Published in the July 2015 issue of the Kerby News
A Visit to the Calgary Stampede Ranch
Story and photographs by Tim Johnston
There is a vast swath of land in south central Alberta known as the Special Areas. The town of Hanna in the west, Consort in the north, Oyen in the east and Empress and the Suffield military area on the south roughly outline the boundaries. Encompassing approximately 5,000,000 acres, the Areas have a population of only 5,000 people. This area of the province was especially hard-hit during the depression years and, in 1938, the provincial government established the Special Areas Board to administer the region and provide basic services.
South of Hanna in Area Two and just north of the junction of Highways 502 and 36, there is a tract of land that serves a unique purpose. A clue to its mission can be spotted on the northwest corner of range road 272: a chuck wagon with its tarp emblazoned with the “C lazy S” brand of the Calgary Stampede. This is the gateway to the Calgary Stampede Ranch. In a territory of vast expanses, the ranch holds its own, encompassing approximately 23,000 acres of rangeland, the beautiful and natural home of the Stampede’s bareback and saddle broncs that number nearly 700 horses.
Ken Rehill met me at the ranch headquarters, situated on the bank of Bullpound Creek. The Kerby News had sent me to interview him in his capacity of lead hand on the ranch and concerning his special duties around the transportation of the ranch’s horses. On the morning of my arrival, Ken was working with ranch manager Tyler Kraft and another hand sorting bucking horses into pens for the upcoming Hand Hills Lake Stampede. “We provide Calgary Stampede horses to a lot of rodeos, both in western Canada and in the United States,” Ken told me. The demand for the ranch’s horses comes about because of the unique breeding and training programs in place at the ranch. “Our champion bucking mares are inseminated with sperm from some of the best bucking stallions in North America.” Ken said. “After 14 days, the embryos are implanted into recipient mares that birth the foals. This process allows the champion mares to continue doing what they are meant to do – bucking off cowboys at stampedes.”
Ken explained that of all the horses on the ranch, only about 150 or so are sent out to rodeos each year. No horse goes onto the circuit before its fourth year. Novice horses are eased into the rodeo life by starting out at rodeo schools and smaller local rodeos around the province. Horses past their prime and retired from rodeo live out their days on the vast and natural expanses of the ranch, cared for by the ranch staff and local veterinarians, just like the horses in the prime of their rodeo careers.
There was a big red Volvo semi-trailer parked near the ranch entrance. I asked Ken about it. He told me that the truck was his home for a good portion of each year. “In January, I take three loads of stock down to Denver, Colorado for the National Western Stock Show and Stampede. Then in February, I’m with the horses at the San Antonio Rodeo. March finds me at rodeos in Dallas and Houston, Texas.” Ken travels some.
Come April, Ken returns to his home ranch, just north of Hanna, and back to work at the Stampede Ranch. He has been driving for the Ranch for 22 years, the last 12 of which have seen him working full time. But the movement of rodeo rough stock doesn’t cease. Local rodeos start just after his return and Ken finds himself and his Volvo on the road to events in Ponoka, Sundre, Innisfail, Hand Hills, Marwayne, Airdrie and Strathmore as well as Prince Albert, Saskatchewan and Dawson Creek, BC. Come July 3, Ken will have transported his spirited passengers to the main event, the Calgary Stampede.
But he will still have miles to go: the Canadian Finals Rodeo in Edmonton, National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas and a whole string of local rodeos in Oregon and Washington state that will pretty much fill his calendar for the remainder of the year. At 62 years of age, Ken still finds his career fulfilling and completely enjoyable. “There’s a lot of travelling but the people I meet and work with on my journeys are like members of a big and far-flung family. I look forward to meeting up with them each year.”
In addition to interviewing Ken, the Kerby News editor had asked me to track down another veteran ranch hand, Grant Veno. Tyler told me that Grant was likely at the Hand Hills Lake Stampede and would be helping with events. I was given general directions to Hand Hills Lake and struck out in a northwesterly direction. Getting to the ranch in the first place had taken me across some beautiful but empty prairie. But at least I had pavement for most of the trip. Between the ranch and Hand Hills Lake, there was no more pavement but lots more open prairie. Navigating to the stampede was aided by a helpful ranch wife (“Head six miles north then west to the lake. Can’t miss it!”) and a couple of rough and ready road signs.
