Pro Rodeo
CANADA
INSIDER
HALL OF FAME! This 2005 photo shows Grated Coconut and three-time Canadian Bareback Champion, Davey Shields. Together, the two earned their spot in the record books with this spectacular, record-setting 95-point ride — a record that still stands today. The stud will be inducted into the Pro Rodeo Cowboy’s Assoc., Hall of Fame in Colorado Springs, Co. Photo by Mike Copeman
RODEOCANADA.COM cowboycountrymagazine.com
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Pro Rodeo Canada Insider
CPRA Members As of June 24, the Canadian Professional Rodeo Association, Westerner Park and the Red Deer & District Chamber of Commerce made the difficult yet important decision to postpone this year’s Canadian Finals Rodeo (CFR47) until 2021. With the uncertainty surrounding COVID-19 related health guidelines and the cancellation of many qualifying rodeos this summer, all three partners determined the standard of excellence and quality of experience that fans and competitors expect from the Canadian Finals Rodeo would not be achievable this year. And, as you all know, we are down to only a handful of regular events remaining on the 2020 rodeo schedule. I am still hopeful we can have a few rodeos but there is no guarantee that it will happen. Your Association has continued working behind the scenes to ensure we are ready to move ahead with events as soon as we receive the green light while at the same time, being fiscally responsible. The CPRA has
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reduced its hours of operation and all staff have taken a reduction in either pay, hours or both. The Pro Rodeo Canada team is working on many initiatives including partner agreements, media pieces, event guidelines/ conversations in and around COVID19, sponsorship and the future of the sport of Rodeo in Canada. The board of directors and our management have taken the necessary steps to ensure that our association will survive this pandemic that is financially crippling many organizations and businesses throughout the world. As we continue to navigate these challenging times, we know that all of us want to see the sport of rodeo return and continue to grow and be sustainable as we move forward. To help with this endeavour, we invite you to purchase your 2020 Membership if you have not already done so. Regular membership provides you with continued access to: • Canadian Pro Rodeo Sport Medicine Team • CPRA Cowboy Benefit Fund • Edmonton Rodeo Cowboys Benevolent Foundation • Annual subscription to Canadian Country Cowboy magazine • Continued access to benefits for injuries at CPRA events • The opportunity to attend the 2020 CPRA Annual General Meeting • The opportunity to compete at or work at any events that may be held in 2020
And rodeo fans, we offer Associate Memberships as well, that allow you to stay engaged in our sport in several ways. Please see rodeocanada.com for details. We hope to see each of you very soon along the rodeo trail! If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to reach out to me, or a member of the the CPRA Board of Directors and/or management. We are all in this together!
Terry Cooke, President, CPRA
For up-to-date information about the Canadian Professional Rodeo Association, check out our website at rodeocanada.com. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter @prorodeocanada. We’re also on YouTube under RodeoCanada.
Canadian Cowboy Country August/September 2020
C.P.R.A.
