The horses and bulls were bucking high and hard on Sunday afternoon and gave some competitors a difficult time.
It was a successful weekend at the Hometown Fair as the Canadian Cowboy Association held the Championship Rodeo at the Gomersall Arena.
“It was probably the best weekend we could have asked for with the weather and the amount of contestants,” stated Tyler Cronkhite, chairman of the Moose Jaw Rodeo. “The entries are up…more than usual.”
Cowboys and cowgirls were registered in a number of events, including the saddle bronc, bareback, tie down roping, steer wrestling, ladies barrel racing, bull riding and team roping.
“There’s more people getting into it and this year every event had an added $1,000 and that draws more people to it,” said Cronkhite. “This year we also had the novice saddle bronc and bareback riding, which is a new event.”
The new event went with the saddle bronc riding school the Moose Jaw Rodeo had in the spring.
Although some Moose Jaw natives had a rough time in their events, many did very well.
“Overall, I think they did very well,” said Cronkhite. “In the novice bareback, Ty Hicks (from Mortlach) and Wyatt Mealing (from Moose Jaw) were two of the highlights.”
Moose Jaw’s Wes Petersen competed in the saddle bronc and steer wrestling events and had some difficulties on Sunday afternoon.
“I drew a poor saddle bronc horse and drew a poor steer,” Petersen said. “It’s the luck of the draw.”
When Larry Chappel passed away in March 2011, the roping and rodeo community lost a passionate cowboy. Chappel and his son Brady got involved in team roping and were successful throughout the years. When he passed away, the Moose Jaw Rodeo decided to present the winning team a set of stirrups. This year, the tradition continued with the winning team being presented with two sets of brass stirrups made by Fred Smith of Moose Jaw in recognition of the Larry Chappel Memorial.
“In his honour and because Moose Jaw is a very well known community for team roping, we thought it would be a good thing to give away,” explained Cronkhite. “This year, we gave both the header and heeler a set of stirrups.”
For more on this story, read an upcoming edition of the Times-Herald.
