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Pedersen’s Elite Western Rider Award win a victory for versatility

August 19, 2010

Calgary, AB --- Heading into the final day of competition for the 2010 Calgary Stampede’s Elite Western Rider Award, it was no secret that the hardware would go to either Brad Pedersen or Les Timmons.

And speaking of no secrets . . .

“You know, Brad worked for me for six years before he hung out his own shingle,” reveals Timmons, who now lives in Kamloops, B.C.

“So much of what I know, I learned from Les,” adds Pedersen, of Lacombe, Alta. “That’s where I did 90 per cent of my learning. You always pick up things here and there, but he taught me everything from training, to horse management, to the whole business end of things.”

The Calgary Stampede inaugurated the Elite Western Rider Award in 2009 as a means of recognizing riders nimble and versatile enough to handle the rigours of two or more of the Stampede’s three Western Performance Horse events — the Team Cattle Penning Competition, which was held this year from July 9 to 12; the Cutting Horse Competition, from July 13 to 15; and the Working Cow Horse Classic, on July 16 and 18. All riders who compete in at least two of the three disciplines are eligible, earning points toward the title with Top-10 finishes in at least two of the events.

Organizers couldn’t have been more tickled with the way the second annual riders’ rivalry played out — as two big names in Western Canada’s Western Performance Horse world battled right down to the wire for Stampede supremacy.

As it happens, Pedersen prevailed by posting a seventh-place finish aboard Hicks First Player, owned by Dr. Geoff Thomas of Red Deer, in the Open division of the Cutting Horse Competition on Thursday, July 15 — and followed it up with a fifth-overall placement on Have a Drink On Me, owned by Jim Dobler of Delburne, Alta., in the Open Hackamore division of the Working Cow Horse Classic on Sunday, July 18. Timmons finished as Open reserve champion in the cutting, but didn’t place high enough in Open Hackamore during the Working Cow Horse Classic to keep pace with Pedersen.

Pedersen and Timmons are regional heavyweights in both the cutting and cow-horse spheres as trainers and showers extraordinaire — displaying rare crossover acumen. Timmons is a four-time Calgary Stampede Cutting Horse Competition champ in the Open division, while Pedersen has won a pair of Canadian Open Snaffle Bit Futurity titles and was a runner-up in Open Bridle at the National Reined Cow Horse Association (NRCHA) world championships in Texas. And both are household names at the Canadian Supreme in Red Deer: “I won the (Open) Snaffle Bit Futurity there for six or eight years in a row, before Brad did it 10 years in a row,” notes Timmons.

Inquiring minds want to know . . . is it a significant challenge to develop the skill sets required to show horses in two distinctly different disciplines such as these, and rise to the ranks of the elite?

“Yeah, it is. I’ll put it this way — you can probably train three or four cutters in the same time frame it takes to train a cow horse,” says Timmons, the current president of the Canadian Cutting Horse Association (CCHA) who’s been showing cow horses for 35 years and cutters for 30. “With a cow horse, you have to develop the herd-work skills, the reined-work skills, and the fence-work skills. In the cutting world, obviously we’re just training them to work a cow.

“There aren’t many of us out there who have made it into the high-money earners’ category in the crossover events, from the cow horse to the cutting world.”

Offers Pedersen: “I guess you could say it is a challenge. Cow horses have to be quite a bit more versatile, but as far as going back and forth, when you do it every day, you get into a routine. One’s a cow horse, one’s a cutter, and you get out there and ride appropriately.”

In 2009, the first year of the Elite Western Rider Award’s existence, Calgary’s Ron Mathison emerged as the winner after posting Top-10 finishes in the Team Cattle Penning Competition and Working Cow Horse Classic.

Would Timmons, nicknamed Hollywood, ever try to snare the Stampede’s Elite Western Rider Award by attempting a Western Performance Horse trifecta?

“Years ago, when the Alberta Reined Cow Horse Association first started, we used to pen a lot. The cow horse people, like Roger Heintz, Morgan Lybbert, Bill Collins, and myself, we penned at all those shows,” recalls Timmons.

“But to do all three at the Stampede? Probably not. You can only spread yourself so thin.”

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