What was not part of anyone’s plans were the headaches and loss of vision that started afflicting Dyer in late 2022. The devastating aplastic anemia diagnosis that eventually required chemotherapy, radiation, a bone-marrow transplant and a year in the hospital were also not in the team’s plans or in their wildest nightmares.
The three remaining Truco Trick Riders carried on without Dyer, not realizing the seriousness of their teammate’s condition. Six months ago they welcomed 19-year-old Charlize Hallberg of Weyburn, Sask., onto the team, by then knowing that Dyer’s illness might prevent her from ever riding again.
Dyer eventually lost her hair, most of her muscle strength and almost her life, but she never lost hope of rejoining her teammates.
“I definitely couldn’t see her getting back on a horse when we were in the middle of it,” says Kyla’s mother, Amy Dyer.
After a full year in hospitals in Saskatoon and Winnipeg, the teen was able to return to the family farm. But due to her compromised immunity, she was instructed not to be around germs or dust, which meant not riding a horse.
“When I got home I went straight to Patches and there were lots of tears,” says Dyer.
“I sat on him and I thought, ‘I’m riding and I don’t care what anyone says because I was laying in the hospital for a year by myself in a tiny room and no one is going to stop me.’ ”
Since September 2023, Dyer has become stronger and her immunity has improved, allowing her to return to school and to slowly get back to riding.
This March it was off to the biggest week in the history of the Truco Trick Riders — six days of performances and interviews at the Royal Manitoba Winter Fair in Brandon.
The team collectively held their breaths on the night of the first performance as a still-weak Dyer planned to perform tricks with the team for the first time.
“My stomach hurt, I was nervous and I was just so scared that I was going to fall off or mess something up,” says Dyer, adding that she needed her sister, Kianah, in the arena to push her out of some of her moves because her muscles had atrophied so badly.
“Oh my gosh, I did it,” says Dyer about the successful tricks she managed to complete in front of a cheering Brandon crowd.
“There were lots of tears after, but they were finally happy tears and I thought, ‘I’m doing it. I’m back to life.’ ”
When mothers Tammy King and Amy Dyer look back on the long and treacherous road their daughters and all of the trick riders have taken to establish an in-demand trick-riding team, they too shed tears.
“It’s just amazing to watch your kids set out to do something they love, and to just make it happen,” says Tammy, adding that her daughter has been a fearless horse rider for as long as she can remember.
“She has absolutely no fear, none at all.”
She said the worst incident Shayda and her 15-year-old gelding Cloud experienced was at a show in Manor, Sask.
“Cloud fell and it didn’t scare her at all. She just popped up, chirped to him and he got up and they continued on and did the trick.”
As for Steeves, she agrees that fear is not part of the equation for most trick riders.
“I have a need for adrenalin and I just love the crowd and I can hear them cheering when I’m doing a trick, so it’s just fun,” says the Lakeland College equine science student.
Hallberg, the newest member of the team, says she and her teammates can take on the risky moves they do because of the complete trust they have developed with each of their horses.
“We pattern them by repeating exercises over and over so by the time we’re in a show, it’s all verbal cues and they just know what to do, like picking up speed and picking up their shoulders,” says the Saskatoon nursing student.
White, a cousin of Dyer’s, says being a member of the Truco Trick Riders has been a privilege she wouldn’t trade for anything, especially since it has been one of the keys to her cousin’s recovery.
“It has been truly amazing to watch Kyla come back to us.… I would go visit her in the hospital and it was honestly quite terrifying seeing her so sick,” she says.
“So to see her even on a horse, let alone trick riding, is so awesome.”
The Truco Trick Riders have a full slate of shows and competitions this summer: June 14-15, Estevan; Sask., June 22-23, Lloydminster, June 29-30, Strasbourg; Sask., July 1, Redvers, Sask., July 4, Weyburn, July 20-21, Kennedy, Sask., July 27-28, Rosthern, Sask., Aug. 17-18, The Pas, Man., and Sept. 7, Oak Lake, Man.
