Thousands of rodeo fans and competitors from far and wide saddled up for the second annual Wasaga Beach Charity RAM Rodeo and Hootenanny Fall Fair. It took place Saturday and Sunday at Klondike Sports Park in Wasaga Beach. RAM Rodeo President Ross Millar tells CTV News the Wasaga Beach rodeo is a special one because it’s the final rodeo before the Ancaster RAM championships, with $3,000 worth of prize money up for grabs. Either competitors will go to the finals or they’ll get booted out. The rodeo has drawn people from every walk of life. “We’re showing a little bit of Canadian culture, a little bit of Canadian heritage. The working cowboys or cowgirls,” Millar says. “And there’s the element, of course, of competition.” People participated in barrel racing, pole bending, bucking horses and bull riding to cheering crowds. Anna Dale, a pole bender and barrel racer from Lakeside, says she’s been doing this her whole life, having always been around horses. “There’s an adrenaline rush for sure,” Dale says. “And then it’s the accomplishment of all the training that you’ve done. And then you get to display it on the weekends at the rodeos.” She takes part in rodeos every weekend. She’s also grown close to her horse, Ava—16 years old—who she says is easy-going and one of three generations of horses at her farm. Both of her events are timed. Pole bending is akin to slalom racing, where athletes have to weave between a series of polies. Barrel racing is similar, but it’s with barrels that are set up in a cloverleaf pattern. Along with rodeo shows on both days, the event featured a kids rodeo, the Canadian Cowgirls, more than 40 vendors, an 11-food truck concourse and two-stepping to live music from the Cam Brown Band under the stars. A horse and carriage ride transported attendees around the site. Bull riding is where the rider is sitting on the back of a bull that weighs up to 2,000 pounds. The rider has to lock themselves in and hang on with one hand, while the other flies free. The object is to hold on for eight seconds without falling off. “And its probably the longest 8 seconds of commitment a person can have,” Millar says. Austin Lightfoot, a bull rider, tells CTV News he went to school for bull riding and fell in love with it. Bull riding school means a two-day course called Build A Cowboy. Lightfoot ended up spraining his wrist when he first got started but that didn’t deter him, as the feeling the sport gives him supersedes anything else. “You feel 10 feet tall and bulletproof and you just feel like a million bucks and it’s the best feeling in the world,” he says. A bull will buck, meaning kicking their hind legs due to a light rope that gets tied around its waist. Lightfoot explains it like a belt around a person’s belly button. The bull has the urge to get the rope off, so it kicks its legs, which jostles the rider around making it difficult to hang on. Wendy Halcrow, an attendee, was at the rodeo with a group of 13 girls who all knew each other for 40 years, since high school. Repping “Let’s Go Girls” t-shirts, the ladies could be heard hooting and hollering in the stands. Manager of Events with the Town of Wasaga Beach Scott Bradley tells CTV News not only has the event drawn Wasaga Beach residents but also die-hard rodeo fans from all around. This year’s rodeo has raised money for the food bank and the town’s first high school marching band. Ahead of the Saturday 4 p.m. rodeo, horses were running around in the ring. “We love our animals and it’s really important we give them the proper exercise,” Millar says.