ROAD TO THE CFR
LAYTON GREEN ALL HEALED UP By TIM ELLIS
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F THERE WAS ANYONE WHO MAY HAVE NEEDED A DELAYED START TO THE 2020
RODEO SEASON, IT WAS LAYTON GREEN. THE 26-YEAROLD SADDLE BRONC RIDER LIKELY WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN READY TO ENTER THE SCHEDULED SPRING STOPS IN MEDICINE HAT, CAMROSE AND COLEMAN HAD THEY NOT BEEN
PHOTO BY MIKE COPEMAN
RESCHEDULED OR POSTPONED. “I went to about six or seven winter rodeos before I separated my shoulder,” reveals Green, who won close to $14,000 at those U.S. stops. “They called it a Grade 3 separation and gave me about an 85 per cent chance of full recovery without surgery. It was a good time to be hurt with all the rodeos shutting down. I was back training by the end of March. Now I’m looking to get back and be better than ever.” Green’s return to action in the winter came after a seven-month hiatus due to a broken leg. “We were west of Turner Valley with Tyler Thomson moving some cows in a forestry area,” begins the 2017 Canadian Saddle Bronc Champion. “We were riding out of there when my horse tumbled. He caught himself, wiped out and pancaked on me. I heard the bones break and knew it was bad. I’ve broken my leg a couple of cowboycountrymagazine.com
Layton Green on Duffy Rodeo’s Bootilear at 2017 CFR in Edmonton
times before, but this dang sure felt like the worst. I knew then it was probably a done deal for the year.” His premonition was correct. Green not only missed his scheduled appearance that night at the Daines Ranch Rodeo north of Innisfail, Alta., but also the rest of the season. “Luckily, the horse fell at the opening where we were riding through to the truck. A forestry helicopter landed about a hundred yards from where I was. It took about three hours to get there. That was my first helicopter ride. I’d like to go for another ride sometime without being strapped to a backboard.” “Things were going really good,” says the Meeting Creek, Alta., cowboy of his season at the time of the injury. “I had (Kesler’s) Copper Cat drawn that night. I’d been waiting a long time to get on that horse.”
Perhaps worse than that pain was the anguish Green felt “sitting at home with a rod in my leg for the rest of the summer.” “Oh ya, there’s nothing that will light a fire in you more than watching your buddies rodeo,” suggests Green, who had qualified for the Canadian Finals Rodeo in four consecutive years prior to last season. “It makes you crave it. I want to hit the road as hard as I can and come back better than ever.” Until that time comes, Green continues to help around the family ranch with a herd of 65 bucking horses. “It was a fun hobby started with my dad when I first turned pro,” says Green, who set the CPRA single-season bronc riding earnings record in 2017. “I don’t know if I overly want to be a stock contractor. But I sure like raising bucking horses.” c
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Pro Rodeo Canada Insider Clay Elliott spurring over his rein at Strathmore in 2016 on Calgary Stampede’s M-2 Mad Money, who takes X + 5, measuring your fist from the swells, and then you add the full width of your hand, plus your thumb. “Double D from C5 Rodeo and Mad Money from Calgary Stampede take X + 5,” said Elliott.
material. You could grip it really good, but it was coarse. Since they’ve evolved, it’s still a nylon or poly material, but it’s kind of stringy and really loose — it’s a bit more silky and smaller diameter. It’s a lot softer so that when you grab one of these reins, your hand really sinks into them.”
BRONC REINS DEMYSTIFIED By TERRI MASON
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ot all bucking horses are equal. Some horses buck with their head high, while others are nearly rooting the ground with their nose, so naturally, some take more rein than others.
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I called two-time (2016 & 2018) Canadian Saddle Bronc Champion, Clay Elliott to get the long and short of it, and he explained it in great detail — and also gave examples of bronc rein measurements in use on some of today’s top broncs. Special thanks to Clay, and I hope you enjoy. HAS THE BRONC REIN EVOLVED? “From when I first got involved, guys were using a heavier, tighter braided bronc rein. It would be about two to three inches in diameter and quite a tight braid. It’s quite a handful. But things evolve, and now guys are going to a lot smaller rein with a looser braid. From when I first started the old school rein had some kind of a grass-type
HOW DO YOU MEASURE A BRONC REIN? “With the horse in the chute and the bronc rein attached to the halter, you pull your bronc rein up to the back of the swells. You pull it fairly snug, so your horse is still comfortable, but there’s tension on the rein. Then, the measurement depends on the bronc you drew. When you are getting on a horse you’ve never seen before, generally, the stock contractor will tell you what those horses take; they usually know the stud and mare the bronc came out of too.” c
Canadian Cowboy Country August/September 2020
PHOTO BY BILLIE-JEAN DUFF
THE SECRET CODE OF TAKING HOLD
WHAT IS THE SIZE OF THE NEW BRONC REIN? “Originally, the bronc rein went from a 12-strand braid up to a 60. Now, the spur guard is made of parachute cord and is about ¾ of an inch in diameter. It runs about 18 inches from the halter to where the handhold starts. The spur guard is braided into the bronc rein, which jumps to a 30 or 40-strand loose braid. It would probably be two to three inches in diameter, but when you grab it, it’ll go down to about an inch, or an inch and a half. My rein is quite small. It’s kind of squishy, and I feel like I can get a better grip. Before the new reins, back in the day when they were very tight braided, anyone that stuck a finger in the braid … well, it’s not coming out. But now as the braids are looser and the material itself has gotten smaller; guys can put in a finger through it and it’s not as risky. Your finger(s) can come out if need be. I’ve seen guys put their pointer finger and middle fingers through and braid their fingers through the rein. That’s crazy to me, and I wouldn’t recommend that to anybody.”
