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Rodeos and Animal Competitions (5)

  • Bronco Busters
    Bronco Busters
    1946 10 min
    A short, classic documentary that takes us to Calgary's famous stampede of the 1940’s. In the rolling foothills of Alberta, the colts and horses run free with wild grace and speed, until it’s round-up time. Some are destined for the Calgary Stampede, the most exciting time for cowboys and ranchers who compete in the dusty ring to win at roping, bronco-busting, bulldogging a steer, and chuck-wagon racing, risking life and limb.
  • Chuckwagon
    Chuckwagon
    Robert Barclay 1964 9 min
    This short documentary offers a ringside view of the chuckwagon race, star attraction of the world-famous Calgary Stampede. Once ponderous Percheron and Clydesdale draught thundered around the course. Now they are racers, and it takes a firm hand to guide such horsepower.
  • Don't Knock the Ox
    Don't Knock the Ox
    Tony Ianzelo 1970 13 min
    The International Ox Pull, highlight of the Bridgewater, Nova Scotia, annual fair, is a holdover from the pioneer past when oxen cleared the land and tilled the soil. These beasts of burden have lost none of their pulling power, as demonstrated when they drag tons of weight loaded on sleds (the winner pulls up to 6 tons!). Competing teams come from various parts of the Maritimes and the Northeastern United States.
  • Hard Rider
    Hard Rider
    Josef Reeve 1972 57 min
    This documentary follows the rodeo circuit as experienced by Canadian world-champion cowboy Kenny McLean. The film follows him on the stampede trail from Texas to Alberta, with scenes of bronco busting, calf roping and steer wrestling. It is what he does for a living, but his real life is with his wife and infant son on his ranch in British Columbia.
  • Stampede
    Stampede
    Claude Fournier 1963 27 min
    This short documentary offers a look at Stampede Week in Calgary and the show’s main performers – the cowboys and their horses. After the herds come thundering in, the focus shifts to one cowboy in particular, and we follow him as he travels from rodeo to rodeo, always reaching for the grand prize on the back of a bucking bronco.