Chapter Three - Stampede

This year marked Hope's third and Kate's first Calgary Stampede. 

Day one Hope was a good boy and penned. 

Maybe the excitement got to her, or maybe she thought she'd go for a different kind of buckle (Bareback), because near the end of a really good run Kate decided to grip off in dramatic fashion, attaching herself to a ewe who had the nerve to look at her funny and then riding her for a full 8 seconds down the length of the arena.  The set out crew voted her Best....Grip...Ever. Atta girl Kate - go big or go home.


Both Hope and Kate ran in the morning so I had the pleasure of watching stress free that evening during the second go of the first round. The watching became even more stress free when Chris Jobe whispered in my ear "if you trust me you'll follow me" and I wound up here.

The Ewe Box - strike "hang out in a luxury box" off my bucket list.

Day Two Kate slept on it and penned and was in the money. Good girl - you can come back to Stampede. 


Hope had a set that just wouldn't pen, but his chute time was good enough...to make it into finals. When the guy serving at the lunch buffet asked me how my day was - the answer was "Fan Freakin Tastic!" - not the answer most servers are used to apparently, but he seemed to like my response. 


We spent the afternoon hunting cowboys at the rodeo.

The rodeo was the perfect blend of sun and mud and most of the bull riders stayed on for 8 seconds. They must have taken Kate's "hang on for dear life" clinic the day before.


That night Hope and I lead the pack out into the saddle dome

 and ran under the jumbo tron. 

As I mentioned a few days ago, I DID see the pot of gold and almost got to touch it.  Good times! Congratulations to Dale Montgomery the 2011 World Stock Dog Champion and to Dave Claypool the Reserve Champion. 

Thanks to Kristi Oikawa, Sarah Novak, Chris Jobe and Len the security guy for the great pictures!