Harvey Northcott Dies
Senior stock contractor Harvey Northcott died Sept. 15 after a battle with cancer.
The 73-year-old Caroline horseman, highly respected among those who raise bucking horses and bulls, died in a Red Deer hospital.
Northcott ran his outfit of 160 horses and 70 bulls on 1,600 acres of land four miles north of Caroline and supplied stock to about 15 rodeos a year.
During a span of 10 years in the late 1980s and early ’90s, he assembled one of the strongest pens of bucking bulls ever put together. Six of them won Canadian championships – Panda in 1985, Copenhagen Payment in 1988 and 1989, Redip in 1992, Trick or Treat in 1994 and 1995, Kodiak in 1996 and Short Fuse in 1997. Another, Convoy, won the title in 1979 and Funky Chicken captured the award in 2002.
But, the cornerstone of his bucking herd was the stallion Wyatt Earp, the Canadian and National Finals Rodeo champion in 1997 and 1998. His bloodlines are highly prominent through many of today’s bucking horse herds. The stud was the sire of the Stampede’s six-time world and Canadian champion Grated Coconut and will be inducted into Canada’s pro rodeo hall of fame next month.
The superstar of his Caroline herd is now the bay gelding Get Smart that Vold describes as “arguably one of the best horses on the planet.”
The eight-year-old son of Wyatt Earp was named the top saddle bronc at last year’s CFR and this summer’s Calgary Stampede and is in the running for bronc of the year.
Northcott, who rode bareback horses and bulls and bulldogged steers in the 1950s and ’60s, winning championships in the Foothills Cowboys’ Association, was known as a cowboy’s cowboy.
Harvey’s wife Eileen, sons Ace, Del and Ty and daughter Cindy Helmig survive him.
A social gathering will be held on Wednesday, Sept. 22, 3 p.m., at the Kurt Browning Complex in Caroline.