Another year of the Lakeland Rodeo Association has come and gone, and as I headed into St. Paul to take photos at the championship finals, I thought back to the days when that association became a reality.
We came from the Calgary area in 1977 and other than the world-famous Calgary Stampede, had attended only a handful of other rodeos, where the only participation by our family members was the children’s catch and keep, which meant we came north with a chicken captured at that year’s rodeo at one of the small towns down there.
We soon discovered that in this area, even more rodeos were a summer staple in many communities and when our sons learned that their new friends were part of the action, one of them was quickly convinced that he should give steer riding a try, and of course, our second son was almost as eager to get involved. That was even before the dads got to talking about the possibilities of more and better rodeos… and before we knew it, the Lakeland Amateur Rodeo Association was formed, with a growing membership and communities from Moose Mountain and Therien to as far away as Bon Accord eager to get their names on the calendar. The association’s first season final was held at Saddle Lake, and although our boys didn’t qualify to compete in the finals, they were there to cheer their friends on.
Travelling the rodeo circuit was a great way to learn more about our new area and to meet new friends, and when our relatives from down south came to visit, they came along and got a whole new experience, one of my brothers-in-law even trying his hand at wild horse racing! He found it was a little more strenuous than the number one son and his friends were part of, but doesn’t everyone need an opportunity to be a cowboy once in their life?
Scheduling got a little complicated when we got involved with chuckwagon racing as well, but the boys still got in a rodeo here and there, and both our girls had a turn at running for St. Paul rodeo queen. That meant a lot of hauling those girls and their horse to parades around the area, and to St. Paul for the rodeo grand entries at each performance. As much as I love horses, hauling them around the country and loading and unloading them isn’t high on my list of favourite activities and in those years, I was not totally sorry when the rodeo finals were over.
The best part of the rodeo finals, however, was that I got to be close up with the action, as the reporter assigned to do the coverage. Once I learned to take good pictures in the arena, I was ready and eager when September long weekend arrived and many years, attended all the performances. To start with, that involved flash bulbs and rolls of film, and it certainly made things much easier when we advanced to digital cameras with built in flashes. As long as my camera is charged up when I head to the arena, I can catch all the action, right up to the point where I get all the winners lined up with their awards, and make sure I know who’s who.
You would think that with all the rodeos I’ve covered over the years, I’ve seen it all, but last week proved I hadn’t. For some reason, I’d never been to a ranch rodeo. The events were definitely familiar, because having raised cattle for a number of years I know the ropes of loading cattle, sorting cattle and doctoring cattle large and small, although the only one I ever tried to rope was a very tame steer who kept hanging his head over the corral fence and also had to give a very safe, feet-on-the–ground version of steer wrestling a try!
The wildest and wooliest part of the ranch rodeo was teams roping and milking a cow, and although I’ve too much experience at milking uncooperative cows, I was glad to be on the safer side of the fence from those bad-tempered bossies! Now, THAT was a rodeo!
