Well, the 2008 Calgary Stampede has come to a close and it was quite a week.  It was a week full of ups and downs, but all in all, I have nothing to complain about.  For myself, it was the first time in quite a few years that I didn’t have a wagon in the final heat, which is what you hope for when they blow the horn on opening night.  The teams that I was a part of just couldn’t get there for a variety of reasons.  I was proud to say that I was riding in an era where Joe Carbury was the voice of the Stampede, and equally proud to be there for his last call.  It brought a tear to my eye when it finally hit home that Joe won’t be back.  I am still holding out hope that he changes his mind and makes a cameo or two next year.  I was lucky enough to outride for my grandfather Orville Strandquist in 1991 for his last race at Calgary after more than 50 years of racing at the Stampede, and last night felt similar to that.  It was the end of an era, a legend, icon, and hero retiring.  Good luck Joe, thanks for the memories my friend.  Congratulations to Sean Debolt for winning the Orville Strandquist Rookie Award, it felt great to ride for him and he also used my horse this week.  Also, congratulations to Jason Glass for winning the Richard Cosgrave Memorial Award and dedicating it to “Gram”, Iris Glass.  Gram may not be in the best of health right now, but you can bet she is proud beyond proud.  Huey Sinclair is quietly carving out a legendary career, to win the Stampede 4 times is amazing, and he has surpassed some of the greatest drivers in history.  Thank you, and God Bless.

Well the wait is over.  Congratulations to Jason Glass and his outriders Jim Nevada, Chad Cosgrave, Chance Vigen and Jason Lemieux for winning the Richard Cosgrave Memorial.  All of those guys are good friends of mine and it was well earned.  For the first time in quite a few years, I don’t have a wagon in the final heat.  We gave it a good shot with Neal Walgenbach last night, but we fell short.  Oh well, thats just they way it goes.  I am as excited as any fan would be to watch the final heat tonight, it will come down to a barrel draw I think.  All in all, its been a good week, the Stampede sure puts on a first class event and it is always good to be a part of it.  Can’t wait until tonight.

Well today the day we have all been waiting for.  The one hundred thousand dash for cash.  This race has to be one of the most exciting moment in sports.  When the wagons are driving in and all you can hear is the chains in the harness and then the horn goes and it gets so loud you can hardly hear yourself think.  Then you get on the back stretch and it is so quiet and then you round the fourth and it keeps getting louder until the race is over.  Tonight I will be riding for Kirk Sutherland, it will be my fourth time in the dash, hopefully kirk can bring me my second Calgary championship.  Today is the longest day in the world waiting for the ninth heat tonight but lets hope it ends right.  Good luck to all four drivers.

Dustin Gorst 

Well its the last day for rodeo tomorrow! I hate to see it go by so fast but the Sunday finals are definitely the best. The big money is given away on stage and I am so excited to have the chance to compete at it. I doesn’t come along very often that we have the chance make a run at this kind of money and it is awesome.

My knee is feeling better every day, I had an MRI this mourning and got the results read at the rodeo by the sports medicine trainers and doctors on hand. I guess it is a lateral meniscus tear and bone bruise on the end of my femur. obviously that’s not 100 percent conclusive but they are pretty sure that is the gist of it. I have lost a lot of the swelling and gained a lot of flexibility over the past three days , which is great. I taped it today to get an idea of how its going to feel, and i am very confident in riding with it.

Like i said earlier I’m not looking forward to leaving tomorrow. We have enjoyed all the hospitality of this town and the rodeo committee. We have had a room over here at the Coast Plaza Hotel and they have been great. We tried all last week to get a room in town here and they were either so high or they didn’t have any availability, The Coast Plaza was great and the rooms were reasonable and very nice, if you need a place to stay i recommend them.  

I am already looking forward to next year and I hope to be back, until then its back to the grindstone of rodeo. Thanks for letting me be a part of it.

Ryan

It is hard to believe that we are already starting to wrap up this year’s Calgary Stampede. already this morning I sent seven horses home to farm. It is such a short tunrover time between here and Bonnyville, so the more rest the horses can get at home, the better.

Although the days have gone by fast, the gruelling demands and extra work that is involved with racing at Calgary has taken its tole on both the horses and the barn crew. The horses, are ready to be turned outside and have some time to themselves. The barn crew has taken full advantage of the Calgary party scene, as well as, working extra hard to keep the horses looking their best. This combination has called for a few extra long afternoon naps.  I have suggested on many occasions that maybe they should go to bed, instead of going out, but they don’t seem to be taking my advice. Oh well! That’s what Calgary is all about.

