Over 200 future rodeo stars saddled up their horses and settled their hats down low for what turned out to be a weekend of wild rides from the chutes all the way to the alley. The Alberta High School Rodeo Finals were held from June 8 to 11.
Events that were encompassed in the rodeo finals were: bull riding, bareback riding, barrel racing, cutting, breakaway roping, goat tying, pole bending, saddle bronc riding, tie down roping, steer wrestling, and team roping.
Incorporated in the event were two different sets of rodeo competitions. There was the Ponoka Finals, which included only the points riders earned over the course of the finals, and there was the rodeo provincials, which took into account all points the riders had earned over the season.
Many local cowboys and cowgirls were able to hold their own in both competition areas amid a muddy sea of similar hats and chaps.
For the Ponoka Finals, Jessa Galloway placed second in pole bending, third in goat tying and sixth in breakaway roping; Tynelle Clemmer came in seventh in goat tying; Logan and Kelly Bonnett placed fifth in the team roping event; and Keely also placed fourth in tie down roping.
For the provincials, Logan and Keely Bonnett placed sixth in team roping, Galloway placed fourth in pole bending and was named Girls All Around champion, finishing with 440 points. Sheldon Stretch placed first in the cutting event and Klay Rowley placed third in steer wrestling.
However, it’s not all about points to these boys and girls. What they do gets them wet, it gets them muddy, and it gets them hurt, but they have a passion for it, and that keeps a smile on their face through it all.
Many of the season’s top bull riders where thrown to the ground early but they picked themselves up, climbed out of the arena and eagerly awaited their next ride.
And it wasn’t just the riders who deal with the bulls. Bullfighters danced in and out of hooves, protecting the bull riders. At the end of his ride, one bull rider made sure to shake the hands of both bullfighters.
Layton Green out of Meeting Creek was named saddle bronc champion and he couldn’t imagine a better way to end his high school rodeo career.
“It went good. I just did what I could on the horse,” Green said about his ineffable last rides.
For Ponoka native Jessa Galloway this was her last high school rodeo provincials too. In the fall she’ll head down to Hobbs, NM for college and will join the rodeo team there.
“It’s my passion,” Galloway said. Before she rides Galloway never feels nervous. “What I felt is ready.”
Over the course of the rodeo Galloway rode Joker for goat tying and Girlfriend for pole bending.
Levi Lloyd, of Rimbey, won the steer wrestling championship title. He’ll be heading to Montana to take welding in the fall but he says post-secondary isn’t the end of his rodeo career either. He plans on steer wrestling in many CPRA rodeos in the future.
Lloyd named steer wrestling as his favorite event; his father competed in the event, as do many of his friends. “It’s great, but really stressful.”
Even though these three rodeo stars came out on top this weekend it isn’t going to and hasn’t always been that way. But Lloyd knows that one bad ride isn’t the end.
“There’s always another rodeo.”
The top two riders from the Alberta High School Provincial Finals:
Bareback Riding:
1) Kody Lamb - Sherwood Park
2) Tanner Young -Fairview
Barrels:
1) Tara Wilkinson - Arrowwood
2) Lindsay Woolsey - Nanton
Boys Cutting
1) Sheldon Stretch - Ponoka
2) Sloan Smith - Blackie
Breakaway Roping
1) Darby Wilkinson - Arrowwod
2) Susan Gulick - Wetaskiwin
Bull Riding
1) Brant Jones- Consort
2) Cawl Braithwaite-Bluffton
Girls Cutting
1) Tamera Davies- Rocky Mountain House
2) Rylee Steiman- Red Deer
Goat Tying
1) Dana Spizke - Innisfail
2) Natalie Bevans - Cardston
Poles
1) Rachel Masden - Fort Saskatchewan
2) Sydney Daines - Innisfail
Saddle Bronc
1) Layton Green - Meeting Creek
2) Zeke Thurston - Big Valley
Steer Wrestling
1) Levi Lloyd - Rimbey
2) Shane Krywcun - Langdon
Team Roping
1) Clint Weston - Cardston, AB and Kyle Lucas - Carstairs
2) Trey Gallais - Red Deer, AB and Devin Wigemyr - Brooks
Tie Down Roping
1) Kolton Schmidt - Barrhead
2) Logan Bird - Nanton