It’s the fourth day for the Canadian Western Agribition being held in Regina, Sask., with a range of events kicking off throughout the day.
The day started with the International Stock Dog Championship Trials being held at the Brandt Centre from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Several other events including the Black Angus Show, Commercial and Purebred Pen Show, and Hereford Sale, take place throughout the day.
Jared Epp, a director with the Saskatchewan Stock Dog Association, is chairing the stock dog competition and says they’ve been working to get the animals acclimatized to the arena.
“In order for this sport to continue and be done well, we have to look after our animals, both our dogs as well as our sheep,” Epp said.
“This is not a job to the dogs, they love it. They’re bred specifically for this and some of them go back a couple of hundred years with genetics fine-tuned to work sheep and herd sheep.”
Lakota Bird, one of the competitors in the breakaway roping event at the Maple Leaf Finals Rodeo, says she’s been roping since she was a little kid.
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“I grew up competing at the junior high, high school rodeos,” Bird said.
She added traditionally, breakaway roping hasn’t been an event in professional rodeos, noting that it’s exciting to see the sport showing up in professional rodeos.
“It’s been a group of girls really working hard to try to promote our event and become a part of professional rodeos.”
Denny Halstead, a rodeo clown at Agribition, says he averages almost 130 performances every year.
“I was a full-time Calgary firefighter for 30 years, and Calgary police and Calgary firefighters put on a charity rodeo every year for kids,” Halstead explained.
He noted that about 25 years ago the rodeo clown didn’t show up, which resulted in Halstead taking his place.
“There’s no question, we’re adrenaline junkies. That’s kind of what we do for a living.”
“There’s not a better rush in the world than when a 2,000-pound animal is hitting this barrel with you in it,” Halstead added.
Shaun Kindopp, CEO of Agribition, said they invited many of the newly arrived Ukrainians to come experience the Agribition.
“Agriculture is massive in Ukraine, so we wanted to invite them to Agribition to give them a bit more of a homey feel,” Kindopp said.
He said 500 tickets were handed out to give them an Agribition welcome.
The Canadian Western Agribition started on Monday and runs until Saturday.
— with files from Troy Charles
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