Calgary Day Three - We Came Here For a Rodeo

After yesterday's dawn till dark marathon, we needed a rest and an easy day. The plan was to go to the afternoon rodeo competitions back at the GMC Stadium. We slept in, then headed back to the Stampede grounds. It was warm and sunny again. We thought, since it was no longer opening day, that the midway crowds would be thinner, but it was the exact opposite. After looking at more exhibits, we started looking for some fair food to eat. The choices were limitless. Stampede fair food is a step above in variety and quality. Vicky had some snack food and I eschewed the meal worm hotdogs and cow tongue pizza and ended up getting a very good Greek lamb wrap.

Fair food: lots of choices

We headed into the stadium early and sat at our balcony seats in the shade. As with the parade, there was a bit of pre-show to the rodeo to keep us amused. We knew the rodeo was about to start when the acrobatic riders came out. Acrobatic riding is a girl's specialty. The girls all look they weigh about 95 pounds soaking wet, but are probably strong as whips and certainly very agile. 

Opening ceremony for the day's rodeo competition

This brings up the subject of women at the rodeo. Women obviously do more than their share of work on a ranch, including with the animals. And women are well-represented in parades, animal behavior judging, and other events. But rodeo sports are almost all men's sports. Of the six competitive rodeo events, only one is a woman's event. This is probably because of the sheer physical strength required to do some of them. All involve great risk to life and limb.

The rodeo competitions consist of six competitive events. Contestants compete each day for purses up to $5500 for the daily winner of each event. The overall money standings at the end of the Stampede determine who is the champion of each event. We saw Day 2, so some of the day's contestants were already on the money board. But they had to keep winning to keep their standing, and that didn't always happen. Some of yesterday's winners completely washed out, others  moved up. There is $1.5 million in purses up for grabs. The rodeo runs for 10 days. That's a lot of time for things to change.

Once the opening ceremony and singing of "Oh, Canada" were over, we settled down to watch the rodeo. Before each event, the Stampede shows a Rodeo 101 video on the big screen to inform greenhorns what the event is all about. I link to these videos in what follows. The first event was bareback bronco riding.  A rider is on a bareback, bucking horse. He must stay on for 8 seconds and in that 8 second ride, he is judged for points on various criteria having to do with control, posture, and the horse's actions. 

Bareback rider

Next came the only women's event, barrel racing. This event is an agility event, and speed is the objective. The rider guides her horse around three barrels in a direction determined by the direction she takes the first barrel, then sprints to the finish. The horse needs to be guided through very sharp turns around each barrel, but the barrel can't be knocked over, otherwise the rider is given an insurmountable time penalty. The race is over in around 17 seconds. Women of all ages compete. We saw teenagers and very seasoned champion riders take part.

Barrel racer rounds a barrel

The third event was tie-down roping. A calf is given a short head start running from a pen. A horse and rider chases it. The rider must rope the calf, get off the horse, flip the calf on its side, and tie the calf's legs together (they need to stay roped together for 3 seconds).  All this happens within 7 or 8 seconds. No judging is involved, except to assess time penalties if certain conditions aren't met. It's all speed, accuracy in roping, and agility in dismounting the horse, then securing and tying down the calf. Sometimes the rider misses with the rope and the calf just trots away. Sometimes the rider misses a leg roping, adding seconds to his time to secure that last leg. And sometimes the calf wriggles out of the rope before 3 seconds are up.

Calf tied down securely

The fourth event was saddle bronc riding. The event is similar to the bareback riding event, but this time the rider is on a saddle and the horse is even crazier. The rider has to stay on for 8 seconds and is judged for points on criteria similar that for the bareback ride. Once the 8 seconds is up, team members ride up to him and grab him off his horse so he can get away before his brains are jarred loose.

Saddle bronc riding

Next came the steer wrestling. This one requires strength and agility, but is over the quickest. A man on a horse chases down a 500 pound steer that has been given a head start. He leaps from his horse, wraps his arms around the steer's neck, then wrestles that steer onto its back by its horns. All in about 4 seconds.

Pulling that steer down to the ground

The most awaited event, the last, is bull riding. Truly crazy. A rider tries to sit on a bull for at least 8 seconds, during which time he is judged for points on some pretty-much irrelevant criteria since he's basically being whipped around and hanging on for life. No matter how good he is, the rider is eventually shaken from the bull, at which time the rodeo clowns keep the bull occupied so the rider can get away.

When a bull rider, the rodeo clowns run to distract the bull

There are a few side events to watch during breaks in the action, or while the tractors are raking the ground (as Vicky said, every sport has a Zamboni). The most fun to watch were the Junior Steer Riding contest and the Wild Pony Races. In the first, teenage boys ride a steer and are judged in much the same way the bull riders are. In the latter, a team of kids tries to get one rider mounted on a wild pony, which he must then ride. More often than not, the rider or one of his team gets dragged through the dust of the stadium for a quarter mile or so. Some of those kids are quite tenacious!

Calgary's downtown cafes and bistros

After the rodeo, Vicky and I took the train to a section of downtown with a lot of cafes and bistros. We had some pub food, then went back to the AirBnB for an earlier night than the last.