51st N.B. Kinsmen Rodeo sees capacity crowds throughout weekend

Colton Ouellette, who’s from just outside of Rapid View, Sask., a small community just 20 minutes east of Meadow Lake, won the bareback event with a score of 72, and said it always makes for a special event competing close to home.

“It’s always been basically a hometown rodeo for me, and the crowd’s awesome here,” Ouellette said. “North Battleford was actually one of the first rodeos I [ever] watched, and it’s not far, so it’s awesome having people from the hometown able to come up.

“Being around hometown people and having my brother and some other friends from our area, just competing together and pushing each other, you always have a helping hand around and they always put on a great show here.”

North Battleford’s Taylor Hebert took home Rodeo Queen honours, and told battlefordsNOW about the experience: “It’s a real big process, you get a month and a bit to sell your tickets and write your speech and everything and it’s a big job, so for all that hard work to pay off and come through in the end is real nice,” she said. “I’d just like to thank everyone who helped me along the way.” (Martin Martinson/battlefordsNOW Staff)

Featuring a number of local participants, in addition to those from across the province, and as far as Manitoba and Alberta out to compete, Gabruch said this year’s rodeo event made for a great mix.

“We always want to see the local talent and we had local talent in the Championship Sunday which was fantastic to see,” he said. “We have some real talented people in this community we want to support, so that was great to see, and then we’ve also had some comments from those people that have come from a long distance away, and they like this rodeo [too].

“They like what we do, they enjoy it here, and they want to come, so to know that those participants are waiting for our weekend to come and be in our rodeo is great, and it’s a kudos to the group that puts this on.” – Heath Gabruch on the positive reviews from visiting participants this year.

Among those traveling from a long way away to compete over the weekend, were Manitoban bull riders Amos Parks and Bodee Klassen.

Parks, who is from Brandon, MB., joined Klassen on the road to North Battleford just over three hours into his 10.5-hour trek from La Broquerie MB., a small community located just outside of Steinbach.

“We drove eight hours [together] to be out here and it was a great rodeo,” Parks said with a smile following the wrap-up of Sunday’s show.

“People are awesome here and the crowd was phenomenal. It’s the biggest crowd I’ve seen, and just the feeling around was vibrant. Everyone was on their toes and into it, so we really couldn’t have asked for a better rodeo experience.”

Parks’ weekend was highlighted by a 7.5 second ride on Saturday night on a big black bull with a white face named Canadian Miracle. Klassen rode 6.5 seconds Saturday in his own right, before as he so aptly described, “he popped my hand about six to seven seconds in, and I ate a lot of dirt, and face-planted pretty hard,” he said with a laugh.

After all, those 6.5 were as well an achievement of their own, as Klassen’s first bull drawn was Joe Exotic, one of the biggest four-year-old bulls at the event, and an active 2,500-pound kicking machine.

L-R: Spencer Parker, Amos Parks, and Bodee Klassen. (Martin Martinson/battlefordsNOW Staff)

Spencer Parker is a first-generation bareback bronc rider from Winnipeg, currently residing in Indian Head. Now in his second season on the circuit, he said getting the chance to get out and compete in North Battleford this weekend served as the perfect atmosphere one hopes for to get the juices flowing.

“It was an awesome crowd and it was full of energy; you totally feed off of that when you’re getting ready,” Parker said. “I know I’m not a very loud or mean guy, so to get fired up to ride a bareback horse, it helps when the crowd’s roaring and they’ve got good tunes blaring.” – Spencer Parker on the atmosphere at the ACC

Gabruch said as they look back on another year, he and the whole committee can’t say enough about all those who came out over the three days to compete, take in the rodeo, and help out behind the scenes, with a number of volunteers pitching in their time to make the event possible.

“We can’t do it without the volunteers, as they are an integral part of putting this on, and they were committed to being here all weekend,” he said. “Even after the performance is over, their work has just started, they were all here till the end and that was fantastic. It’s just a real feather in the cap of our community that always comes together.”

The full results from the NB Kinsmen Rodeo can be found here.

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Martin.Martinson@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @MartyMartyPxP1

by Martin Martinson

51st N.B. Kinsmen Rodeo sees capacity crowds throughout weekend

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