After a lengthy, successful career racing chuckwagons, a local veteran cowboy has decided to hang up the reins to focus on his family and new business.
“It's just time for a change,” Rae Croteau Jr., 34, who lives east of Sundre, told the Round Up last week, adding he has a young family and a new business to look after.
He recently competed at the Calgary Stampede, where he placed 11th out of 36 contestants. For the most part, everything went really well — although the consistent rain meant the races were continuously in the mud, he said.
“It just separates the men from the boys,” he said about the challenging conditions.
There are racers — as well as some horses — who get nervous and stressed out by rain and mud, which in turn leads them to make mistakes, he said.
“You got to be able to manage.”
With the exception of a couple of penalties on Friday, July 8 — the Stampede's opening day — everyone including the horses performed well. First, an outrider missed a barrel, costing two seconds, then, another outrider got a one-second penalty for falling out of pattern, he said.
“That kicked us in the pants.”
Despite the setback caused by those early penalties that had him initially ranked 28th, Croteau said they were able to work their way back up to an 11th-place finish. However, he wasn't able to recover enough to secure a spot in the Dash for the Cash.
“We battled back and tried to make it there and just came up a little bit short.”
Regardless, he was pleased with the overall result and earned about $30,000 throughout the duration of the Stampede, which was the second-last competition of his career. His last chuckwagon races were in Bonnyville over the past weekend.
“I was born and raised there,” he said, adding the town is also where he started racing chucks. So he decided that it would be the ideal place to wrap up his career. He said he appreciates all the sponsors who have helped out over the years, as well as family and friends who stuck by his side and helped make his chuckwagon career possible.
But after racing in the Stampede for 18 years, coming to the decision to sell everything in Calgary during the big annual event and turn over a new leaf was not necessarily an easy one.
“It's bittersweet,” he said about retiring from racing chucks.
“We've had a good run.”
His Sundre-based business, Big Rack Rentals Ltd., opened in April and has experienced steady growth every month since, he said, expressing his gratitude for all the local support from residents as well as other local enterprises.
“I'm looking forward to the opportunity to do something else now and spend time with my family other than being tied to a wagon every summer.”
After so many years in the sport, Croteau had made a name for himself and some people took to social media to pay tribute.
“Sure going to miss having Rae Croteau on tour. His excellence and passion for the sport are more than words can say,” posted Shellie Scott on Twitter.
“Rae Croteau one of the best in the biz. Met you in Strathmore when I worked for the rodeo there. Great guy. Great racer. Keep well,” Tweeted Ryan Dutka.
