Family and friends are mourning Seth Saulteaux, the 19-year-old bull rider who died during a weekend Indian National Finals Rodeo (INFR) event on the Stoney Nakoda First Nation.
Saulteaux, who was from Maskwacis, embraced the rodeo life, following in the steps of his bull-riding grandfather Marcel Saulteaux. Seth travelled with his grandfather to rodeo events across North America before, the age of 14, when he rode his first bull.
Seth qualified for the INFR main event in Las Vegas three times and had set his sights on riding in the Professional Bull Riders circuit.
On Saturday, those aspirations ended as he suffered a fatal blow on what proved to be his final ride.
Seth’s mother Raylene received the heartbreaking news by phone from a friend at the Chiniki Rodeo Grounds.
“She called me when he collapsed and they were trying to revive him,” Raylene told Global News. “Then I lost the signal.”
Marcel, the grandfather who Seth insisted on calling dad, recounted Seth’s last moments.
“He got hit pretty hard,” said Marcel, adding that his grandson was wearing a helmet and other protective gear. “He got up and got out of the arena and told one of his cousins ‘Call my grandpa’, and then he fell down.
“That was it. That was the last of it. They took him in the ambulance. They didn’t even get half mile out of there and he was gone. We raced out there (but) he was gone. He was gone. I think the whole rodeo came to be with us.”
Marcel said he had originally tried to push Seth toward roping events but they couldn’t compete with bull riding for a place in his grandson’s heart.
“He always wanted to be a cowboy,” said Marcel of Seth, who “had the most infectious smile you’d ever see. You watch him and (are) so proud of him. Sometimes you just swallow your pride and (are) just in awe of him. He tried so hard and wasn’t afraid to do what he was doing.”
— With files from Global News’ Jayme Doll
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