The hunt for Mantracker
Legendary Canadian tracker a big hit at Sydney Horse Expo
It looked like a tough assignment.
Hunt down the legendary Mantracker and shoot him before he left town. A daunting task, indeed, but I was game.
So, armed with camera, notepad and reading-glasses, I strolled out onto George Street, where what I thought was a tumbleweed turned out to be a plastic bag blowing across the road.
I heard voices and looked around. No sign of a silhouetted figure on a tall horse. But there was a group of tourists from the cruise ship berthed on the nearby Sydney waterfront. Not a cowboy among them. These folks were innocent.
Needing somewhere to start, I knew I had to think like Mantracker if I was to find the man whose real name is Terry Grant and who had come into the Canadian consciousness back in 2006 as the original title character in the reality television show “Mantracker.”
OK, I thought, what do I know about this dude?
He owns a ranch in the Alberta foothills, he’s a 25-year search-and-rescue veteran, he looks like he has ice in his veins, and he spent six seasons tracking down two-person teams of human prey before leaving the popular TV show in 2011. The program has been shot on locations across North America, including one episode filmed in Cape Breton’s Margaree Valley.
Then it hit me — horses. Mantracker loves horses. And, he was always on one when tracking his prey. Being a Saturday I reckoned he might be at the Northside Downs harness racing track. But then again, Mantracker was probably more of a roaming the range kind of guy.
So I headed down to Centre 200 where there were plenty of horses and horse people. The entertainment facility is the location of the three-day Sydney Horse Expo that kicked off on Friday. Where else could Mantracker possibly be?
Word around the outside corral was that celebrity bounty hunter might be found in the main concourse when the sundial hit 6 p.m. But that was no good as I might not even be able to get close to the cool, tall-in-the-saddle cowboy. No doubt, he would be protected and surrounded by a horde of adoring fans. And, I would also have to keep an extra eye out for Mantracker’s “sidekick,” usually a local guide that assists the relentless pursuer on his adventures.
Pulling the brim of my hat down low, I entered the arena and began my quest. I was after Mantracker. The hunter had become the hunted!
Mantracker wasn’t in the concourse, but it wasn’t long before I spotted a man wearing a cowboy hat in the top row of seats. I stealthily snuck up on him, but when I was just a few feet away he turned and I found myself looking in the icy, blue eyes of a cowboy, but it wasn’t Mantracker.
Having lost the trail, I took to asking the locals if they had seen the silent, but effective tracker anywhere in their travels. A few helpful tips later and I was heading back to the concourse.
And there he was, larger than life, leaning against a promotional pickup truck in a stance only a cowboy could assume. Once again I went into stealth mode, sidled up toward him and tapped him on the shoulder.
“Had enough yet?” I asked, mimicking the words Mantracker himself often used after tracking down his prey.
Maybe it was the lighting or maybe I was just a tad uneasy at the way he held me in his gaze, but I am fairly certain that Mantracker squinted at me in a Clint Eastwood kind of way as if he was wondering just what to do with me.
“Howdy, nice to meet you, sir,” he finally said, greeting me with a firm handshake.
And, then they were there — Mantracker fans of all ages, including 11-year-old Monica Buffett and her six-monthold sister Isabelle from Scotch Lake.
“We even got her little cowboy boots,” said Monica, who jumped at the opportunity to have a picture taken with the original Mantracker.
One person who journeyed to Sydney just to see Mantracker was 23-year-old Dalhousie University graduate Arisha G., a biology student who is also a digital artist and photographer with a passion for horses.
“I first contacted him seven years ago, sent him some of my artwork and he eventually bought one of my pieces — we’ve kept in touch ever since,” she said.
And, with that, she turned on her smartphone and displayed a digital image of her riding in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains with a nice guy she knows by the name of Terry Grant, Mantracker to the rest of us.