STOUGHTON - Born and raised by Wolseley, DeeAnna Lyke has always had horses in her life.
Her parents, Doug and Roberta Lyke, ran a PMU farm, which started with 60 horses and grew to 84 over the years.
The farm focused on raising registered quarter and Arabian horses, with nine stallions. Each stallion was placed with a herd of mares in a separate pasture to know for registration which stud had sired the foals.
DeeAnna's parents went separate ways when she was 4 1/2 years old. Roberta remained on the farm and Doug moved to an acreage by Stoughton. DeeAnna remained on the farm with her mom.
Roberta was into showing her Arabians and DeeAnna took a liking to her mom's show horse and began showing as well, which soon became a big part of her life.
Each year the farm held a production sale. DeeAnna said this always was a highlight.
A month before the sale, fences were painted, and yard work was done.
"It was a social time with friends," DeeAnna recalled.
Each year 10-15 foals were held back to grow the herd. The fillies were bred after they turned three.
DeeAnna trained her first horse when she was seven. She did all the groundwork and was the first to ride this horse after it was saddle-trained.
When she turned 13, she began to do the farrier work on the horses - a job that is usually done every eight weeks to keep horse's feet neatly trimmed.
In 2003, DeeAnna attended Shur Shod School in Missouri to gain more knowledge and become a certified farrier.
She has a large client base in the southeast which takes her anywhere from Highway 6 to 9, down to Highway 18 and 10.
The PMU farm eventually had closed, and Doug asked if DeeAnna would be interested in working for Mustang Vac Services in Stoughton, the job that she happily accepted.
She moved in with her dad and started driving a truck, bringing her horses with her. She worked at Mustang Vac for eight years.
Lyke was involved in the New Hope Horse Club in Stoughton and was the president for many years. At the time the club started they did not have an arena to work in, so Doug offered his place for the group to hold their events. They put on a few rodeos there too. Bleachers were brought in, the rodeo crew brought the chutes, and the trailers were parked in the pasture, white guests parked out front.
The crowd was great, but DeeAnna had forgotten to get someone to sing the National Anthem, so she stepped up to the plate to do the honours.
She eventually bought a small farm west of Stoughton.
With love for the Arabian breed, DeeAnna bought herself a Khemosabi offspring stallion named Ace. He was a yearling when he arrived, and DeeAnna did all the training herself.
Ace is as gentle as the day is long and has had many children ride him. He is now 24 years old and still in excellent shape.
"Arabians are intelligent, athletic and beautiful," said DeeAnna. "I will only breed horses for their confirmation, temperament, athleticism and beauty."
As her operation grew, DeeAnna purchased a property near Qu’Appelle, where she has two quarter sections, a large arena and a barn. Training, boarding, lessons, sales and farriering are all in a day's work for her.
She often has training horses. Some are quick to learn, and others take a little longer. She takes her time to make sure the foundation is there and does not rush the job.
DeeAnna's horses are versatile and do many disciplines, as she feels a horse should be exposed to as much as possible.
She is always looking for new things, so in 2017, she went to a new event called Working Equitation and fell in love with the sport.
Today she teaches the working equitation discipline at the New Hope Ranch where she lives and in August will attend the Cross National Cup in Moose Jaw, which will host five countries.
Several people from the Stoughton area still go to DeeAnna's for lessons, and even board their horses there. She returns to the area on a regular basis to teach lessons and farrier horses.
Programs are offered at the ranch to children as young as five years old and up, including The Barn Rats, and My Little Pony.
To prepare for the CNWECCC her team of girls take regular WEcan lessons. Some newer girls will ride at level 1, and others are at level 4. The higher the level the more difficult, and a well-trained horse has to be.
DeeAnna is excited about this year and looks forward to all the events that will take place leading up to the CNWECCC.
"My goal is to breed a better horse, teach people to do better on their horses, get more people involved and spread the love for horses," she said.
