Amber L’Heureux makes history as first female driver on Canadian Professional Chuckwagon Association circuit. (Tyler Marr/battlefordsNOW Staff)

By Tyler Marr

L’Heureux makes history as first female driver on CPCA circuit

May 31, 2019 | 9:56 PM

The thundering roar of hooves echoes through hazy air as the sun sets on a warm spring evening.

In a lightly wooded area behind a race track at the North Battelford Exhibition Grounds, small encampments are staked out with trailers and horses.

Among them sits a bright pink wagon surrounded by tack.

It’s covered in a thin layer of dust, fresh from spending just over one minute and seven seconds on the track.

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Still wearing her helmet as she jots around horses to cool them down after the race, Amber L’Heureux directs those around her on where to go.

She is calm, collected, and focused on the task at hand, despite just minutes prior, becoming the first female driver to navigate the barrels in the six-decade history of the Canadian Professional Chuckwagon Association (CPCA).

“I’m glad it is over with. The nerves are calming down,” she said with a laugh. “It feels great.”

Amber L’Heureux waves to a crowd that was eager to watch her make history. (Tyler Marr/battlefordsNOW Staff)

On her left arm, L’Heureux has a tattoo that reads, “Strength is what we gain from the madness we survive.”

She got it while working at a race track in Phoenix, Arizona and says it sums up her life fairly well.

“I have been through a lot to get to this point,” she said.

L’Heureux first took to the track when she was 14 in a small chariot running ponies and went on to race pony chucks for 10 years.

She passed the association’s sanctioning test last July and purchased an official membership to the CPCA in October.

The Glaslyn native had the opportunity to make her professional debut close to home.

She admits it made the entire ordeal more nerve-wracking, but was thankful her friends and family could come out and watch.

And so were they.

When drivers pass by the grandstand before a race, the sound of the wagon tends to drown everything out.

That was not the case tonight.

“It was kind of surreal coming in front of the grandstand,” she said. “It takes a lot of noise to hear that and to come by the grandstand and here people cheering was pretty neat.”

Those showing support for L’Heureux donned pick — a colour that is not her favourite, but one that works.

“The whole pink thing was kind of a fluke,” she said, explaining how she started with it when she was young and it just stuck. “Nobody else had pink, so it is pretty unique.”

L’Heureux’s bright pink wagon stands out on the track, despite it not being her favourite colour. (Tyler Marr/battlefordsNOW Staff)

L’Heureux clocked 1:07:02 in her first race, good enough for second place in her heat.

She said the horses started good but was disappointed with the run coming home and would have liked a bit tighter barrel turn, too.

“It will come together eventually,” she said. “We always have to improve, right? Unless you are first you have to keep improving.”

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tyler.marr@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @JournoMarr