Luckily I live within walking distance of the Stampede grounds. So on my way there, this very Canadian symbol accosted me on the banks of the Elbow River. He and a gaggle of his ilk did not want to give me passage.
I then visited the Bell Rodeox BMX biking arena to see a few high flyers like this one:
The afternoon rodeo started with the national anthem's of both the US and Canada. Note that in the picture below you see riders holding flags for the sponsors flanking in the field, then the three riders beside the chuck wagon are the Stampede Queen and her princesses. Then as each anthem was sung a rider carrying the appropriate countries flags took a horse a at leisurely pace around the field.
As with any sporting event you could tell that some of the people were anxious for it to start, in the Stampede however sometimes the animals are anxious too, this horse tried to get out of the chute long before it opened:
There were several events for younger participants, including steer riding for the tweenagers. Possibly ones who aspire to someday be bull riders. It seemed to be good training.
Now of course the bull riding is where you see some guys get nearly as high as the BMX racer I had the picture of above. This is also quite dangerous as one rider today demonstrated.
Now another event involving bovines was the steer roping where you had a whole bunch of cowboys ride out at the same time with a bunch of steers they had to rope then drag down as if ready to be branded. The first couple were quite quick and then the field sunk into a bit of confusion.
However to me the quintessential rodeo event is bucking horse riding and you have the saddled variety where the riders are trying to demonstrate their ability to look somewhat in control on an out of control animal. These two horses had a lot of spirit. The first looks like it is just about to do a somersault.
This second one embodies pure spirit to me.
Now another variety of bucking horse riding is bareback. This seemed an awful lot less like riders trying to put on a semblance of control and more like holding on for dear life.
Interestingly enough the crowd seemed very intent on the bareback event.
ALL THE BARE BACK EVENTS!
Of course it isn't just in Calgary that this can attract favorable attention. It seems that official government studies have proven: http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20050711/od_nm/italy_naked_dc