C.P.R.A.
How Some of the Greats Measure Up 1. Clay Elliott shows how a bronc rein is attached to the halter. You can also see the tightness of the spur guard braid and the looseness of the bronc rein itself. 2. FIST: Just your fist against the swells with no thumb extended; you take hold at the end of the fist. 3. SHORT AVERAGE: Get Smart of NorthcottMacza is a Short Average; a fist with only your thumbnail barely pointing out. 4. “X” OR AVERAGE: Tokyo Bubbles of Calgary Stampede and Bootilear of Duffy Rodeo is an X or Average; your fist against the swells with your thumb fully extended.
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5. *AVERAGE ON THE THROAT: Pedro of Vold Rodeo is an Average on the Throat. instead of attaching your bronc rein to the ring on the bottom of the halter, it is attached to the halter’s throat latch. To compare, On the Throat, a Fist is the same as an Average, and then you go from there. An X or Average measures out as X + 4; etc. *Note: Often, horses that began their career in Bareback use the Throat measurement, so the halter doesn’t affect their performance as much. 6. X + 2: Spanish Pair of Kesler’s and Rubles of Big Stone Rodeo are both X + 2; that’s your fist against the back of the swells with your thumb extended, and then you add two fingers. 7. X + 4: Stampede Warrior of Calgary Stampede, Evening Mist of Franklin Rodeo and High Valley of C5 Rodeo take X + 4; your fist from the back of the swells, with your thumb extended, and then you add four fingers. 8. DOUBLE X OR DOUBLE AVERAGE: Lunatic Party of Outlaw Buckers takes a lot of rein. You make a fist with both hands with your thumbs extended. At the end of your hand furthest from the swells, that’s where you take hold.
PHOTOS COURTESY CLAY ELLIOTT
9. DOUBLE X AND A BRAID: Lunatic Fringe of Burch Rodeo; that horse takes a lot of rein as his head goes way down, so he’d be a Double X + the width of the bronc rein.
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Pro Rodeo Canada Insider WHAT DOES IT TAKE?
FLANK MEN PULLING THEIR WEIGHT By TIM ELLIS
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HE STOCK CONTRACTOR IS RESPONSIBLE FOR BRINGING HIS BEST ANIMALS TO A RODEO;
THE COWBOY HAS THE TASK OF RIDING THAT STOCK TO THE BEST OF HIS ABILITY. THE MIDDLEMAN, WHO PERHAPS IS THE LEAST KNOWN AMONG THAT TRIO, IS THE FLANK MAN. BUT WHILE THOSE WATCHING THE ACTION FROM THE GRANDSTAND MAY NOT BE PAYING ATTENTION TO WHO’S PULLING THE FLANK STRAP,
The flank strap is a sheep-skin lined leather strap. That strap acts as a tool that the horse or bull associates with performing when the chute gate is opened. “I’m pacing back behind the chute worse than the cowboys,” chuckles Tyson Cardinal, whose first rodeo as the flank man for Vern McDonald’s C5 Rodeo Company was the Calgary Stampede. “That’s my job. If the flank falls off or I screw it up, it’s my fault. I don’t think many people realise how much rides on the flank man.” Cardinal knows the pressure that comes with pulling the flank for one of the most decorated bareback horses in the world. “He’s a little more special, everyone loves him,” suggests Cardinal when asked 42
Canadian Cowboy Country August/September 2020
PHOTO COURTESY VOLD RODEO
EVERYONE IN THE RODEO ARENA IS.
