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Ponoka inspires Girletz

History can be inspiring. Perhaps it was just the spur Tanner Girletz needed.
B04-Stampede
Steven Dent of Mullen Nevada rides Alley Ways for a 83.7 point ride in the professional bareback event at the Ponoka Stampede Wednesday afternoon.

History can be inspiring. Perhaps it was just the spur Tanner Girletz needed.

The bull rider from Cereal walked into the Ponoka arena Monday evening as a past champion, but he hasn’t been feeling much like one lately.

Tuesday afternoon, though, he changed his fortunes, when he powered through one called Commando to take over the bull riding lead at the Stampede.

“Finally,” sighed the 25-year-old, as he was putting away his bull rope.

“I haven’t won a dime yet this year. That’s actually the first pro rodeo I’ve stayed on at this year.

“It’s a major weight off my shoulders. I’ve been sitting at home not going to anything because it’s been so frustrating. I’ve been practicing lots.”

Cold spells in sports are awfully hard to explain, and easy to find fault elsewhere for. But there’s none of that for this third generation cowboy.

“I have no one to blame but myself. I wasn’t riding the way I should be. If it was a five or six second whistle, I’d be winning Canada, but that’s not the way it goes. I’ve just got to start from scratch here again now. There are still lots of rodeos left.”

Girletz was able to collect 84.75 points on the Kesler bull, edging into the Ponoka lead by a half point.

“I’ve had the bull before. I was 85 on him last year at Brooks. I knew he was a good bull. Not a lot of guys like him, but I seem to get along great with him.”

There were a lot of rodeo legends honoured Monday evening as part of the opening ceremonies for the 75th anniversary of the Ponoka Stampede, and vintage western wear was the order for the day. Girletz was sporting a short-brimmed, high-crowned straw lid from a much earlier era.

“(Bullfighter) Jesse Byrne actually got it at Value Village. It was his extra hat, so I grabbed it from him.

“My grandma was here last night and she said ‘you know your Grandpa had a hat just like that’. It was the same brand and everything. And I had on my grandpa’s 1955 all-around buckle too.”

His grandfather was the Hall of Famer Wilf Girletz, who collected eight Canadian titles between the bull riding and all-around honors, and also started a renowned herd of bucking bulls for rodeo.

But it wasn’t only his grandfather’s success that motivated him. Girletz walked into the arena with all the bull riders because he’d won the Stampede himself in 2005. So he rubbed shoulders with some of the heroes of the sport.

“It was crazy. It was really cool to see all those guys, like Leo Brown, and some of the guys I’ve always looked up to. Him and my grandpa were always neck in neck. Seeing all of them, and all the Dodds’ and everything, it was something else.”

Brown is another legend in the Canadian Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame, who won high point, saddle bronc, bareback and bull riding championships in his day, and judged on the circuit for many years as well.

“I’d honestly never met Leo Brown in my life until then. Another past champion who came that I think deserves recognition was Marvin Glazier from Coronation.

He won Ponoka in 1937, the first one to ever win it. He was with his two sons, and he jumped out of his wheelchair and walked out with us bull riders. So it was a pretty cool deal.

“For sure it was inspirational. Today I had my dad and helped me on, and all my buddies were all behind me. Everyone wants to see me do good. It’s just up to me to start doing good.”

There are new leaders in nearly every event after the second performance Tuesday. Oregon’s Jason Havens teamed up with a Kesler horse called Mile Away for 88 points, setting a formidable lead in bareback riding.

In the saddle bronc, the number two man in the world put himself in good shape to add to that tally. Taos Muncy of New Mexico was 86.25 on another Kesler great, Bonus Alley.

The big pinto mare jumped high into the air and the cowboy who already has one gold buckle to his name was there for every spur lick.

“Man, that was a ton of fun,” he bubbled. “That’s exactly what I wanted today. I wanted to get a good strong mark out because that horse gets really strong at the end, so I knew I had to stay strong throughout the whole ride. About seven seconds in, I was like ‘just keep spurring, one more jump’, so it worked out perfect.

“I’ve never been on the horse before. I’ve seen her a bunch, and I’ve always wanted to draw her, so I was pretty tickled to have her.”

Ironically, it was also Muncy’s first trip to the Stampede.

The timed events at Ponoka really speeded up.

Oregon’s Sean Mulligan made two outstanding steer wrestling runs, to post a combined total of 9.2 seconds and is in front of the pack, while Jake Hannum, who won Innisfail two weeks ago, laid down the gauntlet in tie-down roping, with runs of 8.2 and seven seconds flat, to lead on two with 15.2 seconds.

It was an impressive day of team roping as well, with current world champions Trevor Brazile and Patrick Smith of Texas clocking in at 11 seconds flat on their two smooth runs.

The only leader to hang on to her position was Idaho’s Susan Smith in barrel racing with a time of 17.11 seconds. Best of the day was Lisa Lockhart of South Dakota at 17.55 for fifth spot overall. The top twelve in all the main events return for Sunday’s finals, in the hopes of making the top four for the $10,000 Showdown.

Innisfail’s Cole Jamieson leads novice bareback with 66 points.

In the opening night of the World Professional Chuckwagon Association competition, Luke Tournier grabbed the overall lead with a time of one minute 13.39 seconds.

Mark Sutherland is second at 1:13.83 with Grant Profit at 1:14.29 and Rick Fraser at 1:14.53. Rae Croteau Jr,. holds down fifth place at 1:14.56.

The rodeo runs today through Saturday at 1:00pm, followed by the chuckwagon races at 6:30 pm.

Dianne Finstad is a regular contributor to the Red Deer Advocate and is the agriculture/rodeo director for Newcap Radio/CKGY/CIZZ FM in Red Deer