13-year-old Hardisty teen is both a barrel racer and artist
Reegan Dempsey, 13, from Hardisty, is celebrating more than the average person this summer. In addition to a burgeoning barrel racing career, Dempsey has recently had great success as an artist and designer.
She’s been barrel racing for about four years now, through 4-H, as a member of the Amisk 4-H Multi-Club, and through gymkhanas and other events, and she’s really having a lot of fun with it.
Dempsey competed at the Hardisty Rodeo this July in front of a hometown audience.
Through her barrel racing, Dempsey became familiar with a special shirt manufacturer, MSport6, and their unique air-conditioned shirts.
Competitive barrel racers have strict dress codes that they must follow, these include long-sleeved shirts that must be fastened to the neck. That’s fine in theory, but because most rodeos are held during the summer months, you can get overheated pretty easily while competing.
MSport6 founder Monique Vek, from BC, who also does some racing, on horses and bikes, started out by sewing sleeves and a collar onto her biking shirt before taking her idea to the next level and having shirts made with similar fabric, this time with special “A/C” vents sewn right in.
The shirts were an immediate hit with the equestrian community.
Vek even appeared on an episode of Dragon’s Den last October.
Vek maintains a website and social media page, and tries to give back to those who support her the most by offering sponsorships to youth and women barrel racers.
Dempsey heard about the sponsorships, and sent in an application with a biographical essay and photos of herself wearing one of Vek’s air-conditioned shirts, and won one!
Dempsey is a red-head, and says not only are the shirts breathable, fashionable, and functional, but they also act as a UV protectant.
Dempsey’s artistic side was very inspired by Vek’s designs. Her mom, Trish Granger, says, “Reegan’s always drawing in her sketch book. While other kids are on their phones or tablets, she’s usually drawing.”
Trish says the family has boxes and boxes of filled sketchbooks. “A trip to the store for Reegan usually means another sketch pad.”
Reegan also likes to paint with watercolours.
Vek’s designs inspired her to create some of her own designs for shirts.
Trish says, “She asked me one day in February if I thought it would be okay for her to send Monique some designs she’d drawn up for shirts. I encouraged her; I told her the worst she could hear was no.”
Trish says they received a reply from Vek within a half-hour. “We were kind of afraid to open it, but we did, and her reaction was very positive!” Not long afterwards, Vek posted one of the sketches on her social media page. “We noticed that one of the designs didn’t get posted, and wondered if that might mean that Monique didn’t want to give it away.”
Vek did indicate on that post that she might be looking at working Dempsey’s unicorn into a real shirt.
Vek rushed to get the unicorn shirt design Dempsey had sent her into her summer lineup.
“The next thing we heard was when Monique sent us the mockup for the shirt,” Trish says.
Vek also put the design on her Facebook page and started accepting pre-orders, saying, “When a young aspiring artist sent us her concept drawings for her unicorn shirt, we thought, well heck we have to try and make her design into a for-real shirt. The end result is a fun, playful design perfectly suited to today’s kids who love unicorns.”
The shirt was available in kids and women’s sizes for pre-order, and Vek also stocked the shirt for regular sales, with outstanding results.
As of today, there are very few left, with just random sizes available.
Once made, the very first shirt went directly to Dempsey, and she wore it for the first time this June, at the Ronald McDonald House Barrel Racing Jackpot. Dempsey also donated one of the unicorn shirts to the silent auction at this event that raised close to $10,000 for the cause.
Since taking up with 4-H, Dempsey takes the pledge very seriously, she and mom Trish say, and she puts a lot of time into giving back. “It’s all about giving.”
“When I first started riding, Teresa Bitzer helped me a lot, and Brittny Friend also stepped forward to help me, I wouldn’t have been able to do it without the great support I’ve received,” Dempsey says.
Trish says that the barrel racing community is very tight knit. The whole scene was completely new to both Reegan and the family, and they were met with kindness everywhere they went.
She knows quite a few local kids who’ve spent time at the Stollery, and rode into the arena with five local names and photos on her saddle, and a handprint painted on her horse, Pebbles, for each of them. “I wasn’t just riding for myself, I was riding for them, too,” she says.
Dempsey donated another shirt to that silent auction, too.
She’s always supported the Stollery, she even had a lemonade stand in front of her mother’s store when she was nine, and raised a lot of money from generous donations.
Dempsey likes paying it forward. She says, “I was that little girl, watching the horses and riders, and now I am trying to help others.”
She still has dreams, one day she hopes to meet Vek in person, and she’d love to meet her hero, CFR 2017 Barrel Racing Champ Carmen Pozzobon. She continues to race, is working on breeding her brother Caleb’s mare, and working with her colt, Bear, given to her by family friends who are also teaching her how to train horses.
She’s planning to continue working with art, as well, she’s done some cowboy hat painting, and still doodles the odd shirt design, too.
Originally published in the August 1, 2018 edition of The Community Press. Call 780-385-6693 to reserve back-issues.
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Leslie Cholowsky
Editor
