SUNDRE – A local cowboy who early on in life fell in love with rodeo competed for his first time this past week in the bull riding event at the Calgary Stampede.
However, Wyatt Gleeson is no stranger to performing either at the Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth or the hometown equivalent, the Sundre Pro Rodeo.
“This is the third event I’ve rode at the Calgary Stampede,” he said, adding he had previously competed in steer riding earlier in his rodeo career prior to eventually also trying his fortune in novice bareback riding for a few years.
But this was the first time he competed in the bull riding event with a shot for a huge cash prize and big ol’ bronze buckle.
Despite having once competed in other events, Gleeson said he has since decided to fully commit exclusively to bull riding.
“I’ve rode bareback horses in the past, but it just wasn’t something that I really full-heartedly loved to do,” he said. “I liked it, but not as much as bull riding.”
Recalling his rides at the Calgary Stampede, he said his first round went well enough but that the bull he rode wasn’t thrashing quite hard enough for the judges to justify a higher score.
“I just had a nice bull; he turned back into my hand and he was just a good little spinner,” said Gleeson, adding the ride “just wasn’t quite enough to place higher in the round so I ended up with 76.5.”
That put him in fifth place for a $2,000 prize for that round.
Mounting up again during the next round, Gleeson found himself with a bull that “was kind of giving me a little bit of difficulty in the chute,” he said.
“Then he slipped out in the arena, so I got a re-ride. And then I got on another bull right after,” he said, adding that ride initially got off to a good start.
“He was pretty good and I had a pretty good seat,” he said. “He just kind of gave me a bad, dirty roll and then ended up bucking me off. He was just a little bit better than me that day.”
Gleeson said on Wednesday, July 12 that he had one more round that evening before moving onto Sunday’s showdown round.
“Unfortunately I did buck off, kind of due to a hand injury that I have been dealing with to where I will just lose my grip completely,” he said during a follow-up.
“That’s just the way it goes sometimes,” he said, adding that meant he wouldn't be moving onto the showdown.
“But I will dang sure try to get back there next year.”
While certainly a career highlight, performing at the Calgary Stampede was but one stop along a heavily loaded rodeo schedule that sometimes seems to barely leave time to sleep.
Although Gleeson said he couldn’t count every rodeo he’s competed at so far this season since starting in Red Deer back in January, he estimated the number to be about 40.
“I’ve been flying all over and driving all over; lots of midnight drives and driving through the night,” he said. “In the winter and then coming into the spring right up until late April, then it’s just kind of one a weekend.”
But following April, the rodeo circuit really ramps up and Gleeson said he’ll make it out to three – sometimes even four – rodeos in a single weekend; a pace he’ll keep up until October.
“I have a pretty good run coming up,” he said.
Almost immediately after the Calgary Stampede, he was scheduled to be in Kelowna to compete tomorrow (Wednesday) in a Professional Bull Riders (PBR) event, with several other stops along the way out east to Manitoba.
“I’ll be in B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan (and) Manitoba all in four days,” he said.
Finals remain a few months away, but his season to date in the PBR circuit has been pretty decent with some good rides, he said.
“But pro rodeo, it’s been a little bit rough on me,” he candidly confessed. “I’ve been kind of banged up and bit beat up a little bit, but starting to feel just about 100 per cent healthy now. So, I’ve taken a few bulls right to seven seconds and starting to feel really good now.”
Gleeson competes in both the PBR as well as the Canadian Professional Rodeo Association (CPR), with his focus set primarily on the latter. But he also wants to make the PBR finals.
“They have a really good finals up in Edmonton at Rogers Place; it’s a pretty unreal venue too,” he said.
Originally born in Sparwood, B.C., the 28-year-old said he was raised partly in Cranbrook and Sundre, where he started his career in high school rodeo as a Grade 9 student at Sundre High School.
His earliest memories of rodeo date back to when he was still a toddler who fearlessly agreed to go mutton busting during his first rodeo in Eureka, Mont. just south of the border with B.C.
“I just remember getting on a sheep and it running out there and then rolling over on me,” he said. “I thought that was the coolest thing in the world, so I was hooked from Day 1.”
Additionally, rodeo just runs in the family. His stepfather Darcy Hunt had become a steer rider at age 13 and in 1979 was invited to be a Calgary Stampede parade marshal. Before that, his grandfather Bob Cook rode bulls at the Stampede back in 1971.
“I kind of have a little bit of a rich history at the Stampede with the family,” he said.
When asked what motivates him to remain committed, he said, “It’s kind of a lifestyle that is like none other; I mean, I’m 28 and I’ve been more places and met more people than people twice my age.”
Having travelled coast to coast in both Canada as well as the U.S., Gleeson has also been to Brazil and hopes to compete in Australia either this winter or the next, he said, adding that experience would never have been possible without rodeo.
“That’s all due to rodeo and bull riding; I’ve seen some pretty unique things, done some unique things,” he said. “It’s a lifestyle that I can’t really describe, but once it’s in your blood, it’s pretty hard to get out of.”
Although Gleeson has over the years moved away from Sundre once or twice, he’s always returned to hang up his hat.
“I definitely call it my hometown; there’s no one more proud to be from Sundre than I am,” he said. “It’s a pretty great beautiful town I believe and the rodeo is just phenomenal.”
Having last month competed among some top, international talent riding bulls at the Sundre Pro Rodeo, Gleeson said the bovine he got was a tough animal.
“He just kind of handed it to me there. There’s no pressure in the world like riding at your hometown rodeo. Sundre’s a town full of real rodeo fans and they know everything about rodeo. So when you go there, you definitely want to do good,” he said.
“The pro rodeo has kind of given me a little bit of trouble lately, but we’ll get one rode here next year and change that luck a little bit,” he said.
“Sundre rodeo is the greatest rodeo in the world, in my opinion. It’s pretty unreal; it’s kind of like a miniature Calgary Stampede. The committee in Sundre is like none other; they work their tails off.”
Other area Calgary Stampede competitors
While Riley Warren of Sundre took home some winnings in tie down roping, it would be Carstairs-area's Kyle Lucas, to make it to Stampede finals in the same event.
Nancy Leischner of the Olds area pocketed thousands of dollars for her efforts in ladies barrel racing and Carstairs-area residents Sloan Walker and Havana Aarsby competed in boys and girls steer riding.
