The stampede came to an end 2 weeks ago and The WPCA  has taken me through two more stops on the tour.   After not qualifing for the top 10 and a garranted spot, back to the Calgary  Stampede in 2008, the pressure is mounting.

I went to Edmonton, hoping to have the same or better success as last years 3rd place finish, and was of my most dissapointing Edmonton shows in my career. It has been a year of could,  would ,and should of done some things different.  A very heavy track and some horses coming up with some lung infection different horses had to be used and they just did not perform as they should of.  The extreme heat that we have had this summer and a lot of racing left ,  three of the horses i use of barrel one and two were left at home for rest and relaxation.  Hopefully getting them back healthy and rejuvenated will set me up for a stong finish in Drumheller and the rest of the year.

Drumhellerr  we continued to have lots of hot and dry weather  and the show was ran with great attendance and i believe good beer sales.  The saturday afternoon the  temperature  was 36 degrees in the shade and 56.2 in the sun.  Lots of water used on the horses to keep them cool and i doubled there electolytes.  I had a average show ended up 14 th in the show and held on to 17th in the world.

The strategy is a key now with  only three weeks left and 14 days of racing to QUALIFY for The Greatest Outdoor Show on the Earth.  I have had the great fortune to qualify every year, and I have been having better results every year .   It is a wagon drivers dream to be there and a nightmare to miss it.

Thanks again to ATB   my  sponsor  in Calgary.  They were again, great to work with and I took something home from ATB, that i will always recongize ,after having ,ATB working in conjuction with the childrens hospital, the visit the children had at the barns and going to the hospital to visit children that could not come to the barns .  I learnt that I am blessed to have a lovely family (wife Dori and three healthy children) and freinds and that I get to race chuckwagons and meet all sorts of people  and that there are less fortunate people in this world and that everyone should remember that it could be worse.    Missing the stampede in 2008 would be very hard to take ,  but having sick children would be even harder to take  and I take my COWBOY HAT off to every family that has to go through it and open my heart up to you if you need something as smalll as me sending a poster, or another visit to the hospital I can try to be there.

Chad Harden       

Well Luke Tournier showed why he had the best outfit here over the 10 days.  For me personally, I am so lucky to have outrode for Luke  ever since he joined the WPCA in 2003.  It’s a good thing Luke won the truck because he will need it to haul away two beautiful bronzes, the clean drive award, and all the money he made all week.  He hooked his top outfit 8 times this week and won his heat every night,  never finishing  out of the top 3.  He put on a clinic.  My hat is off to the other finalists, Rick Fraser, Reg Johnstone, and Norm Cuthbertson.  For Norm even to be driving after getting kicked in the liver and face a month ago shows the heart of a true cowboy.  As for my fellow outriders, I am so proud of the job they did all week.  Dave Biever came back in Ponoka and never rode better.  Chad Fike, I am so proud of him, he has come so far in 3 short years, he will have a dozen of these titles before he is done.  And Logan Gorst, they had a tough night as a family on Saturday, and for him to put that aside and focus on the job at hand shows the heart of a champion.   I also want to give credit to Luke’s crew at the barn, Luke’s wife Michelle, sons Layne and Quaid, daughter Shalyn, Colby Nichol, and everyone else who helped.  The work they put into those horses, stretching them, bathing them, and getting them ready to perform is a tiring, thankless job, but probably the most important.  They don’t get enough credit.  In closing, I want to thank the Calgary Stampede for putting on such a first class event, and for allowing me to fufill my lifelong dream of being a Calgary Stampede Champion.  Before I go, I just want to mention the job Chanse Vigen did on saturday night when he jumped in Tyler Helmig’s wagon.  That was a selfless act of bravery that Chanse did, that man is a cowboy through and through.  None of Tyler’s horse were hurt and he saved another disaster by doing what he did.  God bless, and we will see you down the Chuckwagon Trail.

Last night was bittersweet for a lot of us.  On a personal note, we were lucky enough to win the new truck with Luke Tournier for the best aggregate time after 9 nights.  That is what we were gunning for.  However it was tough to be happy after the wreck we had in heat 7 with Gary Gorst and Tyler Helmig.  Tyler is in the hospital right now and I hope he heals up quick.  I was riding for Tyler last night and it is a helpless feeling seeing a good friend go flying like that.  As for Gary Gorst, I feel so bad for his family.  These horses are like family, and I know how much work and pride the Gorst family puts into these horses.  When they get hurt, its no different than seeing a child or family member get hurt.  Logan Gorst, Gary’s son, was riding with us for Luke Tournier and we could not have been there on that stage without him.  All the same all we can do is rally behind them and hope time will heal the pain.  For those people who think that wagon people don’t care about their horses, I wish you could have seen the whole barn area last night and the tears that were shed by all.  Tonight is the big $100,000 race, we need to regroup and try to put the past behind us.  Thank You.

Well it has been a great week at the stampede, i wish we had more rodeos like this one.  The crowd and the contestant have been awsome, Yesterday in the wild card round was very exciting Mickey Gee won the steer wrestling with a 3.6 then Wade Sumpter was second with a 3.8.  That was really good for Mickey he had had a little tough luck in the first four rounds,  and also he bought us a steak and the Keg steakhouse which was so good, and thanks to jeff the manager for making it very enjoyable for us.

I just want to thank the Calgary Stampede for hosting such a great event for all the cowboys and i look forward to coming back next year.

