A couple that rodeos together, stays together.
Although there are no official studies on the subject, two Barrhead area couples have shown that there just may be some truth to that statement.
For two days, starting June 12, the Barrhead Rodeo Grounds played host to about 85 senior rodeo athletes from all over North America to compete in the Canadian Senior Pro Rodeo Association (CSPRA) event including Perry and Brenda Dahlseide.
Perry competes in the team roping (50 to 59 year-old category) event, as a header, with his partner, Ross Bohnet, the heeler, from Mayerthorpe. His wife Brenda acts as the CSPRA’s unofficial photographer.
In the team roping event, a steer is released from the chute and a team of two people, on their own horses attempt to rope the steer which is running loose in the rodeo arena.
The first roper, known as a header, ropes the front of the steer, usually around its horns, but sometimes as low as its neck. Once the steer is caught, the header then wraps his or her rope around the horn on his saddle and then uses his horse to turn the steer to its left. While the header is doing this, the heeler attempts to rope both of the steer’s back feet. It is a timed event and the team with the fastest time wins the event.
“I actually started rodeoing later in my life,” Perry told the Leader, shortly before the second day of competition began, adding he started on the amateur rodeo circuit in about 1997 after he moved into the area from Swan Hills.
Originally from Meadow Lake, Sask., Perry moved to Alberta in the early 1970s. It was while he was in the oil patch in Swan Hills, that he met Brenda.
“I played a lot of fastball, especially. That was my sport,” he said.
Perry played baseball to about 1992, when he decided to take a hiatus from sports until 1997, when he got started competing in team roping events.
“I have always been a horse and animal lover, so it was a really a perfect fit for me,” he said.
At the time Brenda wasn’t as sure, but she slowly started to become more interested in the sport, but it wasn’t until Perry started competing on the CSPRA circuit three years ago that she fully committed and decided to travel with him, becoming the association’s semi-official photographer.
“It’s been not only great for us, but for the other competitors,” Perry said, adding not a lot of the competitors get to see themselves in action. “But because of Brenda’s photography we get all of our action, our great achievements and even our bloopers. We get to see it all.”
However, the Dahlseide’s are quick to point out as much fun as competing and taking pictures are, it is the social aspect that they enjoy the most. Unlike other professional or amateur circuit the travel demands are not as rigorous.
“You get to stay two or three days in one spot so you get more of chance to visit and get to know one another and there are truly some outstanding people on the circuit,” Perry said.
Another thing Brenda enjoys about the more relaxed schedule is the ability to see places they have never seen before. With the exception of three northern Alberta rodeos, the majority of CSPRA is in southern Alberta and Montana.
“An area we really haven’t seen a lot of and it is really beautiful there,” she said.
Hoods
Unlike the Dahlseides, Bob and Sandy Hood have rodeo in their blood. The couple has been competing at rodeos in one circuit or another for more than 40 years.
The couple took a five-year hiatus from competing to support their daughter who started competing in high school rodeos. Their hiatus continued for another five years after she graduated, but the pull of the rodeo was too powerful.
In 1992, the couple returned to rodeos, this time with the CSPRA, with Sandy competing in barrel racing and breakaway roping while Bob competes in breakaway roping while calf roping.
“We actually met at a rodeo,” Sandy said.
Bob says it was really more of a horse show.
After courting for about two years, they got married and eventually settled on an acreage just outside of Edmonton where they raised and trained horses. About two years ago, the couple sold their acreage and moved to Busby.
As for how the pair decided to get into rodeo, Sandy said on her part it was just something she always wanted to do.
“I started barrel racing when I was 18 years old and I just kept going after that,” she said.
Over the course of the rodeo season the Hoods compete in 20 to 25 rodeos including all the CSPRA events in Montana.
“We winter in Arizona, so we just keep going south the entire season, and socializing with everyone as we go,” Bob said. “I can’t emphasize enough how wonderful the people are in an organization such as this. They are really an inspiration.”
The couple concluded the interview saying they both planned to continue to compete in the CSPRA for years to come.
“I took up breakaway roping after I was 65. I decided I needed another event so I just started doing it,” Sandy said.
And apparently it is something she has a knack for because in her first year competing in the event she finished second in the CSPRA standings.
“I’ve got friends in their 60s who think they’re old and here I am at 74 doing this, and I will keep on doing it because I just love it,” Bob said.
