He struts around like James Bond in a martini bar, flexing his muscles and tossing his shiny black locks before pushing his “girls” away from unwelcome visitors.
Gangster has a reputation to uphold. He’s not about to tolerate interlopers.
But he lowers his battle flags when ranch owner Darcy Hollingsworth offers a bucket of oats.
A son of Grated Coconut, the Calgary Stampede’s seven-time world champion bareback bronc, Gangster is small in stature, but he’s built like a fireplug and he loves to buck. So do the mares he is pastured with on the Hollingsworth family’s Bar Anchor Ranch, set in the rolling hills of Willesden Green, about 50 km northwest of Rocky Mountain House.
Hollingsworth leased Gangster’s sire from the Calgary Stampede Ranch for one breeding season to cover some of the mares in his string of bucking horses.
The young stallion had not yet proven his worth in the rodeo arena when the Calgary Stampede agreed to send him to the Bar Anchor.
“I used him before he got famous.”
It should come as no surprise that the father of world champion and Olympian skeleton racer Mellisa Hollingsworth has made his own name in the sports world, albeit in a completely different arena.
He and his wife Tammy took three of their broncs to the 2009 National Finals Rodeo sale held last December in Las Vegas.
The Hollingsworth broncs took the top three places in the sale, earning two trophy buckles now mounted on the wall in the family home.
Dodger, a Grated Coconut son that had been used in the breeding program, was top bareback bronc in the sale, selling for $12,000.
Black Hawk, in foal to Dodger at the time of the sale, was top saddle bronc at $11,000.
A gelding, Buck Nasty, was the sales third-highest seller, fetching $7,500.
The 2009 prices were dismal in comparison to the previous year, when Eagle Tracks, a bronc the Hollingsworths had given to Mellisa, took the top spot at $25,000.
The poor state of the American economy is likely the reason for sharply depressed prices in 2009, says Hollingsworth.
Good bucking horses come in all shapes, colours and sizes.
No particular breed or type of horse is represented in the Bar Anchor breeding program, he says.
“The only thing that’s important to us is how they buck. I don’t care about colour. I don’t care about conformation. I don’t care about anything but bucking.”
Only the very best horses go to the NFR sale. That’s a matter of building and preserving a solid reputation, says Hollingsworth, who keeps a number of broncs for the regular bucking practices held on his ranch.
A former bronc rider, Hollingsworth had operated a PMU (pregnant mare urine) ranch until about five years ago, when the company that provided the contract shut down its Alberta operations.
Keeping broncs in the barn was a risky proposition. Even though the mares are gentle enough to be handled, they are more inclined to kick.
When the barn shut down, the breeding herd was pared back to the broncs only, provided for the cowboys who hone their skills in the practice arena at Bar Anchor Ranch.
Hollingsworth likes to keep broncs of all levels for them, matching the horses and riders according to their skills.
Beginners need horses that don’t buck well enough to get them off so they can learn the skills they’ll need to score, he says.
Better riders get ranker animals.
Hollingsworth offers the practice sessions for free as a way to test and train young prospects, sending those that won’t buck to the auction market at Innisfail.
Whether or not a horse will buck is determined by each individual’s ratio of fight over flight instincts, says Hollingsworth.
“When a cougar’s on his back, he’s either going to run or he’s going to buck.”
bkossowan@www.reddeeradvocate.com