Cochrane cowboy Steven Turner came home to a warm welcome from local rodeo fans.
The reception he got from his bovine foe wasn’t nearly as comforting.
Riding at the Cochrane Classic bull riding show, Turner was thrown off the back of Get Over It in the long go at Cochrane Lions Rodeo Grounds on July 26.
Turner got up and walked out of the ring knowing he was still in the hunt for a spot at the Canadian Finals Rodeo (CFR) in November.
The 32-year-old Cochrane rodeo cowboy is having a productive season of bull riding and steer wrestling on the Canadian Pro Rodeo Association (CPRA) circuit in 2014, ahead of where he was a season ago when he failed to qualify for the CFR for the first time in 10 years.
“It’s been OK. I haven’t been going as hard as usual. Just kind of going on the weekends, picking and choosing a little more instead of going really hard,” he said at the Cochrane Classic following his abrupt ride. “It’s been helping me stay healthy. I’m not quite as sore as I usually get.”
That soreness has led to acute medical intervention over the last two seasons.
“That hip surgery I got last year might have helped too,” he relayed. “They went and scoped it and had to reattach some ligaments. Both (hips) are done.”
His selective approach to events in the first half of the season has helped.
“Kind of more drive, I think,” he offered of his consistent finishes in the first half of the CPRA season. “I just really want it. If you’re not going so hard, you’re more hungry when you get there.”
But he can’t be choosy any more. With the dawg days of summer here, he has to put his foot on the gas to get to Edmonton in November.
“I wish I was a little higher in the standings. I’m right on the edge, so I have to keep going forward,” he assessed. “I gotta give ’er now. I have a rodeo every day for the next three weeks. I think I got three days off in the next three weeks.
“Crunch time. Gotta make some money.”
Leaving his home event with empty pockets didn’t help, as he recounted his short ride on Get Over It.
“I kind of had a bad start. For some reason I didn’t get a very good go out of the chute. I was just behind from the get go. I wasn’t where I needed to be when I left there. He kind of had control there.
“I didn’t leave the chute good. And it all went bad from there.
“Winning would have been real nice,” Turner surmised. “But, oh, well.”
Fellow Cochranite Beau Brooks fared no better in Cochrane, taking a frightening fall off the front off X-Factor, a rank bucker ridden only once this year. Brooks walked away from the wreck.
As of July 26, Turner was 17th in CPRA bull riding standings with $9,251.93 in earnings, just $400 behind DeWinton’s Brock Radford, who holds down the 15th and final CFR qualifying spot.
Brooks is 14th in CPRA standings with $11,402.54.
Denton Edge has traded his spurs for schedules.
The former professional bull rider, who rode his last bull in 2013, is helping organize and execute rodeos for the Canadian Pro Rodeo Association (CPRA) as director of bull riding. The Cochranite was chute boss at the July 26 Cochrane Classic bull riding show.
After 15 years of riding bulls in the pro ranks, the 32-year-old father of three finds himself riding herd on the mayhem that is life behind the chutes at CPRA events.
Edge doesn’t just have to ride bulls any more. He has to wrangle cowboys, stock handlers and livestock.
But he’s up for it. Anyone watching the Cochrane Classic knows. The performances went off smooth as butter, delivering some of the summer’s best rides.
“I shut down the bull riding part,” the six-time Canadian Finals qualifier and two-time CPRA season points leader said before delivering the Jason Borton-produced show to a packed house at Cochrane Lions Rodeo Grounds. “I got a family and three young kids and decided I might as well shut ’er down while I’m healthy and still kicking, and start a new phase of my life.”
And he’s quick to mention the significance of the Cochrane Classic. Along with local riders Steven Turner and Beau Brooks, top riders like 2014 Calgary Stampede bull riding champ Scott Schiffner of Strathmore are regular entrants.
“It is a big deal. Jason Borton, they add $10,000 in prize money,” Edge said of the Cochrane show. “The winner of this event will probably walk home with $4,000 or there somewhere. That’s a big step to making the Canadian Finals and becoming a Canadian champion. It means a lot. This bull riding, Borton has been doing it for quite a few years now. I was here at the very first one when it was up at the hockey rink by the high school. I’ve been here every year since, other than being hurt the odd time. I’ve only missed a couple of them.”
But Edge is riding no more, his first year in 15 not competing.
“Yeah, I miss it. But I’m OK with it,” he offered. “The good, rank bulls I miss getting on. But the bulls that are slamming you in the ground hard or whatever sometimes – you know what, I look pretty good standing here and judging or whatever.“
And the shows look pretty good, too.
