The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is happy to announce the winners of the Name the Foal contest.
This year, the contest took on added significance, with many families staying home and looking for something fun and entertaining to do together during this challenging time. In light of the serious situation going on around the world, some thought was originally given to postponing the contest. However, we realized this contest is something that may brighten people's day, provide a few minutes of fun with their children, and lift the spirits of our employees when getting to see and select the entries.
The RCMP has been breeding its own horses for over 80 years now. In addition to being one of the largest licensed Hanoverian breeders in the country, the breeding program is internationally recognized for producing some of the finest Hanoverian horses in Canada.
Youth aged 14 years old and younger were invited to submit their best names starting with the letter S. In all, 5,300 entries were received from across the country.
This year, the winning names will be given to 9 new foals recently born at the breeding farm in Pakenham, Ontario. Among the foals born this year, two of them have special meaning and have been selected to commemorate the lives lost in the April 2020 Nova Scotia tragedy. SHeidi, a combination of Super and Heidi, is named in memory of the late Constable Heidi Stevenson, who proudly served as an RCMP officer for 23 years. Scotia gets her name from Nova Scotia, honouring the community and all Nova Scotians impacted by this tragedy.
In all, we received almost 400 total submissions for Heidi, Stevenson and Scotia, reflecting Canadians' desire and the RCMP's honour to pay tribute to Constable Stevenson and the province of Nova Scotia.
The 9 winning entries are:
- SHeidi – Jade, Saint-Joseph-de-Beauce, QC
- Scotia – Casey, Enfield, NS
- Spring – Kassandra, Riverview, NB
- Sosi – Logan, Ottawa, ON
- Star – Hayven, Thompson, MB
- Scout – Jake, Port au Choix, NL
- Steele – Joshua, Yellowknife, NT
- Scarlet – Evelynn, Langley, BC
- Sarge – Amelia, Cochrane, AB
Winners will receive a 2020 Musical Ride horseshoe, a picture of the horse they named and a certificate signed by the RCMP Commissioner.
For more information on the contest, or to learn more about the world famous Musical Ride, visit the RCMP website at www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca.