My Trip - the Parade and the Rodeo

I used to watch the Calgary Stampede on TV when I was young and in 2004 I actually got to go there with Laila. It was a whole 2-week road trip - she drove. Last year when Laila found out about the Williams Lake Stampede, she knew I had to see it. I was also looking forward to the stampede pancake breakfast since we didn't have one in Calgary.

The Stampede grounds.

The Stampede grounds from the other side.

The one thing that the Calgary Stampede didn't have was a mountain race. This was a wonderful race where, in earlier years the riders started at the top of the mountain, crossed the road that you see to the left and then down to the stampede grounds. These days, the riders walk their horses to about the site of where the trees are in the middle of this picture. There is a zig-zag trail that winds down into the grounds. I was fortunate to see this race on two different days. First, we have to see the parade.

After a pancake stampede breakfast, we watched the parade.

It was so nice to see the children taking part.

There were a lot of community groups represented in the parade.

I got to see inside this airstream. It was filled with red and white coca cola stuff.

I really like old cars.

My daughter and I thought this lamp would make a great Hallowe'en costume.

Loads of horses.

4-H club was prominent.

Square dance group.

Hoop dancer.

And at the end of the parade, the fire fighters cooled everyone off. 

Now, on to the rodeo.

Bronc riding - bareback. For those of who don't know, the object of the sport is to stay on the horse (or bull) for eight seconds hanging on to a rope with only one hand. In that eight seconds the riders cannot touch themselves or the horse/bull with their free hand and they are marked on their style and how well the horse or bull bucked.

More bronc riding. (click on any of the photos to see them better)

Calf roping.

The riders are marked by how long it takes them to rope the calf, get off their horse, flip the calf to the ground and tie three of its legs. Once this is done, the rider throws his hands in the air. He then returns to his horse, mounts, and moves the horse forward to relax the tension on the rope. The timer waits for six seconds, during which the calf must stay tied before an official time is recorded. If the calf gets up, there is no time recorded. The world record is just over 6 seconds.

 Saddle bronc riding.

Whoops. This happened quite often.

Bull riding. The most dangerous sport.

While the rider tries to stay on, the bull bucks, kicks, spins, and twists to try to throw the rider off. The rider is then either bucked off or tries to jump off after completing his ride. A loud buzzer announces the completion of an eight second ride.

The cowboys in the red shirts are "pick-up riders" who, once the buzzer sounds, try to get as close to the horse or the bull so that the rider can jump off onto the back of their horse or onto the ground fairly safely.

The pick-up riders then herd the horse or bull off the arena into a pen so that the next cowboy can do his riding. Click on any of the photos to see them better. Here, you can see the two pick-up riders, one on either side of the bronc. One is on a white horse and the other on a brown one.

Judging a ride.

Well, that's it for the rodeo. Tomorrow I'll take you to Barkerville Historic Town. It's a gold rush town.