Few athletes are still at the top of their game at age 65, but Mac Blades of Nanton’s Rocking P Ranch may be the exception.
His team heads into Sunday’s Old Time Ranch Rodeo at the Bar U Ranch, south of Longview, as the defending champions. They are also fresh from having just won the Medicine Tree Ranch Rodeo July 22-23 in Nanton.
Blades gave credit to the ongoing success of his Rocking P outfit to it being a family affair.
“When we’re on a rodeo team it’s me and my son (Justin Blades), my son-in-law (Blake Schlosser) and a grandson (Stran Schlosser),” he said. “We all work together all the time so we all kind of know what each other is going to do so that really helps.”
Ranch rodeos differ from their mainstream equivalents in that all the events are geared to reflecting real-life tasks done traditionally on a working ranch.
Take for example the separating of cattle event known as sorting.
“When we are moving our cows we sort them off every so often so all the cows and calves are mated up,” Blades explained. “You also sometimes have to sort your calves according to weight and you sort your heifers from your steers. We do most our sorting out in the fields not in corrals.”
The team sorting event at the Bar U operates differently but requires the same coordinated cowboy skills.
“How this works in the arena is there are cattle at one end and they all have numbers on them,” said Mike McLean, public programs officer at the Bar U. “Before a team crosses the line the number they are looking for is called and they have to find three cattle with the same number, cut them out of the herd and then put them into a pen at the other end of the arena.”
Regardless of where the sorting is being done the ability to read the cattle’s behavior is key.
“That’s a big part of it,” Blades said. “Just watching the cattle and knowing what they are going to do by seeing their movement. One person usually sorts out whatever cattle you need and the rest have got to hold the herd. They’ve got to know how to move in and stop the ones you don’t want while letting the one you do want out. A lot of it is pressure and release on the cow.”
Some of the other entertaining contests at the Bar U’s ranch rodeo are team doctoring and wild cow milking. Doctoring is the immobilizing of a cow by roping both its head and feet. This is done out on the range to administer medicine to an ailing member of the herd. In the ring a mark is applied to the restrained animal.
Wild cow milking is another fan favourite.
“It’s kind of wild-wooly event because you have to put a loop on a range cow and hold her still long enough for a cowboy to get a good inch of milk from her in a bottle,” McLean said. “Then you have to run it back to the announcer’s stand. It’s exciting for the crowd.”
The Bar U’s event will feature 12 teams and a trick riding performance has been added to the intermission. All participants in the event get to vote for the Top Hand Award and the winner receives a silver bit. A trophy buckle goes to each member of the winning team.”
For Blades ranch rodeos are about more than prizes, they are a way to preserve and honour the traditional ranching methods he believes remain superior to technology.
“A lot of the country we deal with you can’t get around with anything but a horse,” he said of moving cattle. “You can cut out the odd cow with an ATV but you can’t really work a herd with them.”
Retiring from work done on the back of a horse is not an option at this point for the 65-year-old Blades. Neither is walking away from ranch rodeo action. The veteran rancher is having too good a time riding and competing with his family to contemplate either notion.
The Bar U Ranch Olde Time Ranch Rodeo will be Aug. 14 at 1 p.m.
