By: Dingi Berglund

The Moose Mountain Rodeo is in the books for another year. Attendance was a little light on Saturday; maybe some folks were smart and knew how wet it was going to get at the end of the rodeo. The stands looked full Sunday.

I’m sure the paper will be giving you full coverage of the rodeo, and I am in abit of a hurry as we leave for Austin for a week to show at the Classic Clydesdale Show, so I will just give you some color commentary.

The saddle bronc was won on Saturday by Luke Butterfield with an 84 on Prime Time’s Rhyme or Reason. Veteran saddle bronc rider, Denny Hay - CFR winner, Olympic gold medalist and Calgary $50,000 winner did not draw a good enough horse on Sunday to rack up winning points. Colin Adams won the bareback with an 80.5 and also won the novice bareback.

Kevin Taylor was second with an 80 on Gold Dust. Brett Thompson was second in the bull riding with an 84.5 on Aces and Eights, a bull that bucked at the Calgary Stampede, while reigning bull riding champion and Calgary competitor, Nathan Roy won the event with an 86 atop Captain Black. The boys’ steer riding read like the program of the Calgary Stampede. Kipling’s Cody Floyd made a classy one handed ride, but only got a 59. I think it is a bit hard to compete when you have not got a name yet. Calgary competitor, Willian Macza won with a 72.

The newly crowned Calgary Stampede champion, Lonnie West, had a 64, not high enough to win. Heifers were supplied by Lawrence Hutchison, who now makes his summer home at Kennedy on the former Jim Smyth ranch. In the tie down roping Jarid Berglund had a 12.4, which placed him in the middle of the pack. There were several ropers in the 8’s and the last roper out, Steve Lloyd won with a sizzling 7.8. The steers definitely came out on top in the steer wrestling, they looked like they could have been running in the Kentucky Derby. I think Patrick Cassidy won with a 5 flat, and no, he was not riding Willie. This is awful, as an old barrel racer, I should know who won the barrels, but I think they were won in the rain on Saturday as the ground was not as sticky, it was too wet to see or write.

In the Demolition Derby Old Brownie #2 made a clean sweep, winning all four heats. Owner of the station wagon, Brandon Tarr won the first heat, Riley Levai who worked countless hours with Brandon getting the car ready, won the second heat, Dustin Rapp won the mechanics’ heat and I am not sure who was driving it in the powderpuff, but she won beating out Karen Floyd whose car stalled. There is a rodeo story concerning Old Brownie. In 1987 there were four Austalian cowboys living in Kennedy and rodeoing. They had this old brown station wagon they named Old Brownie to get them from rodeo to rodeo. After they went home it was used at the Kenosee Gardens to carry cleaning supplies around when they cleaned cabins. After that I don’t know what happened to it. I wish I could send a picture to Australia so Greg, Scott, Peter and Jeff could see their old car. I would have needed to take the picture Sunday morning as right now it is sitting in front of my house and it doesn’t look so hot.

Then there was the Great Kentucky Fried Chicken Fiasco. Many hungry fans said, “What, no Chicken!” and the food booth went crazy trying to supply many more hamburgers, with no advance notice they would need that many. Apparently a disgruntled manager at Moosomin, who was leaving the chicken place, neglected to tell KFC about the Moose Mountain chicken order. When no chicken arrived at the appointed time a phone call was made and the folk at Moosomin had no knowledge of the order.

The rodeo personnel at Kennedy were top notch. Judges, Kennedy native Perry Gurski and Lester Gurnett, plus Scottish born bullfighter Dave Sandilands, all worked the Calgary Stampede this year. The second bull fighter was hometown born Curtis Smyth. Pickoff men were the Kelts brothers, while announcer of the year Joe Braniff kept all informed. The Coppertown Clown from California had awesome trick dogs and I always marvel when I see Laura Lausen from Wawota doing the hippodrome stand while carrying the Canadian flag.

Lawrence Hutchison who makes his home at Kennedy during the summer was inducted into the Canadian Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame during the rodeo. He was champion bull rider in 1957 and 1962.

In other rodeo arenas this past weekend Prime Time’s bull, Mainline Motors, formerly Corner Gas, was helping Tyler Thompson win the Morris bullriding with a score of 87. Tyler bucked off Captain Black here at Kennedy. At Shaunavon Jesse Lawrence was fourth with a 72 aboard the bull, Wanted. At Elbow Jarid Berglund was fourth in tiedown roping with 10 flat and seventh in steer wrestling with 5.8. Ty Taypotat won the bareback at Lestock with a 75.