Innisfail Rodeo Results – By: Dwayne Erickson
Grated Coconut and Zippy Delivery don’t patrol rodeo arenas anymore; they’ve been retired.
But they still have a commanding influence on bucking horse riders and their pursuit of glory.
A couple of their embryo transplants were in the draw for Sunday’s closing performance of the $276,000 Daines Ranch rodeo.
And they were nothing less than special and timely.
One was a six-year-old named Special Delivery; the other a five-year-old called Timely Delivery. And, they’re full brothers.
Reigning Canadian bareback riding champion Dusty LaValley rode Special Delivery and the judges liked it so much they tagged the action with an event-winning 88 points.
“He was just a perfect horse,” LaValley said. “He wasn’t treacherous and he actually felt like Grated Coconut when I had him here three years ago. He really bucked, I knew he was going to test me, but he also gave me a chance to win first.
“I’d seen him go at some other rodeos already this year and he just looked frickin’ phenomenal. It felt like a good ride.
‘‘Being on the back of a horse, we can’t tell how it looks sometimes but, even if I didn’t get a big score, I was still going to be really happy with the way it felt.”
Was it fun?
“It was, but I knew if I was going to make even a little mistake, I was going to be frickin’ in the dirt.”
He picked up $5,476 after what had been a cool spring and now is among the top three in the Canadian standings and within the top 20 in the world at $16,600.
“I got Jake Vold and Kevin Langevin travelling with me and I’m starting to get a little older and wanting to slow down, but those two guys want to go to everything.
“We’re entering all kinds of rodeos right now and they’re talking me into it.”
Vold tied for second here with an 86 that paid almost $4,000 and Langevin tied for sixth, picking up $1,025.
Meanwhile, Canadian all-around champion Kyle Thomson won the Innisfail saddle bronc riding with an 87-point score on Calgary’s 2009 Canadian champion horse Lynx Mountain.
He edged out the world’s No. 2 ranked twister, Iowa’s Wade Sundell, who moment earlier posted a spectacular 86.5 score on Timely Delivery.
“It was,” he said, “the strongest bucking horse I’d been on all year.”
And he was still feeling the effects of what seemed like a war, limping significantly back to the cover of the chutes.
“This was the biggest cheque I’ve ever won at this rodeo,” said Thomson of his $5,792 payday. And maybe any Canadian rodeo.
“I won Ponoka in 2004, but this is a bronc rider’s rodeo. It’s been going for years and Duane and Jack Daines do a good job putting it on and Wrangler sponsors it. Everyone enters it and they bring in the best bucking horses, so this is the one you’re pretty proud of winning.
“I’ve had a tough spring and got into a bad habit of not lifting on my rein. Hopefully, this is the start of better things.”
There were lead changes in almost all events.
Louisiana’s Shane Hanchey, second here last year, won the calf roping with a swift 7.1-second run that returned $6,952.
Texan Matt Reeves topped the steer wrestling with a 5.0-second time to collect $8,278.
And another Texan, Carlee Pierce, who set a record for the fastest run at the world championships in Las Vegas last December, beat out 162 females in the barrel racing for a whopping $10,481.
Garrett Green, a sophomore from Meeting Creek, saw his 87.5 score stand up to win the bull riding.
