Canada
The first rodeo in Canada was held in 1902 in Raymond, Alberta when Raymond Knight funded and promoted a rodeo contest for bronc riders and steer ropers called the Raymond Stampede. Knight also coined the rodeo term "stampede" and built rodeo's first known shotgun style bucking chute. In 1903, Knight built Canada's first rodeo arena and grandstand and became the first rodeo producer and rodeo stock contractor.
In 1912, Guy Weadick and several investors put up $100,000 to create what today is the Calgary Stampede. The Stampede also incorporated mythical and historical elements, including Native Indians in full regalia, chuckwagon races, the Mounted Police, and marching bands. From its beginning, the event has been held the second week in July, and since 1938, attendees were urged to dress for the occasion in western hats to add to the event's flavour.
By 2003, it was estimated that 65 professional rodeos involving 700 members of the Canadian Professional Rodeo Association (CPRA) took place in Western Canada, along with professionals from the United States. Many Canadian contestants were part-timers who did not earn a significant living from rodeo.
Canadians made several significant contributions to the sport of rodeo. In 1916, at the Bascom Ranch in Welling, Alberta, John W. Bascom and his sons Raymond, Mel, and Earl designed and built rodeo's first side-delivery bucking chute for the ranch rodeos they were producing. In 1919, Earl and John made rodeo's first reverse-opening side-delivery bucking chute at the Bascom Ranch in Lethbridge, Alberta. This Bascom-style bucking chute is now rodeo's standard design. Earl Bascom also continued his innovative contributions to the sport of rodeo by designing and making rodeo's first hornless bronc saddle in 1922, rodeo's first one-hand bareback rigging in 1924, and the first high-cut rodeo chaps in 1928. Earl and his brother Weldon also produced rodeo's first night rodeo held outdoors under electric lights in 1935.
Read more about this topic: Rodeo
Famous quotes containing the word canada:
“What makes the United States government, on the whole, more tolerable—I mean for us lucky white men—is the fact that there is so much less of government with us.... But in Canada you are reminded of the government every day. It parades itself before you. It is not content to be the servant, but will be the master; and every day it goes out to the Plains of Abraham or to the Champs de Mars and exhibits itself and toots.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I do not consider divorce an evil by any means. It is just as much a refuge for women married to brutal men as Canada was to the slaves of brutal masters.”
—Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906)
“Though the words Canada East on the map stretch over many rivers and lakes and unexplored wildernesses, the actual Canada, which might be the colored portion of the map, is but a little clearing on the banks of the river, which one of those syllables would more than cover.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)