Calgary Stampede Part 1
It was July 4, and the first day of the Calgary Stampede! We had arrived too late to see the parade through Downtown. but we had tickets for the Evening Show.
We entered Stampede Park and found ourselves on the carnival midway. It looked a lot like the Florida State Fair, with rides, games, and food, with one huge difference - most people were wearing cowboy hats and boots. We had time to kill before the show, so we wandered the midway for a bit. This wasn’t our thing, but it was still fun to watch.
We learned a lot in the Agriculture Zone. We saw two mares (retired bucking horses) and two sleeping foals. They were part of a herd of 500 bucking horses that roam freely on the Calgary Stampede Ranch. A sow in a maternity pen patiently nursed about a dozen hungry piglets. A faculty member from the University of Calgary’s School of Veterinary Medicine used a scale model of a cow’s hindquarters to teach a visitor. It was a lot less messy than putting one’s arm inside a live cow, I’m sure.
It was the first night of the 2025 Stampede, so the Evening Show opened with pomp and circumstance. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney was escorted onstage by the Calgary Stampede Princess (to a mixed reaction from the crowd). From our seats high up in the grandstand, the crowd looked like a sea of white cowboy hats.
Finally, it was time for the main event - the Rangeland Derby, also known as the Chuck Wagon Races! Three teams competed at a time, each with a driver on the wagon and two outriders on horseback. Each wagon was pulled by four thoroughbred racehorses. They started with a figure eight around their respective barrels, and then did one helter-skelter lap around the track. Everything happened at top speed, and it was very exciting!
Another Evening Show event was the Indigenous Relay. Mounted bareback, the riders raced around the track at full speed. After each of the four laps, the riders leaped off their horses and mounted new ones. The holders tried their best to wrangle the horses into position and then get out of the way. It looked difficult and dangerous, and was very exciting to watch! It all happened very fast, so I didn’t get any photos, but here’s a clip from a great video:
After the last chuck wagon race, a large tractor pulled the monstrous stage into place for the Grandstand Show. It was an extravaganza of live music, singing, and dancing by the Young Canadians. There were also extreme stunts: Daredevils on motorcycles did midair flips across the stage. A fellow balanced upside down on his head, on top of two bowling balls; then he balanced on one finger, on a whiskey bottle. (You can watch him HERE.) Crazy! Through it all, there were lots of pyrotechnics. Even in Canada, we had fireworks for the Fourth of July!
