Training future rodeo champions

By Andrea Roberts Times Contributor

The Strathmore and District Agricultural Society hosted its first rodeo school on August 12-13.
Twenty-one aspiring rodeo champions attended the two-day event where they were taught bull riding and bull fighting by Strathmore’s own bull rider Scott Schiffner, bullfighter Levi Hale and rodeo stars Don, Dale and Bruce Johansen.
“We are enjoying all these kids, it gives them a good start,” said Don Johansen, who has been teaching rodeo schools for 40 years.
“It teaches them the basics. (If) you don’t learn the basics you won’t make it, and you will never know if you were a good bull rider or not.”
The school targeted students aged 14-18 who are going into high school rodeo come September. Many of the teenagers who enter into high school rodeo do so without any prior training and hop on their first animal on the day of the event. The rodeo school offers another alternative while learning from some of the best in the field. For those students with experience it is a way to hone their skills.
“The Strathmore Ag Society has seen a need to help kids develop in the sport in a safe manner and to provide opportunities for training and coaching,” said Ryan Schmidt, CEO of the Ag Society.
Currently the school only offers bull riding and bull fighting, but both the coaches of the school and the ag society hope to build on it and add more events to the school. Currently, they decided to focus on rough stock events, as there is a lack of kids going into the sport, which Schmidt believes is down to the lack of training and coaching opportunities. Future events will include saddle bronc and bareback. But with success they hope to look into timed events in the future.
The students started off with an orientation lesson on Monday morning to go over basics and review equipment. From there they moved out to the rodeo grounds where they learned how to get on and off the bull safety. The coaches made sure to match the students up with the right animal according to their level of expertise so they could get the best experience. During the ride they were filmed to see where they could improve and what they did wrong.
“I hope that every one of these kids becomes a Canadian champion,” Johansen said. “It is something they want to do and I am glad to be a part of it.”
Both he and Schmidt hope the school will help boost the sport and Strathmore in the rodeo scene. Schmidt would like see Strathmore develop into a place that has a reputation for being the place in Alberta to not only practice the sport of rodeo at the stampede, senior pro rodeos and high school rodeos, but also learn at one of their rodeo schools. One of the missions of the ag society is to support agriculture and community events so they see rodeo at the heart of their mission. They want to play a prominent role in developing Strathmore into the home of rodeo in southern Alberta.