Hello and welcome to just a little love on a friday....
I had an interesting week. On Monday and Tuesday I was in Grand Prairie to shoot for a DVD at a ranch. The ranch in question was the Sutherland ranch. Kelly and his son Mark are Chuckwagon racers. Kelly, is 10 time Calgary Stampede champ and 8 time world champion. Now I know most of you south of the border have never heard of Chuckwagon racing, neither had I until I moved here to Alberta. It is a rodeo sport of such where a guy rides on a wagon, pulled by four horses, and he tries to outrun the other wagons.
The sport started back in the old west when the chuck wagon was the food wagon for the roundup. The wagon cooks apparently used to race to the next meeting point to get set up for the cowboys. Thus the sport that is today, except they do not carry food on the wagon. They do however carry a barrel on the back that is called the Stove Barrel.
Now for those of you who know me well, you know that I do not get along with horses. Robin Young knows this. We had many 'discussions' about horses. She loves to ride, I don't.
I remember the first year I was here in Edmonton, I was sent over to Skyreach Center to set up for a live at the Canadian Finals Rodeo. Now to do this a person needs to go underneath where the live hook up pole is. I walk into the area and all I see is the ass end of about 30 horses. Plus the only way to the pole is to walk behind all of said ass ends. I immediately broke out into a sweat and all I could do was pace back and forth looking at the back ends of all these bucking horses. They were inside because the CFR is held in the winter. The security guard comes over and can see something is wrong. I explain my dilemma and he offers to walk with me. We made the walk with out being kicked in the head, Donna sometime swears I have been kicked in the head, and I do the live. The security guy still laughs at me about that every time I go over there.
So this assignment was not one that I was looking forward to on that front. I do however like to experience new things through my job. Curling would be a good example of that. Just look at my Brier post to relive that one.
So going into the shoot I had some reservations about being around horses. I had to basically 'nut up' as Jim Rome would say and just do it. Well if you check a map you will see that GP is north of here (I know, how can ANYTHING be more north than here) so I had to fly. Flying being even something else I do not enjoy. I just love sitting in a chair that is not designed for me with the chair in front of me in my lap. Plus don't even get me started on the service or lack there of, that the airlines give you. Air Canada being one of the worst on the planet. Security is a whole nother issue that just amazes me. I stood in line for a good 20 minutes and then the guy with the wand went over my shoes like they were made of nuclear waste, or newcler as W says. I really was hoping that I would get that guy on the way back after I spent two days walking in horse dung. Oh well, Robin again knows how much I love travelling. We spent that lovely weekend in Denver, what seemed to be about 20 days on the tarmac, and sitting in extremely uncomfortable chairs at O'Hare airport due to a snow storm back in 1997. Robin and I were not really on speaking terms after that one. But that is a whole nother story.
Back to the Chuckwagons story, I get sidetracked easy.
Here is a picture and some video of the Sutherland Ranch. Notice all the horses in the foreground. About 80 head, I believe.
Here is a pic of Mark Sutherland putting this horse, I believe if I remember right was called 'Deputy', into a harness. This horse had been in the loop for about a year. Mark was readying these two to run on the training wagon. They put a work horse, who knows what to do in front of a wagon or plow to help teach the green horse on what to do. Smart.
Here they are on the training wagon. I shot video of these two with my mini-DV cam. I had quite a ride. The power these horses have is amazing. You can see in this video because they took the corner and they are trained to accellerate out of the corner. Well I was not ready for the power and I fell. Click on the link and you can see me fall on my ass. Not the only time I fell in the back of the wagon. Oh and notice in the pic on the top I have mud on my face and my vest. The horses tend to throw a bit of mud.
In this next clip I broke the wagon as the horses took off. I just was not ready for the 'horsepower' that they had going on. Like a bullet out of a gun. Here just watch them take off.
These horses that they get are usually former race horses. Thoroughbred horses. The one on the right is named 'Bailey' and was bought by Mark this year at the track in Seattle. He was not sure about this one being a good racer but after he got him out on the wagon he liked what he saw.
Click the next link to see them run from the ground. They are not at full speed in this video because it is still spring training. They are running at about one quarter speed. It is still kinda fast, about 30K. You will notice that the wagon has truck tires. For real races they use the old time wheels. If you want to see them run in a race check their website here and watch them race at the Calgary Stampede.
So here I was, a guy who does not especially like horses running around a ranch that has nothing but horses. BIG horses. On the second day I had pretty much shot all I needed for the DVD so I was just hanging around watching when Mark handed me two of the horses to lead back to the pen. No you can imagine how I felt about that. He told me to just get in between them and lead them. I did that and guess what? They followed me. I know, crazy right? After that I even helped them chase them in the pen and I even rounded one up by myself. MAJOR breakthrough. Now don't get me wrong, I ain't gonna run out and buy one, or jump on the back of one at the fair this year, but this was a major step for a guy who broke out in a cold sweat at the CFR.
So the moral of the story is, well, I don't know, but I guess I have a new appreciation for horses and the guys who take care of them. Also one other observation from the trip. They tend to dump a lot so you need a good pair of shoes and eyes to watch where you walk.
Okay that's it, Have a good day and
GET BACK TO WORK.
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