Mustafa Eric
Independent editor
Preparing to welcome the excitement and fun of a semi-professional rodeo event back into the community calendar, Stettler is beaming with activity these days: committees are meeting, volunteers are being signed up, sponsorships being granted and posters being printed.
As the community keeps wondering what the new event will look like, an old timer of rodeos, Jerry Sinclair, a resident of the Stettler area for the last eight years, and one of the most senior of all competitors that took part in countless rodeo events over decades, is quite sanguine about the forthcoming Steel Wheel Stampede.
“I expect a really good rodeo, I expect a lot of people, I hope for a lot of people, that is for sure,” he says.
A fervent supporter of the efforts to bring back the rodeo excitement to the community, Sinclair believes the event was dropped from the town’s annual calendar because of lack of energy and enthusiasm.
“The committee got old, I guess, and no group of younger people stepped up to take over.”
Sinclair has a very impressive resume: a very accomplished saddle bronc rider, a Hall of Famer, and winner of two saddle bronc championships in Stettler, in 1973 and in 1982, won the Canadian rough riding title twice, Calgary Stampede championship once, won the central circuit once in addition to a lot of individual titles in a great number of rodeos. But most importantly, the record he set in 1970 still stands: Sinclair was the high point permit holder, rookie of the year, Calgary Stampede champion and Canadian Bronc riding champion, all in the same year, a feat that has yet to be repeated.
He believes not much has changed in rodeos over the years.
“Some of the horses got better, the bulls got better, times have got faster in the timed events, but other than that it has been the rodeo basics for the last 100 years, “ he says.
“Then there is the more money added of course, but it costs more to travel, too.”
Asked what he meant by horses and bulls getting better, Sinclair responds “They are better bred to buck, some of those breeding programs are paying off now.”
“Some superstar horses are having their colts and those colts are becoming superstars, so it is an ongoing process, the same as the riders.”
It is probably easier to compete in rodeos now as compared to decades earlier according to Sinclair, because “facilities have gotten better, we’ve got better things to work with, we’ve got more modern chutes, not made of wood anymore, and production has got better, it is getting faster and more people know their jobs better.”
This is mainly because there are more and more rodeos being produced in communities throughout western Canada, a result of increased interest on the part of the people.
Sinclair believes it is because people turn to the basics at tough times.
“Rodeo is the basics. It is the man against the beast, man against man. It has a gladiator’s tone to it.”
Asked what attracted him to be a rodeo competitor, ‘When I was little kid, I always wanted to be a cowboy like heroes Roy Rogers and Lone Ranger, they were comic book cowboys, but they were cowboys,” he said.
Being raised in a farm where his father ran cattle in big community pastures helped him build strong ties with horses.
“I have been with horses all my life” says Sinclair.
There is another important factor, which is his love of “the adrenalin rush.”
“It is the competition against your horse and competition against the other riders in the event,” he says explaining his main motive in being part of rodeos for so long.
He says his biggest expectation from the Steel Wheel Stampede is strengthening of community spirit and the pride the successful event will bring to Stettler.