Haylie Ost nearly walked away from Lakeland College after an uncertain first year, but encouragement from an instructor and months of early mornings with a young horse turned things around. On June 22, 2026, the second-year animal science technology student from a ranch near Medicine Hat, Alberta, bought her first colt at the college’s Round Up Sale in Vermilion, capping a year of hands-on learning that she says rebuilt her confidence.
Ost grew up riding on a family operation with over 400 head of black Angus cattle and had long dreamed of becoming a colt starter. As she weighed whether to come back for her second year, instructor Matt Rustemeier, who has taught in the equine major since 2017, urged her to return and later matched her with a 2023 sorrel gelding named Nics Dual Badger, known as AJ. “He told me not to give up on it. He wanted me to be able to follow my dreams. He pushed me and made me work for it, and I am grateful for it,” Ost said.
For months, Ost was in the saddle by 6 a.m. five days a week, training AJ for roping and cow work. She exposed the young horse to dummies, live cattle, and all kinds of obstacles, from flags to bridges, until he was steady in any situation. The work paid off at the 2026 Round Up Sale, where AJ sold for $20,000, the highest price of any colt on offer. With her father placing bids online, Ost herself was there in person to win the auction and take home the horse she had started.
The sale brought in $243,400 overall from Lakeland’s Student-Managed Farm units, with the equine unit alone generating $81,000 in colt sales. The farm, supported by a 10-year partnership with New Holland, spans 3,700 acres and is the only one in Canada where students manage commercial-sized bison, beef, crop, dairy, and equine operations. President and CEO Dr. Alice Wainwright-Stewart says the college trusts students to plan real events, manage real assets, and learn from real outcomes, a philosophy Ost experienced firsthand.
As Ost looks ahead, she plans to keep training AJ through the summer and then join the Rustlers rodeo team in the fall when she starts agribusiness studies. For a student who once considered leaving, the months of early mornings and hard work have given her a colt, a clearer direction, and the confidence to keep going.
