Gerry Holmes Memorial Award - Joan Brown

By Lindsay White

Alongside family members who have taken prominent roles in the development, organization and operation of the annual Virden Indoor Rodeo & Wild West Daze, Joan Brown has been behind the scenes since it all began more than three decades ago. At the time, a western rodeo component was added to what was then the Canadian Firefighters Rodeo to form the Double Rodeo Weekend, and Brown jumped on board.

She has been one of the legions of volunteers who help to make the community’s signature event, now into its 33rd year, go smoothly each August. In addition, she has witnessed its exponential growth over time into its present stature as a major player on the rodeo circuit.

“I started with the rodeo when it started,” she said. “I was on the very first committee…the commit- tee that began it. As I had family that was involved in rodeo (and still are to this day), I got involved.”

Brown recalled that in those formative years, the rodeo committee did not have the organizational structure that is in place today, making putting the weekend event together and running it a bit ambiguous.

“We just did what need- tee,” she said. “We always did. It’s also the fact that it’s a family sport. The kids were involved. My husband team roped and other members of his family rodeoed. Out kids got involved in rodeo after a time and I was the only one who didn’t really participate.”

Brown’s contributions will be formally recognized with the 2023 Gerry

We just did what needed to be done

- Joan Brown

ed to be done,” she said.

“At the time, we really didn’t have a whole bunch of titles for anybody. We helped with set up, take down, whatever.”

She enjoyed interacting with the people and that, coupled with her love of the sport of rodeo, kept her involved.

“It was great because we had a good commit -

Holmes Memorial Award, which will be presented during the intermission of the Friday evening rodeo performance at Tundra Oil & Gas Place. The award is presented annually to a volunteer who has made an exceptional contribution to the production of the weekend’s events.

Last year, with the rodeo weekend fully resurrected after two years o f COVID-19 induced hiatus, Brown decided to step aside.

“My last job was that I worked in the rodeo office,” she said. “I distributed arm bands and meal tickets to contestants and volunteers.”

Brown looks back on her long tenure with pride, and is looking forward to taking a seat in the arena and enjoying the performances. She feels it’s an opportune time to provide the younger up and coming rodeo personnel and committee members an opportunity to take the reins of the Virden Indoor Rodeo & Wild West Daze into a promising future.

“There is a young crew on there (steering committee) now,” she said. “ It’s time for them to take over and they are doing a good job. They’re all very dedicated to it and all wanting to make something out of Virden and out of the rodeo… something more, and that’s great. As a town, we’re very lucky.”

By Anne Davison

Meet Rick Hiebert, the man behind the camera in Virden’s rodeo ring. Action Plus Photo is his aptly named business handle. You will see him down in the ring quietly capturing the pageantry and the split-second action of the three-day 2023 Virden Indoor Rodeo.

Seeds of rodeo photography took root early for this Morden rodeo photographer. “As a young boy, I played cowboy and admired rodeo. I grew up on a small mixed farm but we didn’t have horses.”

Camera work also started early for Hiebert.

“I’ve enjoyed photography most of my life, shooting mostly wildlife during the film/slide years. I purchased my first digital camera shortly after they firstly came out.”

A keen interest in sports, rodeo in particular and his penchant for photography took Hiebert to rodeo ringside and that’s where it all began. As is often the case, it was an unexpected event, a twist of fate if you will, that first prompted the photographer to eventually go into business.

“My photography business began with a simple act of kindness. I was photographing a local rodeo and noted that a lady with a tiny ‘point ‘n shoot’ camera was trying to capture a young girl in the goat tying event. I offered to send her some of my photos. What I didn’t realize was that she in fact organized this rodeo. Later, she insisted I come to the next rodeo and sell my photos, and so it all began back in 2006.”

But what has taken Hiebert to the professional level, producing the amazing shots of bucking broncs, b ull riders, calf ropers, barrel racers and more ?

“I love the intense action and adrenaline that rodeo brings. Trying to capture that at its peak moments is what I focused on in the first many years.

“Understanding the different events and learning w hat the cowboys/girls wanted to see in a photo was immediate priority. I’m a perfectionist and rarely satisfied with any photo, always seeing how it could have been done better.

He has turned to other visual arts such as painting, sketching, carving, etc as well and that artistic bent is reflected in recent photographic work.

“In the last number of years my focus has turned to creating art of sorts with photography too. This absolutely drives me as I’m always trying to produce more unique angles and types or styles of shots.”

Rodeo is a perfect venue to find artistic fulfilment.

“The rodeo athletes ‘pose’ themselves so all I try to do is come up with new ways to capture them. Freezing the action from angles that viewers don’t normally get to see creates more excitement.”

Getting down into the action is where the best pictures happen and that’s where Hiebert wants to be. However, the rodeo arena is a busy place. Things happen very fast there. We asked Rick if he’s had any close calls:

“Yes, and lots of them,” he responds. “I’ve learned to recognize most of the animals’ movements and never been outright run over, but I’ve come very close a number of times.”

He says, “Injuries have been few, mostly when the odd mad bull chases me up the panels and tries to hook my feet off the rails. The worst was once in Virden when a bull damaged a nerve on the inside of my leg. It took two years for the numb area to repair itself.

“That hasn’t slowed me any though, as I’m somewhat of an adrenaline junky and it’s all just a part of trying to fill my need to capture that ‘once in a lifetime’ image.”

There is another lens through which Hiebert has viewed life – that of law enforcement. He was with the Winkler Police Service for 34 years, the last 18 as chief of police. He fit rodeo weekends into his schedule.

Hiebert retired from police work five years ago but he’s stayed with photography, doing most of his work in Manitoba, although he’s worked events such as a celebrity fishing tournament on Lake of the Woods, Ontario, and the Dash4Cash Barrel Race in Saskatchewan three times.

“Photography has blessed me and taken me places I’d never dreamed and I’ve made so many new friends.”

It was a decade ago, in 2013, when the Virden rodeo committee first enlisted Hiebert’s services. A s you thumb through the Virden Indoor Rodeo & Wild West Daze glossy program, the pictures of rodeo action are the work of Rick Hiebert’s Action Plus Photo.

Rick Hiebert says, “The rodeo community has been so good to me… the Virden Indoor rodeo has been my favorite event to photograph for so long and I look forward to yet another year!”