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Rodeo bringing people back to their roots

Rodeo fans are in for a good time rooted in history at this year’s Guy Weadick Days. The chuckwagon races and pro rodeo event runs at the High River rodeo grounds from June 22 to 25.
Trish Seitz, right, and Gillian Grant, C5 Rodeo Coordinator in front of the 2017 Guy Weadick Days poster.
Trish Seitz, right, and Gillian Grant, C5 Rodeo Coordinator in front of the 2017 Guy Weadick Days poster.

Rodeo fans are in for a good time rooted in history at this year’s Guy Weadick Days.

The chuckwagon races and pro rodeo event runs at the High River rodeo grounds from June 22 to 25. It will carry visitors back to the roots of rodeo as the history of the event is celebrated with Guy Weadick Days Wild West Rodeo.

Trish Seitz, representative with C5 Rodeo, which was responsible for bringing pro rodeo back to Guy Weadick Days in 2016, said the entire weekend will be reminiscent of rodeos past.

“We knew there were legends, we knew we were one of the first Little Britches Rodeos – it was my first rodeo when I was in the Little Britches in the 70s,” said Seitz. “We wanted to build on that theme and we have so much available in the Foothills with legends, with people, adventures, with cowboys, with chuckwagon drivers.”

To bring rodeo characters to life, Friday night on June 23 will feature a date night with Guy Weadick and Florence LaDue. The afternoon of June 24 a tribute to Foothills legends will be the highlight of the day, she said. The legends will include some of the rodeo committee members from the first year the rodeo was called Guy Weadick Days in the 70s.

Honouring the tradition of High River’s Little Britches Rodeo dating back to the 50s, Sunday Fun Day on June 25 will feature youth rodeo events, including sheep riding and mini broncs, she said.

In keeping with tradition, the chucks will run at 7 p.m. every night from Thursday to Saturday with the final at 1 p.m. on Sunday.

“This year is really exciting because we can already feel the energy building,” said Seitz. “If Mother Nature gives us some beautiful days, Guy Weadick Days 2017 will be phenomenal.”

Chuckwagon driver Jason Glass hopes to see the rodeo regain the popularity it enjoyed in its prime.

“Twenty or 30 years ago we used to pack this place,” said Glass. “It seems to be the same way in all these towns. We should be as strong as we used to be years ago. They’d be backed up for miles, and there’s no reason we can’t get back to that.”

He said it’s important to keep people interested so the rodeo doesn’t slide. It would be a shame to lose Guy Weadick Days, he said.

Longtime Foothills resident and rodeo gal Lenore McLean agreed. Guy Weadick was integral in bringing the Stampede to life with the backing of the Big Four and making sure rodeo ran strong in High River, she said.

She and her family were deeply rooted in rodeo, including her brother Tom Bews, who won five Canadian all-around championships from 1966-1979 in saddle bronc and was inducted into the Canadian Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame in 2000.

Back in the day, the rodeo was located on 12 Avenue on open prairie, she said. People would come in from all of over to camp and participate in the events.

“They would have a horse show for showing your horse, as well as pony races, and of course the Stampede was the main event, and then the evening they would have a branding contest and it was just a really big event,” said McLean.

The rodeo also carries some personal value for the Longview-area native, who grew up on a ranch neighbouring the Weadicks. Getting to school was difficult, so she was sent to boarding school and returned home only twice per year – but always competed in the rodeo in High River.

It was where she met her husband, a rancher from the Pekisko area.

“They had the parade, and I won the best-dressed cowgirl and he won the best-dressed cowboy, and that’s how we got introduced in about 1956,” said McLean. “I was going to boarding school in Calgary so our parents always knew the other ranchers but you didn’t get to know the other young people, so that’s how we met.”

She said she hopes to see Guy Weadick Days succeed and become the community-building event it was decades ago.

“I hope we have the crowds we used to have and everybody comes out for it, because it’s very professional,” said McLean. “I really hope it stays successful in our little cow town.”

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