We are about 1/2 way through the 2010 Calgary Stampede. Each year there are countless stories that come out of animal cruelty and abuse. Today, yet another story was released about 4 horses that were killed or euthanize yesterday at the Stampede.
In all 4 of these situations these animals were doing what they love to do and were born to do. Two of the incidents happened because of heart attacks, another because of a shoulder injury and the fourth was a horse that suffered a broken back.
In the case of the 2 chuckwagon horses that were put down these animals are lucky to be where they are. Most chuckwagon horses come from the race track after a few years of running. Drivers will purchase horses off the track and train them to be wagon horses. If they do not make a wagon horse, they will then use them for an outriding horse. In both situations, the horses are doing what they were bred and love to do. RUN! Majority of these horses would be sent to the slaughter house, and their lives ended years earlier if it was not for the chuckwagon drivers taking them into their care.
The same goes for the horse that suffered a heart attack in the cattle penning. These horses are bred to work cattle and livestock. They love to do that. This situation is extremely unfortunate in that a young woman was hurt in this accident.
The final situation of a horse having to be euthanize at the Stampede is really a fluke situation. In the Novice Saddlebronc riding, a young horse had lost his rider and continued to buck. The horse bucked so hard that he broke his back. This is yet another case of an animal doing what he is born, bred, and loves to do. How many times have we all seen a horse bucking in the field. It is a natural thing for these animals to do.
Yes the loss of these animals are unfortunate but I think that there are a few things that the articles have been missing.
The first is that these animals are athletes. Like any other athlete in the world, they are given the best care possible. Many of them are worth tens of thousands of dollars. Not only that but they are irreplaceable, and become part of your family. Now if I had something that valuble, and emotionally meant the world to me, why would I subject that animal to anything but the very best care in the world?
I remember one year while we were showing cattle at the Calgary Stampede, my grandpa, who was the barn boss at the time, was asked to do an interview with a major news outlet. During the Stampede, it can get extremely hot, especially out on the cement. This day was no exception, having temperatures into the high 30's (90-100 F). They started the interview outside in the heat. The journalist was probing asking about the unfair conditions of the animals, how cruel we treat the animals, and how we should be ashamed for doing this to our animals.
After 20 minutes in the heat, they proceeded into the cattle barn. The barn was shaded, cattle were under fans, getting bathed daily, and under spa like conditions. They were fed and watered better then most people on the midway, comfortable and not hot, basically living the dream. Lets just say that it did not take the journalist long to see that her point of view might have been wrong.
I have no problem with people standing up for animal welfare. I am a strong believer that animals should be treated fairly, and receive the best care possible. In saying that, I also believe that animals should be able to take part in what is natural to them. This includes running, bucking, and sorting cattle.
I strongly encourage people to look beyond that messages that are flooded to the masses during a rodeo or livestock show. Do some research for yourself. Find out what is really happening, and how these animals are being treated. Majority of the time you may be surprised just how good they have it.
The weekend was a great success, and these tiny animals are pretty impressive too. It was fun to watch them work through their paces.
No I am not going to run out a purchase a Miniature Donkey, but I sure do have an appreciation for them now.
During the weekend they competed in halter, jumping, and driving classes. My favorite definitely were the trail classes and the jumping classes.
My favorite class of the day was the Coon Jumping. In this class the donkeys are put into a 10'x10' chalk box and asked to jump without getting a running start. The jump starts are 12" and moves up each round. At the end the winning donkey jumped 32"!
It was an interesting weekend to say the least. I met some great people and got my eyes opened to a new world.
oing to hold, and that this whole mess will start to get cleaned up. I know that I will never think of BP the same way, and that I hope others remember this situation when filling up at the gas station. 
This is one of my animals. You can tell by the SLY in the tag. All SLY animals were bred by me. The 12X means that she is #12 and was born in the year letter X. We use the letters of the alphabet to identify how old an animal is and when they were born. We do not use I, O, Q, and V. The Rev in the bottom left hand corner means that her sire is Revolution, and the 669 means that her mother is 669 also know as Ruffles.
This ones tag is slightly different. This heifer has a 2N at the top of her tag. That is because she is an embryo calf on a recipient mother. The 437 at the bottom right of her tag is the number of her recipient mother, and her sire is P.D. or Power Drive.
We start by getting them tied up. They start looking like this.
We then use a regular old garden hose and a pressure nozzle like this one to get the animal wet.
They don't always like this, but it is a really good way to quiet cattle down. We get their whole body wet. Legs, tail, head, belly, everywhere but their ears.
Next we take a brush and brush all of the hair down. This gets any kinks out of the hair.
The next step is to brush it all forward. You always brush from their tail to their head.
Next we use this machine called a blower. It is a super powered hair dryer for animals.
We blow the hair forward the same way as we just combed the hair. You need to make sure you get all of the water out, and that the skin is dry.
You want to make sure that hair looks like this and is laying flat when done.
Not looking like this with lines and it being all messy.
When you are done they should look like this. A little bit more clipping and he will be great to show next weekend!
After a few months Cass became my dog when I was home on the weekends. I would take her out to work cows with me, and she would listen! She always came and greeted me at the car door when I got home on the weekends, and best of all she would play fetch! This winter her and I had fun playing hockey outside and her catching the pucks!
This is what Calgary has looked like for the past couple of days. And this is mild. Most places are reporting 20-30cm of snow, and the wind is blowing. Welcome to the end of April!
Wednesday, I got thrown into the contract with a meeting about what I would be doing and a bit about the show. I am really excited about this project, and think it should be pretty fun along the way.
I will keep you posted along the way. The show is the end of July at Westerner Days in Red Deer. I'm expecting to get a few laughs along the way, and an eye opening experience.
Ruffles real name is WFL Miss Westway 669K. The Hadway kids named Ruffles before I got her, and the name just kinda stuck. Since buying Ruffles I have been able to sell 2 of her bull calves at Checkers, and we have 3 of her daughters currently producing in the herd. This year she has our best Revolution heifer calf that is looking pretty sweet!
