By Tyler Marr

Beginner riders saddle up at Bronc Riding School

Mar 24, 2018 | 6:00 PM

Steam rolled off the breath of Noah Suchorab as he grabbed his KCRA embroidered letter jacket, straightened his cowboy hat and climbed over the rails into the rodeo arena at Red River Riding and Roping.

He and a number of long-time professional bareback riders, saddle bronc riders and pick up men watch as three horses trot into the ringside stands. 

“Who’s up,” he calls out to a handful of young men furbished in blue jeans and plaid, meticulously taping their arms and cloaking themselves in protective gear as they prepare to get on the back of a bucking bronc — some for the first time in their life.

“It takes a special kind of kid to want to get on the back of a 1,500-pound horse that is trying to buck you off,” he said of the fourteen youth from across Western Canada who descended on the grounds north of Prince Albert for the second Bronc Riding School hosted by Suchorab this weekend.

“This school is all about creating new cowboys in a sport that is somewhat of a dying bread,” he added. “These rough stock cowboys who want to ride these bucking animals are few and far between. It is harder and harder to find kids nowadays that have the drive to want to do something like this.”

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After a successful first run in 2017, Suchorab, a bareback rider who broke his wrist last year, opted to steer clear of sitting around doing nothing and instead give back to the community and introduce some new up-and-comers to the sport. With some big names from the rodeo world acting as instructors, the school is designed to introduce kids to bronc riding, some of whom may have never even been on a riding horse before.

“We start them right from the very beginning,” Suchorab said.

The weekend begins with morning sessions where doctors and social workers are brought in to speak to the youth about head injuries and concussions. Suchorab said educating the kids on the severity of head injuries and to treat them on par with broken bones is fundamental.

“[The sport] used to have the mentality that you take an Advil and you go on to the next one. We have learned that is dangerous and life-threatening,” he said, highlighting the recent death of bull rider Ty Pozzobon.

The school additionally teaches equipment setup and works with the youth to ensure each item is specialized to each individual, always keeping safety top of mind. The students then gradually make their way up from a spur board to a pull along bucking dummy to prepare them for their eight-second bout in the arena. Specialized horses that are a bit older and don’t buck as hard are brought in for the prospective riders.

“It is an adrenaline rush like no other and it is a sport just like anything else,” Suchorab said. “We don’t have guaranteed contracts. If we don’t ride for eight seconds, we don’t get paid. That is where the toughness of being a cowboy comes in. Getting hurt and banged up is part of the game.”

Each ride is then recorded in slow motion, critiqued and the students are provided feedback before their next ride. At the end of it all, Suchorab gives out an award to the most deserving kid in both bareback and bronc riding, who also receive memberships in the provinces’ amateur rodeo association, the Kakeyow Cowboys Rodeo Association (KCRA).

For Suchorab, what is most special about the weekend is the sole fact he is carrying on a tradition, attracting youth to the sport and “creating new cowboys.”

“That means just as much if not more to me than winning the rodeo, is when I see these kids who start here, at this school, out there rodeoing and being successful.”

tyler.marr@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @JournoMarr