Calgary Stampede 2016

Calgary Stampede

Wow, what a day!

Went to the Rodeo at the Calgary Stampede at 12.30ish. We stopped for a quick bite to eat, I had a pizza, bacon wrapped dog (was pretty average) although love the ‘root beer’.

We found our seats in the stadium and settled down for the entertainment. First up was the riders with the flags of the countries in the rodeo and the sponsors. Then there was the bucking bronco (young colts).

Crikey, that seemed pretty hardcore although this was followed by roping a young steer in a certain time frame.

Amazing horsemanship too.

Trying to recall the sequence of events, but been a full on day, so there was also barrel racing, which the women riders was so fast!

There was steer wrestling, bucking bronco and bull riding. If I thought the bucking bronco was full on, the bull riding was hard core extreme, as the power in those animals in unbelievable.

This finished at 4ish, so we had a look around the show halls, where artists had their wares on show.
Huge overall set up, the cowboys in the competition have to be fit and very skilled. We didn’t go on the fairground rides and even though the weather was wet later on, we decided on what to eat.

This was made very difficult by the various smoked BBQ smells wafting towards us. I finally decided on the ribs/chicken combo with a water.

Was really nice too.

We then took a walk to the Indian village and watched some traditional dance etc, The narrator then asked who was from overseas? As various people put their hands up, my friends Dianne and Paul, were putting their hands up behind me and pointing at me.

So eventually we were all standing out in the middle, before joining with the native Indians in a large circle and we did a dance, that the narrator’s grandfather had came up with.

I must admit, it was a great experience and quite humbling to be a part of it.
We got home about 8.30pm and what a day!

I can now why they call the Calgary Stampede, ‘The Greatest Show on Earth’.

Mounties