It was an action packed evening filled with thrills and spills as the four best cowboys and cowgirls competed in their respective events for a cut of $15,000 during the Ponoka Stampede Showdown, Wednesday, July 1.
For some, the night went better than what others experienced and professional bull rider Dakota Butter, as the only qualified rider of the four, was able to take home the whole $15,000 purse with an 88.25 scoring ride.
“I’ve wanted to win this one for so long,” said Butter.
He felt he had more confidence in himself this year and an even greater focus on his health helped him perform his best during the Showdown. “I started an exercise plan for myself, stuck to it all year and I’m sticking to it again this year. I think it really helps,” he explained.
Like with any cowboy, the biggest challenge Butter had to face that evening was the pen of bulls. He was matched with Up Tight and has been on the bull before. “He was the only one in there I wanted to avoid,” he recalled after his win.
Butter’s competitors Zane Lambert, Scott Schiffiner and Lonnie West were all bucked off early.
Saddle bronc
This year’s saddle bronc Showdown winner was Cody DeMoss, who also won with an 88.25 ride atop Lunatic Party.
“Canada’s been really good to me this year and I thank God everything worked out real good here,” said DeMoss.
DeMoss had been on that horse before but this is his first time riding her to a championship title.
“It didn’t go as good as it did today,” he recalled.
DeMoss says because he had not seen the horse perform in so many years, he decided not to try and guess how she would ride and his game plan was to go in with no plan at all.
“She was just good. She just jumped and kicked off the left,” said DeMoss of his championship ride.
DeMoss took home $8,000 from the Showdown round.
Bareback
With an 83.25 ride, Matt Lait won the showdown round for the bareback event and scooped more than $9,000 away from his competitors.
Lait came down off True Grit thinking he had just blown his chances after the horse came out of the chute he had to play catch up to get himself centered and in a position to ride. “I’m really happy,” he said afterwards.
“He’s not as hard as some of them other horses, so in all honesty he let me catch back up,” he added
Lait rode the horse before at the Canadian Finals Rodeo but says this ride was quite different than when he rode the horse then.
“When I got off and had a bobble like that, usually you don’t win a four round,” said Lait.
He says he hung his head a bit leaving the arena and was shocked to find out he had won the round. Heading right into the Calgary Stampede following his Ponoka run, Lait feels this is a good way to kick off Cowboy Christmas.
Tie down roping
Ryan Jarrett won the tie down roping Showdown in 7.6 seconds, earning himself a $7,500 prize.
Jarrett and his three competitors faced four of the toughest calves presented at the Ponoka Stampede and he had to race to catch up after leaving the long alley late. In order to rope the calf he had to throw more rope than he was comfortable with.
Jarrett has faced a slow season this year and found himself in a funk. “I want to say probably June 15 I might have had $6,000.”
During Ponoka Stampede Week Jarrett was one of several who took off to Cody, WY to compete there as well.
“When I go rodeoing I like to go to one every other day at least,” said Jarrett.
He says going into the finals and the Showdown round he was roping on approximately three hours of sleep.
Steer wrestling
Ponoka Stampede steer wrestling champion this year is Coleman Kohorst, who won $8,000 with 4.40 seconds of down and dirty tussling.
“This was pretty special to win this,” said Kohorst.
“It’s been a pretty exciting night,” he added.
Kohorst says what helped him win was actually being the last of the four to compete.
“I just knew I had to be safe on the barrier, go catch him, throw him down and win first,” he explained.
Kohorst has been facing back troubles and says the sports medicine team had to work with him for an hour before the Showdown.
Team roping
First time Ponoka Stampede champions header Kolton Schmidt and heeler Dustin Searcy were the winners of the Showdown round with a 6.0 second run.
As soon as Schmidt roped the head the team faced a challenge as the animal fell on its back end. “We were going so fast and the steer wasn’t going very— so it wasn’t a good mixture. But I got a good partner and he cleaned it all up.”
The 21-year-old says it feels like he has been trying to win Ponoka forever.
Schmidt also won a college championship title this year. “Hopefully that’s just the beginning.”
The Ponoka Stampede was Searcy’s first time rodeoing in Canada. “It doesn’t get much better than this . . . this is by far the coolest rodeo I’ve ever been to.”
“It’s bar none, it’s amazing,” he added.
Barrel racing
Despite having to share the purse between all four racers in the barrel racing event, winner Taylor Jacob still managed to earn herself $7,500 with her 17.379 second run.
“This is the first time I’ve made it to the final four in Ponoka and it turned out really good for me,” said Jacob.
She says her horse Bo does not normally like the large open arenas and racing twice in one day is hard on the horses because the racers ask so much from them each time they turn that clover leaf pattern.
“He really excelled in that second run,” said Jacob.
This was Jacob’s third year in Ponoka. The first year she made the top 10 and last year had no luck at all.
Ponoka cowboys
Ponoka boys Zane Lambert and Jake Vold, who now lives in Airdrie, both had no luck in front of the familiar crowd as they bucked off early.
“Good horse, good day, it didn’t work out today,” said Vold, who came down so fast in the bareback event he was not quite sure what happened during his ride.
“He was bucking harder than I was today,” said Vold.
Lambert had been on his bull three other times this year. “Today he just backed up a little bit, got my feet and bucked me off.”
“I won the Wainwright Stampede on that bull,” he add.
Lambert says the pen of bull was strong and it was the best ride he has ever had with the bull.