A Thousand Hills

Cowboy Up!

Last week, we made our annual trek to the Heritage Ranch Rodeo and Farm Fair in Alberta. As always, we had a wonderful time visiting with friends and family and admiring the livestock and work of skilled artisans. Can't forget, either, the fun of taking the GrandGirl to the petting zoo and the kiddy rides.

If you've never been to a ranch rodeo, you might not know it's not like the Calgary Stampede or PBR. If you enjoy high-powered events and drama, you might think a ranch rodeo is akin to watching grass grow. But that's not to say it can't and won't get a little "western."

Medicine Tree Ranch Rodeo - Saddle Bronc

The events at a Ranch Rodeo . . .

Team Sorting

Team Branding

Team Doctoring

Wild Cow Milking

Wild Horse Race

Bronc Riding

Finally, there's the Working Ranch Horse Competition, a test of both the cowboy's horsemanship and the horse's cow savvy.

Medicine Tree Ranch Rodeo - Ranch Horse Competition

                                                                                       

                                                       Each event reflects the everyday activities of the working cowhand. Four people to a team. Sixteen teams, coming from ranches across Western Canada. Some ranches have been in operation for 150 years, and most of the ranches are large, some approaching a million acres.

Yet, there is no ostentatiousness among the cowboys. (How's that for a big word?) Meaning, there's no snobbery among these humble, hardworking men (and women. Several very capable women compete at every rodeo.) They are simply doing their jobs to the best of their abilities, with consideration toward treating the animal gently and efficiently, with the least amount of stress.

Heritage Ranch Rodeo - Team Sorting

A hallmark of the competition is cowboy etiquette. No one cuts in front of another competitor. If lassos become crossed, one or both cowboys will drop their ropes, even at the risk of losing the event. A cowboy will give a helping hand to an opponent to avoid a wreck, for each regards the other man's safety as if it were his own.

All to say, the cowboys I know and work with are among the kindest and most mannerly people I've ever met. Sure, some spit or cuss a bit, and many enjoy a cold one at the end of a long day, but every man would give you the dusty shirt off his back if you needed it. Often up before dawn, doing a half-day's work before breakfast, they ride and work in blistering heat and bone-chilling cold. They don't ask for much from life: a good horse, a patch of grass, and well-broke-in boots. 

They're God-fearin' folk, too, and there's nothing more to-the-point than Cowboy Church, where we come as we are, because if we are honest, we know we're all smeared with a little something unpleasant, and the finest three-piece suit won't hide it from the eyes of God.

I'm proud to call these people my friends. 

Heritage Ranch Rodeo - Team Branding

By the way, the Gang Ranch from the interior of British Columbia took first place in this year's Heritage Ranch Rodeo.

Hats off to Wacey, Matt, Curtis, and Ryan!

There's a little cowboy in all of us, a little frontier. ~ Louis L'Amour