With a billowing plume of road dust following me, I finally spotted Hand Hills Lake and what appeared to be hundreds of campers and trailers tightly parked around a modern stampede grounds. People at the admissions gate told me this was the 99th consecutive stampede held at this venue. That’s quite an achievement but not the record for oldest rodeos. The first rodeo in Canada was held at Wood Mountain, Saskatchewan in 1890. Alberta’s oldest stampede began in the town of Raymond in 1902.
Walking down to a group of pens at the north end of the grounds, I encountered Willard Cardinal and Larry McDonald. Willard has worked as a hand at the ranch and at the Stampede for 25 years. Larry works at the nearby Sheerness power plant and part-time for the Stampede. Their task when I met them was to guard the gate that separated wayward spectators like myself from charging rider-less horses belonging to recently departed steer wrestlers. Willard pointed out a Chev pickup truck with a fifth wheel trailer maneuvering into its parking spot. “There’s Grant now.”
Amidst a gaggle of great-nieces and nephews, Grant Veno emerged from the other side of the truck. “That’s a fine Stetson you’re wearing,” I commented, by way of opening the conversation. Leaning on the rail of the racetrack, Grant told me something of his association with the Stampede Ranch. “I began there part-time when I was 15 years old,” he said. “Even though it was the Calgary Stampede Ranch, my mother wouldn’t let me go into Calgary for the stampede until I was 18.” For over 50 years, Grant has worked for the ranch two to three days a week. He also runs his own ranch located about seven miles away. A lot of his work involved trailing horses from across the ranch to the main corrals. “It’s been a great place to be but lately I’ve cut my time down to a day or two a week. Helping out at events like the Hand Hills Stampede has been a source of great enjoyment.” I photographed Grant with his great-niece Neala-Rea Veno.
The drive home took me through Drumheller, Dalum, Hussar and Strathmore. I had plenty of time, and lots of pavement, to think about my day in Special Area Two and the folk I met along the way. I thought of Grant’s niece and how enriched her life must be because of her knowledge of the experiences of her uncle Grant. Fellows like Grant, Ken and Willard are workaday cowboys and ranchers who have put lots of years into a lifestyle that many of us envy. Because of what they and other men and women like them do, we can all connect to the roots of our western heritage, enjoy spectacular rodeos and appreciate the preservation of spaces and species in places like the Calgary Stampede Ranch.
A Visit to the Calgary Stampede Ranch
Story and photographs by Tim Johnston
There is a vast swath of land in south central Alberta known as the Special Areas. The town of Hanna in the west, Consort in the north, Oyen in the east and Empress and the Suffield military area on the south roughly outline the boundaries. Encompassing approximately 5,000,000 acres, the Areas have a population of only 5,000 people. This area of the province was especially hard-hit during the depression years and, in 1938, the provincial government established the Special Areas Board to administer the region and provide basic services.
South of Hanna in Area Two and just north of the junction of Highways 502 and 36, there is a tract of land that serves a unique purpose. A clue to its mission can be spotted on the northwest corner of range road 272: a chuck wagon with its tarp emblazoned with the “C lazy S” brand of the Calgary Stampede. This is the gateway to the Calgary Stampede Ranch. In a territory of vast expanses, the ranch holds its own, encompassing approximately 23,000 acres of rangeland, the beautiful and natural home of the Stampede’s bareback and saddle broncs that number nearly 700 horses.
Ken Rehill met me at the ranch headquarters, situated on the bank of Bullpound Creek. The Kerby News had sent me to interview him in his capacity of lead hand on the ranch and concerning his special duties around the transportation of the ranch’s horses. On the morning of my arrival, Ken was working with ranch manager Tyler Kraft and another hand sorting bucking horses into pens for the upcoming Hand Hills Lake Stampede. “We provide Calgary Stampede horses to a lot of rodeos, both in western Canada and in the United States,” Ken told me. The demand for the ranch’s horses comes about because of the unique breeding and training programs in place at the ranch. “Our champion bucking mares are inseminated with sperm from some of the best bucking stallions in North America.” Ken said. “After 14 days, the embryos are implanted into recipient mares that birth the foals. This process allows the champion mares to continue doing what they are meant to do – bucking off cowboys at stampedes.”
Ken explained that of all the horses on the ranch, only about 150 or so are sent out to rodeos each year. No horse goes onto the circuit before its fourth year. Novice horses are eased into the rodeo life by starting out at rodeo schools and smaller local rodeos around the province. Horses past their prime and retired from rodeo live out their days on the vast and natural expanses of the ranch, cared for by the ranch staff and local veterinarians, just like the horses in the prime of their rodeo careers.
