Calgary Stampede

I flew back into Canada from France early July, just in time for the Calgary Stampede.  I felt naked without a cowboy hat - I was almost the only person there out of the thousands who didn't have one!  The best part of the Stampede for me was the team camp-drafting (cutting), where 3 riders had to isolate 3 cows from a mob of 30 (all identified with numbers on their backs) and muster them into a holding yard.  They had to do it in under a minute, and they weren't allowed to get any other cows mixed up in the ones they had to pen.  In fact only one cow that was not in their number was allowed past the halfway line of the arena, and if any more got past then the team failed.  In one of the better runs I saw, one wrong cow got through, and at one point they nearly let more go by, but in the end they managed to get the 3 they needed to the yard and they got rid of the wrong numbered cow just before penning up their 3.   This team took 56 seconds, and the team that won did it in about 35 seconds I think.  They were very good, but there is an element of luck involved.  The team that won were a family team - grandfather, daughter and granddaughter.

The sheepdog trials were also interesting to watch, although there is definitely a lot of luck involved there!  It was the world championships, but most contenders were from Alberta and nearby provinces.  The bloke who won was from Saskatchewan, and a couple of BC locals came second and third.  There were some Americans and maybe an Australian in the 15 finalists.  Basically the handler had to stand in a marked circle and issue instructions from there until the sheep crossed a designated line in the arena, then they could open the gate for the sheep.  Once they did this they couldn't let go of the rope to help the dog pen the sheep.  This is to ensure the dog is the one who succeeds of fails in the penning, so no handler should have a physical advantage over another.  However these rules don't entirely take the dog handler's stock handling abilities out of the equation.  The people with good stock sense knew how to behave in close quarters with the sheep, so as not to make them react adversely, and obviously the faster fitter people could get the gate open earlier and close it faster once the sheep were penned.  There was a woman who was quite overweight and she was very slow manipulating the gate.  Added to that and she isn't a stock woman at all.  She was just in the crowd one year at the Stampede and decided she could train a dog to do that even though she didn't work sheep.  She was very good with her dog, but she didn't have the same sheep experience as the other competitors.  Technically, the person isn't permitted to handle the sheep, so if at the gate the sheep try to get past the person they are not allowed to physically block with contact.  The handler holds a long rope from the gate so they can use that a bit, and they carry a crook and can wave that at the sheep, but I don't think they are allowed to use the rope or crook to actually trip up the sheep.  Nevertheless, the guy who won was fit and fast, and was as physical as permitted with the crook and rope in blocking the sheep.  And he was fast closing the gate once the sheep were in!

So the course the dog had to guide the sheep through involved rounding some barrels, channeling through a narrow chute, and circling the handler before coming into the gate.  There was a time of 4 minutes allotted and 3 sheep to handle.  Much depended on the temperament of the sheep, because the dog wasn't permitted to bite the sheep.  One contender was very unfortunate because their 3 sheep included one really stubborn ewe who wouldn't go through the chute.  She would charge the dog and the dog wasn't allowed to assert itself over the sheep.  As soon as the dog backed off the ewe knew it had won, so it was all over for that competitor.

The chute

Also some buggys were on show:

 I was interested in seeing the actual rodeo itself, with the bucking broncos and the bull riding, but I couldn't do everything in one day so I chose the above events instead.  I could have stayed another day and paid to see the rodeo, but I decided to leave Alberta and climb instead in Squamish.