IT’S OFF TO THE RODEO
Fasten your seatbelts for Day 1
The good thing about coming to the Calgary Stampede is that participants of the rodeo can hitch up their trailer, stay directly on the grounds and walk a short 10-minute trek to the infield.
Richie Champion took full advantage of that Friday.
His fiancee, Paige, was able to fly in a day early and set up the couple’s camper, get groceries and make it feel like home so that when the 25-year-old arrived in the wee hours of the morning, he’d be able to get some rest.
“I’m pretty spoiled,” Champion said. “My head hit the pillow at 3:30 or 4 a.m. I didn’t know where I was when I woke up this morning, what day it was. All I knew was I had to get up.”
The bareback rider rolled out of bed, and, in the very first performance of Pool A competition, he managed to produce a spectacular 86.5-point ride aboard Garden Party, a Kesler bucking horse he had always wanted to get on.
And, boom, he was $5,500 richer after finishing first.
Truth be told, it’s been a successful run for Champion since he was, well, a champion at the Ponoka Stampede and claimed $12,948 for his work. In fact, during a stretch of three rodeos — Ponoka, Airdrie and Williams Lake, B.C. — he won around $18,000.
But wanting to capitalize on rodeo’s busiest season (the Fourth of July), he travelled from Ponoka all the way to Red Lodge, Mont., to hit another rodeo. Then Champion made stops in Cody, Wyo., Belle Fourche, S.D., Oakley City, Utah, to West Jordan, Utah, (driving “120-miles an hour,” he said), and finally flew to St. Paul, Ore., before flying to Calgary.
“The way it’s been over the Fourth of July, if you can remember to eat, you’re doing good,” Champion said with a chuckle. “But now, we’re kind of settling in here. I’ll get up and have some light (workout) movement in the morning before I come (to the infield). I’ll get breakfast and have some food at the hospitality tent and get back to the office.”
And there’s no way Champion can call in sick at this office.
“Today was one of those ‘psych yourself up because you need to’ days,” he said about Friday. “When you get on every day, it’s pretty easy for it to get monotonous and go through the motions here. If you want to keep winning, you can’t do that. A little closer to perf time, I just wanted to keep riding high.”
But immediately following his winning ride?
“It’s nap time,” Champion said with a grin. “Or beer time. I haven’t decided.”