Now im going to try and win a hundred thousand.

 yee haa

Luke Branquinho

Going into the final night I would like to take this time to thank the two most important groups of people involved in our sport; all the chuckwagon fans and all the tarp sponsors.  It is imperative to our sport to have both these groups supporting us as they do. 

I must assume that if you are reading this blog then you yourself are a fan, so thank you.  We need bums in the seats and people cheering on the tarmac.  You being there makes what we love to do a sport.

The tarp sponsors are equally integral in the survival of the sport and if you are one of these people then I thank you again.  Sometimes groups get together and sell memberships much like Heritage Park or Friends of SAIT.  If you have had the opportunity to do this then thank you.  Corporations also sponsor wagons.  Hopefully if your company did, then you got down to the Rangeland Derby and enjoyed yourself.  It’s great watching these groups laughing and eating (maybe drinking) and seriously enjoying our sport.

Being that I have the keyboard, I would like to personally thank Friends of SAIT.  They have supported me the last two years but they have been great promoters of the Stampede and the sport of wagon racing for a number of years.  Great job and I hope to see you next year.

Good luck to my four friends who will be racing for the $100,000 dash tonight.  Whoever emerges the champion will have earned that one.

Well day three of writing a blog, i haven’t done this much writing sense i was in high school, and i usually had someone else do it for me.

The rodeo went well for me yesterday, i won second and that’s what i had to do to make it to Sunday, so i got the day off but i will be helping some friends that are up today Gabe Ledoux and Mickey Gee.  Stockton Graves did what he had to do yesterday he won the round with a 3.5 i was 3.6, and Lee Graves was 3.7, it was an exciting go around.

The rodeo as a whole was very good to watch we got to go to the Calgary Herald Suite and visit with them for a bit and we had a great time.  it is so neat to see the sponsors have fun at the rodeo that to me is one of the most important thing that will help the sport grow.

Thanks for reading my blog you can also check out my own web site at Lukebranquinho.net, it has my schedule and results so check it out.

Luke Branquunho 

It is typically after last night when even the most optimistic drivers realise where they actually stand at the Calgary Stampede.  By now there are only a small handful of competitors that have a chance at qualifying for the final Dash for Cash and I have found myself on the outside looking in.  I had a respectable run off of the four barrel but the heat was not that fast.  In fact almost all of my races were respectable.  After finishing 9 on day one and 6, 10, 12, 32, 6, 1, 9 respectively on the rest of the days, something looks out of place.  It is that 32 nd place finish that brings to light the reality that I am officially out of the competition.  Now as drivers we have to set another goal, something that is lower and achievable and let me tell you… that hurts.  As we go through the whole season and in fact as we go through the whole year, we gear up for the Calgary Stampede.  Everything revolves around this 10 days in July for us cowboys so when you realise you are not going to be the champion you have to find “other” small victories.  I have discovered a great new horse for my outfit, met a bunch of wonderful people, thoroughly enjoyed all the fans and friends, heard Joe Carbury call my name out in the way only he can, won a bunch of money, worked on my farmers tan with the great weather, signed a million autographs and set a blistering running time.  Wow, all that is way better than someone spraying sticky champagne in your eyes after the final night…Right?

Well now it is starting to get a little more serious, we are two nights of racing way from the big checks getting handed out.  My brother Logan turned to me this morning and said “These next two days is why we do all this training”.  All the long hard miles running down the road, all the hours in the gym that nobody sees or notices.  Days like today and tommorrow is why we do it.  Most people think that outriders  just party and jump on horses.  These people don’t know the new wave of outriders.  Don’t get me wrong we have our fun but now a days all the top outriders are athletes and we train to win.  All an outrider can hope for now is that all the time put in to it will all pay off in the end.   

Well tonight solved nothing, but it did make it more exciting for tomorrow night.  As expected, Luke tournier rested his top outfit and went with the second hook off the 4 barrel.  We made it out of there clean, but not very fast compared to the guys that we are battling against to win the Average and the GMC truck that comes with it.  Reg Johnstone and Norm Cuthbertson both had solid runs so they overtook Luke in the race.  Tomorrow night, we have the 1 barrel and we will have the big boys back on so it will be a huge night for all three guys.  Neal Walgenbach took top day money, which he needed to do to try and climb into 4th, but Rick Fraser hung onto that spot for now with another solid run.  Rick drove a smart race tonight, he got down on the rail behind Reg Johnstone right out of the barrels and let ‘em dance coming home.  Its been a great week, hats off to the Calgary Stampede!  Another outfit that I ride for, Shane Cartier, had his best run of the week.  Shane and Darcy Flad are both competing for the Orville Strandquist Rookie award and even that is coming down to the wire.  Orville is my grandfather and he competed at the Calgary stampede for over fifty years.  Both would be deserving winners, I ride for Shane, and Darcy used to outride for Orville so either way, I know both drivers would cherish having their name associated with a legend like my grandfather Orville.  All the best, I have to get to bed now because tomorrow is a big day.

Yesterday started a little bit differently than usual.  At 7am we harnessed and hooked a team and headed to the track to give four horses that haven’t raced some exercise.  Not only were these horses able to see the track, but there were also some speacial guests who had won the opportunity to take a ride in the chuckwagon at a sponsor function. They enjoyed the experience.

Last night’s race helped us move up in the standings.  We have a close heat, but with the right combination of horses things will go well. 

As well last night, Skippy the Squirrel impressed the crowd when he climbed up into the driver’s seat and drove the horses to the delight of the crowd!