CALGARY — Professional outriders say changes aimed at making chuckwagon races safer will turn a sparkling event into a dull one.
“If you chip away at a diamond, and you chip away at it long enough, all you’ve got left is costume jewelry and that’s our concern,” Bing Runquist from the group Preserve the West said Thursday.
“It will spell the demise of the sport — not this year or next year —but a few years down the road. We have a sport that was born and invented in Calgary. It has a rich, unique and tried-and-true heritage.”
The new rules were announced last month largely because six horses died and a cowboy was injured at last year’s Calgary Stampede.
Two of the horses died of heart attacks, two were destroyed after suffering injuries and another broke its back from bucking too hard. Another died after experiencing health difficulties 40 minutes after a chuckwagon race.
The most contentious change involves reducing the number of outriders who accompany each chuckwagon as it thunders around a dirt track to two from four. One of the reasons given was that several riders have been seriously injured over the years.
“They did not have any documentation to support that claim and, really, if you don’t have data you’re just another person with another opinion,” said Runquist, who spoke on behalf of the outriders.
He said there are several options the outriders might pursue, but no decision has been made.
“Their options are of course to just ride . . . and go with two outriders per race. Would they boycott? I can’t speak for them, but personally I don’t think they would,” he said.
“Another option is to sit down and negotiate with the Calgary Exhibition and Stampede.” A compromise could involve reducing the number of riders from four to three.
A Stampede official said organizers won’t change their minds.
“The Calgary Stampede will not be revisiting its decision to change the number of outriders from four to two for this year’s Rangeland Derby,” said vice-president Paul Rosenburg in a letter.
“This decision was among a set of rule and format changes designed to enhance safety for both animals and humans.”
The World Professional Chuckwagon Association also backs the rule changes.