The RCMP Musical Ride will be returning to Cochrane this fall to the Cochrane and District Agricultural Society, and no one is more excited than RCMP rider Sherri Flundra.
Flundra, who now calls Pincher Creek her home, is originally from Cochrane and said she cannot wait for the stop in her former town.
“My mom used to ride with me when she was pregnant, so I’ve been riding my whole life, literally,” Flundra said with a laugh. She said the Cochrane Pony Club was a huge part of her life growing up and where she learned a lot of her horse skills.
Flundra is a 10-year veteran of the RCMP and this will be her fourth year with the musical ride. She said she is a bit of a special circumstance because typically Mounties only stay with the group for three years.
She said they were short some members due to injuries and she was the prefect replacement, as she had just come off the ride and she lives in Alberta – one of the provinces the ride will be touring.
“The musical ride is such a posi- tive aspect of the RCMP. It’s basically the most significant, positive media the RCMP has right now,” said Flundra.
Flundra also mentioned that it is a huge asset to recruitment and that all it takes is “lighting up the face of a couple of kids in the crowd” and they will remember it for the rest of their lives.
“I know the first time I saw it was at Spruce Meadows when I was probably 11 or 12 and I never ever forgot about it,” she said.
Flundra also added that it shows a different side to what many people think an RCMP officer is. She said often people typecast them as just traffic cops on the highway writing speeding tickets.
“It is such a good opportunity to meet police officers and meet their horses. It is such a good way to interact positively,” she said.
Flundra explained that the ride basically visits every province on a four-year rotation.
This year they are touring Quebec and Alberta and next year will be Saskatchewan and the Maritimes.
She added that on occasion there is an opportunity as well for an overseas visit, and that in 2012 they went to Germany and England for her Majesty’s Diamond Jubilee Pageant, which she described as “phenomenal.”
“You can pretty much count on five to six months of your life being on the road,” she said. “We joke that we live like Gypsies. We travel all of the time.”
Flundra and the musical ride will be in Cochrane from Sept. 4 - 8, with shows slated for 1:30 p.m. Sept. 6 and 7.