PHOTO BY BILLIE-JEAN DUFF
C.P.R.A.
about McDonald’s 1,600 pound, 12-year-old superstar, Virgil. “I’m more excited than anyone when it comes to flanking him.” “I can tell what type of trip he’s going to have by the way he’s loaded. If I put the flank on him in the alley, he gets mad and starts kicking, and he’ll have a harder trip. If I can keep him calm while putting the flank on him in the chute, he’ll usually have that sweet 90-plus trip everyone loves.” Knowing each horse that’s loaded in the chute is a key to being a successful flank man, according to Shane Franklin. “Some horses take a tighter flank, usually those that travel and have been bucked a lot,” offers Franklin, who oversees operations on the 15,000-acre home of the Franklin Rodeo Company near Bonnyville, Alta. “Young horses will over kick and fall down with a tight flank, and that can hurt a contestant.” “It’s a fine art. If you’re too slow, you’ll pull the flank over their hips, and that means you’re hanging on too long. Most horses sit on the back slide. They get a hump in their back as they brace with their front feet to get ready to leave the chute. The flank gets tight, and you can’t pull the leather if it’s already tight. When they leave, it gets loose. By then, you’re pulling it over their butt. It’s called double-hipped.” There’s more. “Some horses are fish-bellied — built heavy in the front and sloped from their belly back to their flanks. With those horses, I try to take a step ahead so it helps keep the flank ahead of the hips. I think every horse takes a different flank.” Franklin is among the “elder statesmen” of flank men on the Canadian pro rodeo trail along with the likes of Duane Kesler, Bruce Sunstrum and Ken “Goose” Rehill of the Calgary Stampede. “My dad and I had a pretty good thing going,” begins Franklin, who was the pickup man for his father, Vern, during the early days of the company. “He’d put the flanks on, and I’d take them off.” cowboycountrymagazine.com
ABOVE: Tyson Cardinal flanking C5 Rodeo’s High Valley with Sam Kelts aboard at the 2018 Calgary Stampede. The length of the flank strap is adjusted with a buckle for each horse’s preference to ensure the flank is not too tight or too loose, which would negatively impact a bronc’s performance. OPPOSITE PAGE: Nansen Vold setting the flank
“I wished I would have listened to him more. One thing he did say was it takes supreme hand-eye coordination. You’ve got to pull as the horse is leaving the chute. If you pull too early, usually the horse jumps ahead and he’s got nowhere to go because the gate’s not open yet. In my opinion, the best way for guys wanting to flank is to go where horses are being bucked with dummies or learn at a practice session with young horses who aren’t blowing out of the chute.” Like Franklin, Nansen Vold also grew up in a rodeo family. “We started raising bulls over 20 years ago, but I only started flanking horses about three years ago,” explains Vold, who now flanks for Wayne Vold Rodeo. “It’s more technical I would say.” “With bulls, it’s just a straight-up nylon rope with a ring on the end of it. You pull it tight and tie it off while the bull is in the chute and leave it. It was a little tricky learning the differences at the start.” Both know the good and bad when it comes to being a flank man. “There’s nothing better than flanking a horse that bucks hard and a cowboy is 90 points,” says Vold. “It’s a great feeling of accomplishment.” “When a horse doesn’t buck, the first person they look at is the guy pulling the flank because it’s obviously his fault,” snickers Franklin. “Especially at the big rodeos, you can’t crawl under the bucking chutes fast enough.” “After all these years, I’m still learning.” c
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CLOWNIN’ AROUND | CRASH COOPER
Ash Cooper Art and Ranch Gallery
“I find it helps with social distancing.”
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Canadian Cowboy Country August/September 2020