Chad Harden

Last night, Luke Tournier showed everyone why he is the defending champion by winning his first day money of the week.  Luke has been working a few new horses into the lineup and they are really coming along, but they took some time.  We got hit with that 10 second penalty on night 4 to kill our chances this week, but, to Luke’s credit, he fought back and never quit.  The same could be said for Buddy Bensmiller as well.  The weather was great and the track was perfect last night.  They hand out the truck tonight and see who gets to run for the roses tomorrow.  I have one outside chance to sneak in there, so we will just go for broke and let lady luck take over.  I can’t believe how fast this week has went, it always flies by here at Calgary.  Anyway, win, lose, or draw, it is always fun here at Calgary.  Talk at ya tomorrow.

The outriding career is going great and i will never complain about the money but outriding alone can not carry me all year.  So for a job i am a horse shoer, I shoe for four drivers around the barn.  Most of these drivers horses are done before the stampede even starts.  But this year i did alot of work for Norm C. and Brian L. just cleaning up for them because their horse shoer could not make it.  I some times can fix problem horses like two of Luke T. one had a broken coffin bone and we put a bar shoe on and it looks like he might make a full recovery and another has brittle back feet and i think i got him so the shoes will stay on.  A couple days ago I put a shoe on for the Cassidy’s and yesterday i helped Jill moody barn crew put in mud nails for extra grip.  For me to help them was very exciting i never thought my shoeing that that many big name cowboys and cowgirl would come looking for me to help them.  I like shoeing but a night of outriding is hell of a lot better than a day of shoeing.

Dustin Gorst   

Well today we woke up to a sunny Calgary after a night of pouring rain which led to a fairly muddy Stampede Park.  During the grand entry you could see that the mud was pretty deep when the Flag Girls and Rodeo Queens opened up the show riding around in the arena with their horses sinking down quite a ways.  But the grounds crew kept working it in-between events and by the time the bronc riding rolled around the bucking horses had some good ground to perform on.

Today also marked the end of pool B competition and decided which four cowboys would skip the wild card round tomorrow and have a bye into Sunday’s final round.  The guys from our pool will be Cody Wright, Cody Demoss, Rusty Allen, and myself.  I was blessed again by a great draw with Calgary’s Alabama Acre.  She’s an older brood mare that only gets bucked a few times a year so she was good and rested up when I climbed on her today.   She’s had a real nice day, and was quite a bit of fun to ride.  I was 84.5 and ended up 3rd for the day.  Rusty Allen won the round with and 85.5 followed by Jesse Bail scoring an even 85.  Now I have a day off to watch the Wild Card round and see which to bronc riders will advance to Sunday.  The broncs will be pretty rank tomorrow so there should be some high scores and probably a few of the guys will be hitting the dirt! 

The stampede is in the homestretch now and all in all it has been a good week.  Its tough to complain when you are at the Calgary Stampede, we get treated great.  My drivers have had some tough luck this week, and right now it is going to be tough to get any of them in the top four for a chance at the title.  This sport will humble you, when things are going right, you think its easy.  Last year we had a dream Stampede with Luke Tournier and I remember telling myself to enjoy the moment because it may not happen again this year.  So far it hasn’t.  We haven’t given up and you never know what might happen so we will just buckle down and hope for the best.  I have enjoyed some of the functions that the Stampede has us attend, sign a few autographs and meet some new friends.  The kids that come up, to me, that is what it is all about.  Who knows, maybe in a few years we will have some new recruits as outirders.  Also I went to the Tom Baker Cancer Clinic yesterday to see my good friend Dallas Dorchester.  I thought I knew what tough is, but they should stick his picture next to the word tough because he sure hasn’t lost his sense of humor after all he has been through.  He even told me that I never paid my golf debt when we played in Grand Prarie last summer, but I think he never paid me.  I told him we will have a re-match when he gets healed up.  I used to outride quite a bit for Dallas, and his son Quinn and me both started outriding the same year in 1991.  My heart is with Shirley and Dallas, Quinn, and Tyler right now and I would ask that we all say a prayer for everybody in there that is sick.  Reality sure hits home and our blessings sometimes need to be counted.  God Bless.

Running in the mud is not much fun.  It seems like ten times the work when the day is all done.  For a outrider it seems like it take a hour to get dressed for the mud.  Every outrider is different most of us where slush pants, some where cut off jeans and slush pants, and one guy puts a new pair of pants every race.  A couple guys just say forget it with all the work and ride like they normally do.  But everyone uses a lot more tape to seal off there boots or shoes so there feet stay dry.  During the races there is two garden hoses to wash some of the mud between races.  For muddy days I use a pair of goggles and safety glasses.  The goggles go over the glasses till i can not see no more, then I pull them down under my chin.  From there the safety glasses make it till the fourth corner and then you just take the dirt in the eyes.  But if I was a fan I would want to go watch on muddy days they are the most entertaining race days.

Dustin Gorst