Tania Millen, BSc, MJ
In keeping with Canadian Horse Journal magazine’s broad audience, the Spring 2024 issue goes a little Western. For example, have you ever wondered:
- What today’s cowboys do all year?
- How bucking horses are produced?
- What breakaway roping—the fastest-growing women’s rodeo sport—entails?
Here’s a sneak peek of what you’ll find in the latest issue from Horse Community Journals Inc.
The Cowboy Way
“There’s something about being out in the hills by yourself with just a horse and a dog for company,” says Mack Burke, a 21-year-old cowboy who works full-time at the Gang Ranch in central British Columbia, Canada.
Burke shares his experiences cowboying for one of the oldest and largest ranches in Canada, providing readers with an inside view of cowboy life. Every season has its own rhythm and those who choose to cowboy embrace the lifestyle and challenging working conditions: long hours doing physical work in all weather. The job requires a hardy skill set, survival mindset, and desire for your own company. It’s a lifestyle job that few experience. However, cowboys are icons of the North American Wild West and the cowboy culture continues to dominate Canada’s Western provinces.
Breeding Bucking Horses
Most riders don’t want a horse that bucks. But that’s exactly what bareback and saddle bronc riders competing at rodeos across North American want: horses that buck and buck well, for eight seconds.
Rodeo bucking horses used to be rank horses that nobody could ride. Today, bucking horses are purpose-bred, registered, and, just like other performance horses, trained to do their job.
“Bucking horses aren’t just a group of Brumbies anymore,” says Austin Siklenka, the 2023 Canadian Bucking Stock Contractor of the Year from Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan, Canada. “Breeding buckers is a really in-depth, serious activity. It might take 40 years to breed a superstar.”
Training, management, and horse welfare are all involved, along with collaboration with rodeos, riders, and other stock contractors. Determination is imperative, too, to hang in there year after year, hoping to breed a special one. It’s a big gamble, but the next great talent might be grazing in someone’s pasture right now.
Women’s Breakaway Roping
Breakaway roping is the fastest rodeo sport on the planet right now. Winning times are less than two seconds. Yes, you read that right—less than two seconds can garner professional breakaway ropers thousands of dollars in winnings. And it’s a sport just for women.
“Breakaway roping is a career path for women nowadays, where it was never even considered before,” says Margo Fitzpatrick, the organizer of Canadian Finals Breakaway in Claresholm, Alberta.
Although not a regular event at every rodeo—yet!—breakaway has come a long way in a few short years and made a significant difference in the lives of women who want to pursue rodeo careers outside barrel racing.
“The events have become faster, there are women doing breakaway full-time and making a living off it and there’s unbelievable prize money,” says Fitzpatrick. “It’s a great opportunity for women.”
To read the full articles or for help targeting desired clientele with your products and services, please contact Horse Community Journals Inc.
Contact: Kathy Smith, Editor
Email: editor@horsejournals.com
Website: https://www.horsejournals.com
Toll-Free: 1-800-299-3799
Horse Community Journals Inc. proudly serves all sectors of Canada’s horse community by publishing original, award-winning, high-calibre news and investigative journalism. Titles include Canadian Horse Journal, Canada’s Equine Guide, HORSEJournals.com, The Hoofbeat E-Newsletter.