Strathmore Ag Society hosts annual rodeo school

By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The Strathmore and District Agricultural Society hosted their annual rodeo school, Aug. 12-15, at their rodeo grounds once again, inviting kids to come out and get an introduction to, or to enhance their skills in a variety of rodeo sports. 

Current and former professional rodeo athletes were brought in to help oversee the camp, and coach the youths who came out to participate. 

“Scott Schiffner asked me if I would come and help this year … I have done the professional rodeos, made the Canadian Finals, won several pro rodeos, so I guess he thought I was qualified to come and help teach the kids,” said Diane Skocdopole, a professional barrel racer. “I really enjoy it and I enjoy being able to give back to the future generations and get them started correctly so they do not have as many obstacles as I did starting.”

For Skocdopole, it was her first time being asked to come coach at the Strathmore rodeo school, though she said she was excited to participate and help out, adding there really were no resources similar to the camp available to her when she began her own rodeo career.

The four-day camp offered each sport two days of coaching, feedback and practice for the students. 

In addition to the sports skills and practice, the students are taught about nutrition, health and fitness which is also required for success in their respective sports.

“There is a lot of information in a couple of days, but we rerun through the basics as best as we can, and we get these guys on some pretty good horses and we have a sports medicine team here,” said Jake Vold, bareback riding coach. “Rodeo is pretty foreign to a lot of people and a lot of kids these days. There are not as many ranch and farm kids coming up …  it’s a tough sport, it takes a lot of grit and try and determination, and you have to be tough.”

Jackson Campbell, one of the students in attendance, said he has been attending the camp for the past four years and is excited to see how much it has helped him improve. 

“Each year I get better and better and it shows in the stand ins and all that … It is just a great opportunity for kids and adults to try to improve their skills whether it’s bareback riding, bronc riding or bull riding,” he said. “There is going to be great stock – they are never going to put you on something that is going to hurt you or anything like that. It’s going to be stock that’s going to be able to improve your skills, and it is going to give you that confidence boost, but the main thing coming into rodeo is to make sure you are confident in what you are doing, and that there are people here to make sure that you don’t get hurt.”