ALEISHA BOSCH – Sylvan Lake News
Despite being a city slicker who doesn’t know the first thing about roping a calf or riding bareback, there is something about rodeos that has always appealed to me.
Maybe it’s because I’m from the city that has one of the biggest rodeos in the world, which bills itself as “The Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth”. But I think it’s more likely that it just comes as part of being Albertan.
As a child, I went to the Calgary Stampede every year. I remember being shocked, at the age of eight or so, to learn it was about more than rides and deep fried food.
That was the first year I went to the grandstand show and the chuckwagon races. I had no idea what a chuckwagon was, or how the races worked, but the excitement in the air was palpable as the wagons and horses thundered around the race track and people watching collectively drew in their breath.
I grew to appreciate Alberta during the time I was away for university. I missed it here so much that I asked for a pair of cowboy boots for Christmas to remind me of the province. The boots were a symbol of Alberta, just like the rodeo is.
People are different here. There’s more of a feeling of independence in the west, likely owing to how it was historically settled. People moved west in the hopes of finding a better life for themselves. That trend still continues to this day. Life is never easy when you move somewhere to start a new life, but that’s how this province was built. People here work hard to get what they have.
The rodeo, with its grit and tough mentality, captures the spirit of the west I grew up in, and the west I missed so much when I was away.