It cost him $500 but an Okotoks barn hand will argue it was the best $500 he has ever lost and it has been paid back dozens of times over.
Kevin Lalonde, who works for Okotoks Rentals, has worked as a barn hand for Jim Knight at the Calgary Stampede’s Rangeland Derby for more than a decade giving up 10 days of his summer to volunteer to clean stalls, walk horses and host sponsors.
However, for Lalonde, it is certainly not work; it is a summer tradition where he gets to spend time with friends and family — those with two legs and those with four.
“The friends I have made and some of the best people I have ever met in my life,” said Lalonde of his 12 years working the Stampede with Knight. “I have met so many good people.”
Lalonde compares the chuckwagon to a family unit because everyone has their role and everyone has to do their job to ensure the work gets done.
“It is like a family, everyone pitches in because if you didn’t have that team it would be impossible,” he said. “You walk down from shed row to shed row and you can see everyone helping from the experienced barn hand to someone’s five-year-old daughter.”
The burly Okotokian knows what it takes to have a successful chuckwagon team, but it was not long ago he did not know the difference between a leader and a wheeler.
However, an inauspicious meeting changed all that.
Twelve years ago Lalonde was working for a golf and turf company when he was asked to deliver a golf cart to Jim Knight’s barn at the Calgary Stampede.
Lalonde made the delivery and ran into the veteran chuckwagon driver who immediately took a liking to the young delivery boy.
Knight invited Lalonde to stick around for the night’s races, but Lalonde was headed to B.C. for a houseboating trip — a trip for which he had already put down a $500 deposit.
Lalonde decided to stick around for the races and head out to Shuswap the next day.
That first night Lalonde was thrown into Knights’ barn crew cleaning stalls, prepping horses and having the time of his life.
He never made it to the houseboat and he lost his $500 deposit.
Instead he came to eight of the 10 nights of the Stampede to get firsthand experience on what it is like to be part of a world-class chuckwagon team.
“I was green as green could be,” admitted Lalonde. “He just told me to grab a horse, grab a rake, grab a pitch fork, grab feed, put water in the pails. I had never done anything like this before, I didn’t have any experience with horses, but I thought I may as well come back — and that is the best decision I have ever made.”
Knight is also pleased Lalonde made the decision to stick around.
The Saskatchewan driver has been at the Stampede for 34 straight years — the longest active streak after Buddy Bensmiller retired this year.
Knight said during the regular Canadian Professional Chuckwagon Association season he can manage on his own with his right-hand woman Michelle Robertson who cares for his stable of thoroughbreds.
However, the 10 days of the Rangeland Derby in Calgary is an entirely different animal and having people like Lalonde volunteer their time to come and help is essential.
Lalonde plays a critical role for Knight now as he cares for the sponsors shuffling them from the grandstand to the barns, touring them around, answering questions and so on. It is one less chore for Knight who can focus on racing.
“Kevin is smooth and he does a great job looking after the sponsors,” said Knight. “Sponsors are key to racing.”
Knight said he remains in racing because he loves the thrill of getting in the wagonbox, but he also enjoys socializing with the sponsors, friends and family who gather at the Stampede.
“The shine never wears off,” he said. “I think why we do it is we want to be part of something special.”
Lalonde is indeed part of something special.
“Racing is cool, when you win there is nothing like it,” he said. “You have a beer go over the race, how the horses ran.
Then one of Knight’s horses, Devo, sticks his head out of his stall and puts his head on Lalonde’s shoulder, he cannot help but smile.
“But when you go and see the horses after a race, that is what it is all about,” he added.