There was a big red Volvo semi-trailer parked near the ranch entrance. I asked Ken about it. He told me that the truck was his home for a good portion of each year. “In January, I take three loads of stock down to Denver, Colorado for the National Western Stock Show and Stampede. Then in February, I’m with the horses at the San Antonio Rodeo. March finds me at rodeos in Dallas and Houston, Texas.” Ken travels some.
Come April, Ken returns to his home ranch, just north of Hanna, and back to work at the Stampede Ranch. He has been driving for the Ranch for 22 years, the last 12 of which have seen him working full time. But the movement of rodeo rough stock doesn’t cease. Local rodeos start just after his return and Ken finds himself and his Volvo on the road to events in Ponoka, Sundre, Innisfail, Hand Hills, Marwayne, Airdrie and Strathmore as well as Prince Albert, Saskatchewan and Dawson Creek, BC. Come July 3, Ken will have transported his spirited passengers to the main event, the Calgary Stampede.
But he will still have miles to go: the Canadian Finals Rodeo in Edmonton, National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas and a whole string of local rodeos in Oregon and Washington state that will pretty much fill his calendar for the remainder of the year. At 62 years of age, Ken still finds his career fulfilling and completely enjoyable. “There’s a lot of travelling but the people I meet and work with on my journeys are like members of a big and far-flung family. I look forward to meeting up with them each year.”
In addition to interviewing Ken, the Kerby News editor had asked me to track down another veteran ranch hand, Grant Veno. Tyler told me that Grant was likely at the Hand Hills Lake Stampede and would be helping with events. I was given general directions to Hand Hills Lake and struck out in a northwesterly direction. Getting to the ranch in the first place had taken me across some beautiful but empty prairie. But at least I had pavement for most of the trip. Between the ranch and Hand Hills Lake, there was no more pavement but lots more open prairie. Navigating to the stampede was aided by a helpful ranch wife (“Head six miles north then west to the lake. Can’t miss it!”) and a couple of rough and ready road signs.
With a billowing plume of road dust following me, I finally spotted Hand Hills Lake and what appeared to be hundreds of campers and trailers tightly parked around a modern stampede grounds. People at the admissions gate told me this was the 99th consecutive stampede held at this venue. That’s quite an achievement but not the record for oldest rodeos. The first rodeo in Canada was held at Wood Mountain, Saskatchewan in 1890. Alberta’s oldest stampede began in the town of Raymond in 1902.
Walking down to a group of pens at the north end of the grounds, I encountered Willard Cardinal and Larry McDonald. Willard has worked as a hand at the ranch and at the Stampede for 25 years. Larry works at the nearby Sheerness power plant and part-time for the Stampede. Their task when I met them was to guard the gate that separated wayward spectators like myself from charging rider-less horses belonging to recently departed steer wrestlers. Willard pointed out a Chev pickup truck with a fifth wheel trailer maneuvering into its parking spot. “There’s Grant now.”
Amidst a gaggle of great-nieces and nephews, Grant Veno emerged from the other side of the truck. “That’s a fine Stetson you’re wearing,” I commented, by way of opening the conversation. Leaning on the rail of the racetrack, Grant told me something of his association with the Stampede Ranch. “I began there part-time when I was 15 years old,” he said. “Even though it was the Calgary Stampede Ranch, my mother wouldn’t let me go into Calgary for the stampede until I was 18.” For over 50 years, Grant has worked for the ranch two to three days a week. He also runs his own ranch located about seven miles away. A lot of his work involved trailing horses from across the ranch to the main corrals. “It’s been a great place to be but lately I’ve cut my time down to a day or two a week. Helping out at events like the Hand Hills Stampede has been a source of great enjoyment.” I photographed Grant with his great-niece Neala-Rea Veno.
The drive home took me through Drumheller, Dalum, Hussar and Strathmore. I had plenty of time, and lots of pavement, to think about my day in Special Area Two and the folk I met along the way. I thought of Grant’s niece and how enriched her life must be because of her knowledge of the experiences of her uncle Grant. Fellows like Grant, Ken and Willard are workaday cowboys and ranchers who have put lots of years into a lifestyle that many of us envy. Because of what they and other men and women like them do, we can all connect to the roots of our western heritage, enjoy spectacular rodeos and appreciate the preservation of spaces and species in places like the Calgary Stampede Ranch.