An RCMP officer on the Piikani Nation is changing the lives of Indigenous youth with rodeo for the seventh straight year.

Tyrone Potts started the program, and each summer he teaches rodeo to groups of as many as 40 kids. While many of the children and teens are from the Piikani Nation, Potts also gets participants from surrounding areas, such as Brocket and Pincher Creek.

“In this day and age there’s so much going on with youth,” said Potts. “When we do our program we ride, we teach them how to pole bend, barrel race, steer riding… but we really want to change lives.”

“That’s what our goal is, we want to change lives and keep kids safe.”

Potts based the program off of first-hand experience, and he said he’s seen it make a difference.

“Horses and rodeo changed my life,” said Potts, “and saved my life, probably.

“I was abandoned at an early age, so if I can give back to the community and have this kids riding program, and change lives and save lives, that’s what I want to do.”

In his 34 years with the RCMP, Potts has seen it all, and he uses the program to teach kids about more than just horses.

“I’ve seen a lot of abandoned kids, like how I was,” said Potts.

“I just think we need to give kids a chance. We do talks on suicide prevention, and we’ve had kids that we’ve actually saved their lives, by them calling me or one of our instructors.”

Each week, Potts brings as many as 15 of his own horses out, as well as special guests.

This week it was the 2019 Calgary Stampede Indian Princess, Astokomii Smith. Smith says that she really admires the work that Potts is doing, and that she has experienced the power that horses can have.

“I’ve done some riding lessons recently and it really has given me some confidence,” said Smith. “When I first started riding I was a little shy on the horse, and horses feel that. So I think this [program] really encourages them to be confident.”

And many of the participants have started to build that confidence while riding horses.

“I really like riding,” said Piikani youth and current Miss Piikani Teairra Bad Eagle. “What I would like to do when I’m older is barrel race.”

Potts says that he’s seen a lot of kids develop rodeo dreams through the program.

“We’ve seen a lot of kids that have started here and gone on to qualify for the Indian National finals in Las Vegas,” said Potts.

But he says that to a lot of the kids it comes naturally, and the program is also about getting them back to their roots.

“Horses are a part of the Blackfoot culture, it goes way back,” said Potts.

Many of the participants will be heading to the Calgary Stampede in a few weeks to take in one of the biggest rodeos in the world.

Source: Read Full Article