A former rodeo competitor has roped up some accolades after tapping into her creative side. Canadian bestselling author Becky Wigemyr, who competed in barrel racing for more than 30 years, is garnering attention in another arena after penning a western children’s book about a city boy who dreams of being a cowboy. Cowboy Cody, published in the spring of 2017, won an international 2018 Purple Dragonfly Book Award in the outdoor recreation category and was named a finalist in the 2018 Next Generation Indie Book Awards in the juvenile fiction category. Also, the Canadian Children’s Book Centre in Toronto selected Cowboy Cody for its Best 200 Books for Kids and Teens in juvenile fiction last fall. “It’s been a real dream come true for me,” said Wigemyr. “It feels great to be a best-selling author and to be an award-winning author. I love books, I love reading, I love to write.” Wigemyr, who lives in Brooks, grew up in Okotoks on Oak Avenue. When she was 12 her family moved to an acreage at the end of the street. “We had an outdoor riding arena,” she said. “I grew up barrel racing at rodeos and I rodeoed while I was in college.” Wigemyr married two-time Canadian professional rodeo team roping champion Dwight Wigemyr. Their sons Denton and Devin grew up on the rodeo trail competing in various amateur rodeo associations. Devin, now 23, is second in Canada for team roping. As her sons grew up, Wigemyr placed an importance on literacy but struggled to find children’s books that authentically reflected the rodeo lifestyle through words and pictures. “When they were young I was always looking for books that they would see themselves in,” she said. “It was a really neglected corner of the market. I knew there was a need for this kind of book for kids.” With a lifelong love of writing, Wigemyr took on the task herself and penned her first book. “Cowboy Cody is a book aimed at rodeo and ranch and country kids and kids that are attracted to that lifestyle,” she said. “It’s really very appealing to rodeo kids because I speak their language. “The real big thing for me is that Cowboy Cody might encourage some of those little kids that teachers can’t seem to find the right book for to spark their interest in reading.” Cody is a city boy who creates a backyard arena where he pretends to ride bulls on his trampoline, a bucking horse on his swing and creates a dummy to rope. When his grandfather signs him up for mutton busting, the youngster wins a belt buckle. Among the inspirations for Wigemyr’s book was her father, Barry Black, a skilled horse trainer who competed in rodeo roping events. Black grew up in Calgary and, although his parents were real estate agents, he developed a love of rodeo at an early age, said Wigemyr. “He would sneak into the Calgary Stampede during the rodeo and get behind the chutes,” she said. “He just loved that. He knew he needed to be a cowboy.” Wigemyr said her father implanted himself into the rodeo lifestyle. “He tells stories all the time about how his dad bought him an old saddle horse and they kept him on this piece of land by the dump in Bowness and my dad would ride his bike out here and saddle the horse,” she said. “On the outskirts of Calgary there were ranchers. He would ride into their yards and meet people.” Among them was rodeo champion Lorne Wells, who taught Black how to rope calves and team rope. Having been raised in rodeo, Wigemyr said she admires those who weren’t born into it and took on that lifestyle. “I always thought it was so cool, these kids that don’t have the easy road to that life and then through sheer will and grit they made it,” she said. “There’s always stories like that out there.” Wigemyr was also inspired by a friend of her sons years ago named Cody, a city kid. “From the first time he came to play with my boys he was obsessed with rodeo,” she said. “We would give him our old ropes we were done with. Now he’s just about 24 years old and he’s got three horses he’s trained himself. He’s got that grit and determination.” Wigemyr said she’s getting a great response from her book. “A lot of people are saying, ‘Finally we have an authentically real western children’s book with the language and the way the kids see themselves,’” she said. “There are little things like in the rodeo and ranching world like we don’t call it a lasso, it’s called a rope. Cowboy hats are a certain shape and cowboys dress a certain way. It’s a combination of the images and the words that are just truly authentic and I know that’s what’s so appealing to people.” Wigemyr is working on a second book in her soon-to-be Cowboy Cody series about friendship and bullying, set in the world of dummy roping. “I’m going to go through all of the events that kids can participate in in rodeo,” she said of the series. “I don’t know if Cowboy Cody is going to grow up or if I’m going to start focusing on something for cowgirls. I haven’t decided on that yet.”
