Connor Hamilton makes fast friends with horses that try to buck him off..“Every time I walk up to my horse, I pat him down and brush him off, and comb their mane and make sure that they’re as comfortable and as happy as they can be,” the Calgarian told Western Standard in an interview..After the chute opens, the horse does his best to buck the rider off, while the rider does his best to stay on. It’s just one of many ironies for rodeo contestants as they interact with other people’s animals..“Each rodeo you go to, there’ll be a stock contractor, a different one. So the Calgary Stampede is a stock contractor. They own thousands of horses and bulls. And each time we show up, we get a draw and you get a different one pretty much every time,” Hamilton said..“As soon as you find out what horse you’ve got, everybody’s asking somebody else or looking them up or trying to find videos or doing this or that. So, more of a game than what people see with the naked eye when they come to watch.”.Six years ago, Hamilton had his own stats and game footage as a right-winger with the Calgary Mustangs of the Alberta Junior Hockey League. Now he sees his stats at ProRodeo.com, as well as those of competitors and the horses they ride..“We look them up and see the statistics on them and how they buck and what they do. And all of them are a little bit different. So you can kind of figure them out and learn which ones are nice and which ones are a little harder to ride and go from there.”.Hamilton, currently ranked 43rd in the world in bareback, gave Calgary Stampede horses Alert Warrior, Cinchy Witney, Bigtimin Houston , and Witless Margie their first pro rides this year..The history was somewhat longer for Big Prime, a horse Hamilton rode at the Cody Stampede earlier in July. Contractor Frontier Rodeo has provided the horse to rodeos in Texas, Florida, Oklahoma, and Wyoming from March through July this year. Four of five riders lasted eight seconds on Big Prime, earning an average score of 80.88..Contrary to the claims of some animal rights activists, Hamilton said rodeo animals are valued and treated well..“Rodeo in general – the entire thing revolves around the animals, and if we didn’t have them, we wouldn’t have anything,” Hamilton said..“People that own these animals and take care of them, they’re their livelihood so they don’t want a thing to happen to them. Any horse, bull, calf, or anything, it costs somebody money.”.Flank straps that agitate bulls and horses also serve to keep them safe..“It helps them. If the horse jumps through the air and doesn’t kick and they land on their back end, they can twist an ankle or break a leg…That flank strap that comes back is super light. It doesn’t pull on them, doesn’t hurt them, doesn’t do anything. It just reminds them each time that they go that it’s time to do their job,” Hamilton said..“It’s one of the best things for them and if these horses didn’t have jobs and didn’t have something that they loved to do, they wouldn’t be anything. They would be out in the field. I mean, they love what they do. They’re athletes just as much as we are.”.Hamilton said he hasn’t encountered many rodeo opponents and they are far from a competitor’s mind..“We try to steer clear of that and just try to keep our heads pretty low,” he said..“I know that there’s tough times for everyone and things going on in the world, but I feel like everybody’s best option is just to worry about what they’ve got right in front of them and just move on from there.”.Harding is a Western Standard correspondent based in Saskatchewan
Connor Hamilton makes fast friends with horses that try to buck him off..“Every time I walk up to my horse, I pat him down and brush him off, and comb their mane and make sure that they’re as comfortable and as happy as they can be,” the Calgarian told Western Standard in an interview..After the chute opens, the horse does his best to buck the rider off, while the rider does his best to stay on. It’s just one of many ironies for rodeo contestants as they interact with other people’s animals..“Each rodeo you go to, there’ll be a stock contractor, a different one. So the Calgary Stampede is a stock contractor. They own thousands of horses and bulls. And each time we show up, we get a draw and you get a different one pretty much every time,” Hamilton said..“As soon as you find out what horse you’ve got, everybody’s asking somebody else or looking them up or trying to find videos or doing this or that. So, more of a game than what people see with the naked eye when they come to watch.”.Six years ago, Hamilton had his own stats and game footage as a right-winger with the Calgary Mustangs of the Alberta Junior Hockey League. Now he sees his stats at ProRodeo.com, as well as those of competitors and the horses they ride..“We look them up and see the statistics on them and how they buck and what they do. And all of them are a little bit different. So you can kind of figure them out and learn which ones are nice and which ones are a little harder to ride and go from there.”.Hamilton, currently ranked 43rd in the world in bareback, gave Calgary Stampede horses Alert Warrior, Cinchy Witney, Bigtimin Houston , and Witless Margie their first pro rides this year..The history was somewhat longer for Big Prime, a horse Hamilton rode at the Cody Stampede earlier in July. Contractor Frontier Rodeo has provided the horse to rodeos in Texas, Florida, Oklahoma, and Wyoming from March through July this year. Four of five riders lasted eight seconds on Big Prime, earning an average score of 80.88..Contrary to the claims of some animal rights activists, Hamilton said rodeo animals are valued and treated well..“Rodeo in general – the entire thing revolves around the animals, and if we didn’t have them, we wouldn’t have anything,” Hamilton said..“People that own these animals and take care of them, they’re their livelihood so they don’t want a thing to happen to them. Any horse, bull, calf, or anything, it costs somebody money.”.Flank straps that agitate bulls and horses also serve to keep them safe..“It helps them. If the horse jumps through the air and doesn’t kick and they land on their back end, they can twist an ankle or break a leg…That flank strap that comes back is super light. It doesn’t pull on them, doesn’t hurt them, doesn’t do anything. It just reminds them each time that they go that it’s time to do their job,” Hamilton said..“It’s one of the best things for them and if these horses didn’t have jobs and didn’t have something that they loved to do, they wouldn’t be anything. They would be out in the field. I mean, they love what they do. They’re athletes just as much as we are.”.Hamilton said he hasn’t encountered many rodeo opponents and they are far from a competitor’s mind..“We try to steer clear of that and just try to keep our heads pretty low,” he said..“I know that there’s tough times for everyone and things going on in the world, but I feel like everybody’s best option is just to worry about what they’ve got right in front of them and just move on from there.”.Harding is a Western Standard correspondent based in Saskatchewan
