Wednesday, May 26, 2010

This is our second day here in Grande Prairie. I needed to wash 7 loads of laundry today; we have 2 weeks worth of dirty clothes.
We went to the Grande Prairie Stompede at 5:30 PM. The rodeo with bull riding was at 1:00 and we already missed it. But we saw the Chuck Wagon Pony Races with 40 chuck wagons competing. It was packed and it's a Wednesday night. There is school tomorrow, but the kids were still here when we left. A lot of the little boys are dressed up just like their Daddies. They have on wrangler jeans, cowboy shirts and cowboy hats and boots. They were SO cute.
Most of the chuck wagon drivers were men, but a few were women. These women were big, stocky with muscles and dressed just like the men. I had to look twice when the announcer said a female name. Each chuck wagon looked like a miniature Conestoga wagon with an elaborately painted design - probably done with air brushes, on the wagon and the fabric hood. The teams of 4 horses each wagon had were in matching bridles and harnesses. The horses are the same ones that have run the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont. They are retired from those races and sold up here in Canada to run these Chuck Wagon Races. They can run these races until they are about 20 years old and then they become a family pet. They are extremely fine stallions who always want to race. Because the horses are bred to run, they can hardly wait to race. One horse decided it was time to run, he incited the other 3 harnesses with him and off they went. Then the other 3 teams of horses decided to run again. They had to line them up all over again. This was one of the funniest sports we have seen. And it is really big here. Everybody in town seems to go to it. On Sunday (when we will be gone) the fastest team out of the whole week will be announced. The winner will receive $70,000.! Then the chuck wagons go to another town in western Canada and it starts all over again. This is the Canadian Cowboys way!