The Yorkton Horseshoe Club is closing. Declining membership numbers has lead the club to the difficult decision to disband.
Enid Mroske, the final president of the club, says that in the last few years they have struggled to find new members, especially youth. She believes that kids spending their time with sports like baseball, golf and soccer, horseshoes have been left behind.
Horseshoing in Yorkton began in 1967 at Jaycee Beach, before moving to the Exhibition Grounds, before finally moving to the current pitch on First Ave. North in 1982. When that pitch opened, there were 125 members, with 25 of those being juniors.
“This kept up for a long time, but then the membership kept dropping off, especially the juniors.”
Each club in the province hosted a sanctioned tournament to be part of Horseshoe Saskatchewan. She says that the local tournaments were well attended, bringing in players from around the province and into Manitoba.
Mroske says that the most rewarding part of the Horseshoe Club was a partnership with the Saskatchewan Abilities Council and later the Mental Health Drop-in Centre, hosting a weekly horseshoe meet.
“It was a privilege to host these groups and see the joy they had being able to play horseshoes.”
The declining membership is what lead to the difficult decision to close the club.
“It became too much to carry on, some of us had health problems and it’s hard to keep a club going with so few members.”
The clubs funds were given to Horseshoe Saskatchewan and the Health Foundation. The pitch itself was transferred to the City of Yorkton.
