HCPM25: Queen of the Furrow Mackenzie Terpstra reflects on her reign
BY SCOTT STEPHENSON
Reigning Queen of the Furrow (QOTF) Mackenzie Terpstra is having lots of fun getting ready for the upcoming Huron County Plowing Match (HCPM) at the Dodds farm outside of Seaforth. She’s especially looking forward to the 2025 edition of the QOTF competition - the interview/public-speaking/plowing battle that she won last year.
“It’s coming up soon!” Terpstra exclaimed in an interview with The Citizen ahead of the big day. “I’m excited for the girls running for Queen - I haven’t met all of the candidates, but I know each girl will do her best - and I’m excited for whomever wins! I can share in that excitement with them because I know what’s in store for them.”
What’s in store for the worthy winner is a most-memorable year of attending events in the official capacity of Huron County’s number-one agricultural Queen. “I really did enjoy the competition itself, but I’d have to say going to the events and parades is the most fun,” Terpstra admitted. “‘And just getting to see other people while representing Huron County.” Her favourite day on the job so far was at the Seaforth Fall Fair. “My favourite thing about the parades is seeing all the little girls get excited and being like, “Oh, there’s a princess!” she recalled.
Terpstra has also been busy recruiting competitors for this year’s competitions. “More personally, I convinced my younger sister, Amelia, to run for Princess! She’s a little bit nervous - like me when I first started out! But I think I can be a little stepping stone for her, and help her along the way. I’m excited to see how well she does and hopefully one day she can follow in my footsteps, and be Queen too,” Mackenzie explained.
She’s a firm believer that programs like QOTF are an important part of helping rural young people develop valuable life skills, particularly when it relates to public speaking. “If somebody wants to improve their public speaking, I would definitely, highly suggest the Queen competition - or even the Princess competition,” she advocated. “It’s a fun way to improve your public speaking skills and enjoy it at the same time - mine have definitely improved significantly!” And it’s not just her public speaking - Mackenzie’s plowing skills have also improved. “From the first time I started to now, they have improved,” she said. “Definitely not the best - but improved!”
The 2025 HCPM is fast approaching, which means Mackenzie is preparing to pass on her crown to the next QOTF champion.”It’s definitely bittersweet,” she said. “I’m excited to pass it on, but I will definitely miss it - meeting other girls in the county and other ambassadors has been a lot of fun for me… it’s just a great way to meet other like-minded girls, get involved in the community, and advertise the cultural aspect of the industry!”
As her reign nears its end, Mackenzie is also looking ahead to the Ontario Queen of the Furrow competition, where she’ll be representing Huron County on the provincial stage. She’s not feeling the pressure of competition, however. “I don’t really have a lot of expectations,” she said, “I just want the other competitors to have as much fun as I do, and for them to enjoy the day - whether they win or not.”
She hasn’t written her speech for the public speaking portion of the Ontario match, but Mackenzie knows what she wants to talk about. “I’m definitely going to focus on my experience as Queen,” she explained. “And all the happy memories I’ve made along the way.” For all the candidates who hope to follow in her footsteps, Mackenzie has simple advice: “Do as much as you can, but don’t overwhelm yourself. Just enjoy it; soak it all up,” she advised sagely.
There’s another reason this year was especially memorable for Mackenzie - she got married. Balancing wedding planning with her duties as an agricultural ambassador wasn’t always the easiest thing in the world, but Mackenzie looks back on it all fondly. “It was definitely a little bit stressful,” she admitted. “But I don’t regret getting married and taking on the crown at the same time…. Often, I would do wedding plans in the morning and then go to a fair in the afternoon - it was a lot of fun!”
Mackenzie and her husband, Curtis Horner, have begun their life as a married couple on a farm just outside of Seaforth, about 15 minutes away from the Terpstra family farm, which she still visits frequently, whenever she misses her many siblings or her many hogs. “We live in the country, and there is a pig barn, with pigs in it,” she explained. “But we’re not operating that barn - even though I’m not farming so much right now, Curtis is still in the industry. “I still have the same goals, but they’re more our combined goals now.”
She’s learned a lot of lessons during her reign as Queen, but the most important thing is that a person can make big changes with small acts. “I’m representing Huron County, and there’s a lot of attention you can draw when you’re wearing your county sash. People just come up and ask questions - sometimes not even about what you’re representing!” Mackenzie confided. “They’ll ask things like, ‘What should I go see around here today?’ or what things they should take their kids to. There’s a lot you can do with just a little; you can treat someone kindly, and really change how their day is going! And I think that can be the biggest influence.”