Calgary Stampede is here! Calgary Stampede is here!

The Calgary Stampede has arrived. It is by far the biggest 10 days in Canada, well at least as far as rodeo enthusiasts and the city of Calgary are concerned. The annual Calgary Stampede turns downtown Calgary into one big salute to the cowboy. You will find everything that you are looking for from the rodeo itself to a midway and from chuckwagon races to free pancake breakfasts.

Calgary Stampede Rodeo

The rodeo part of the Calgary Stampede involves some of the finest cowboys in the world. They will be competing for glory and fame in such events as Bullriding, Barrel Racing, Bareback, Saddle Bronc, Steer Wrestling, and Tie-down Roping. You can even watch the little cowboys and cowgirls compete in wild pony racing.

Calgary Stampede is more than a Rodeo

There are so many other activities at the Calgary Stampede to enjoy besides the rodeo. If you are looking to catch a good show full of music and wonderment, then you are going to want to catch the Grandstand Show. The Grandstand show this year is based around a Dream Catcher theme to honor and recognize all the people that came to Canada full of hopes and dreams. The Grandstand Show is described as Broadway … Western Style.

Calgary Stampede Brings Big Music

If Broadway shows aren’t really your style, then you can always catch a great musical act at the Pengrowth Saddledome or the Coca-Cola Stage. This year brings many popular acts to downtown Calgary. So grab your cowboy hat and your dancing boots and come and catch the sounds of Sugarland, The Judds, Kid Rock, Natasha Bedingfield, Dierks Bentley, Finger Eleven, or the Plain White T’s.

Calgary Stampede Brings Big Screams

Finally, if you want to try your luck at the Calgary Stampede midway; there are plenty of games for you. You can do everything from target practice games to the ring toss to Whack-a-Mole. Now, if you are more of a daring cowboy, you can climb on into a seat on one of the many rides. The midway brings many adrenaline-pumping, heart-racing rides this year.

Forget all of this talking about the Calgary Stampede, we are grabbing our best pair of jeans and our boots and heading north. See ya there, eh?

*Photo by Calgary Stampede

Summer Camp for Summer Break

Summer Camp is the perfect way for you little cowboys and cowgirls to spend all that free time during their favorite break … summer break. There are several cowboy and cowgirl summer camps throughout the country. One of the cowboy summer camps that we know about isn’t too far down the road in Humble, Texas.

Cowboy City Texas, founded by Mike and Mary Wall, is home to six cowboy and cowgirl summer camps a year. The summer camps are offered to boys and girls ages seven to fourteen and are chocked full of cowboy boot wearing activities.

Summer Camp Teaches Horsemanship

Summer camp at Cowboy City Texas is all about fun for the beginner and immediate horse riders. But don’t you worry; Cowboy City Texas provides the horses for all summer camp participants.

Cowboy and cowgirl summer camp is centered on horsemanship. Summer campers will learn and work on horse grooming, riding, barreling, cutting, roping and many other rodeo type activities. In fact, there is a summer camp rodeo at then of the summer.

Summer Camp Chocked Full of Western Fun

Other activities summer campers will enjoy while at summer camp are western theater, nature awareness trails, mud fights (be prepared to wash camper’s jeans every night), archery and more.

Attendees of cowboy and cowgirl summer camp also have the opportunity to learn western arts and crafts, play sports with other cowboys and cowgirls, go swimming (make sure you take off your cowboy boots and cowboy hats first), and even go shovel surfing. Now, we aren’t quite sure what shovel surfing is, but it sounds pretty fun.

Western Gear for Summer Camp

Before you take your little cowboy or cowgirl off to summer camp, whether at Cowboy City Texas or another western summer camp, swing by Allens Boots and we will make sure your summer campers have all the western gear they need.

*Photo by Cowboy City Texas

Cutting Horse Adds Spice to CEO Life

There was an article in Fortune Small Business Magazine today about a woman who is CEO by day and a Rodeo Queen by night. Yes, you are reading this correctly.

According to the article, Anita Lind Janssen spends her days as CEO of a company that handles asset management for large firms in the middle of transition. This is a job that requires conservative decisions and very little risk. Wanting to add a little spice to her life, Anita put on a hat, polished up her boots, and became a cowgirl.

It also appears that cutting runs in the Lind Janssen family. Ryan Lind, Anita’s son, placed in the top ten of the youth division at the National Cutting Horse Western National Finals this past weekend. I am sure that his mother couldn’t be more proud of her cowboy son.

Cutting Horse: What is it?

Cutting is a western riding style event where a horse and rider are judged strictly on their ability to separate a calf away from a herd of cattle for a certain period of time.

Cutting, which is becoming quite a popular equine sport these days, is special in that once the calf is separated from the herd, the cowboy or cowgirl loosens up on the reigns and the horse then takes over in keeping the calf separated. These horses are known as a cutting horse.

Cutting Horse Queen is One of Many

After reading about Anita, we did some poking around into the careers of the members of the Women’s Professional Rodeo Association. We found out that Anita isn’t the only corporate big wig that likes to compete with their horses for stress relief. We found an owner of a women’s western store, a President/owner of a drilling company, a ranch owner, a Chief of Staff of a state assembly, and a CEO of a golf construction company.

Who would have ever thought that participating in adrenaline pumping rodeo events could be so relaxing?

*Photo by Mike Murrow

Rodeo Austin Joins Forces with Caritas of Austin

Rodeo Austin will host its first Caritas Theme Day tomorrow, Tuesday, March 4th. Primary day is stiff competition, but who can refuse $1 off Rodeo Austin admission? That’s right, if you bring three canned or non-perishable food items to the fairgrounds tomorrow, you get $1 off the price of your Rodeo Austin ticket. The canned goods will go towards Caritas’ lifesaving store of supplies that help them carry out their mission of fighting poverty and homelessness. If Rodeo Austin is anything, it’s the rodeo with a heart. It’s a great cause, so get out your cowboy boots to support your community.

Rodeo Austin and the Houston Livestock Show

Rodeo Austin is the counterpart to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo; the two events cover the spectrum of truly Texas rodeos. Whereas the Houston Rodeo covers everything that can possibly be done or seen at a rodeo show, Rodeo Austin is often considered the softer side. Rodeo Austin is going on now through March 15th at the Walter E. Long Municipal Park.

What to See at Rodeo Austin

The attractions are what make Rodeo Austin unique, like Whiplash the Cowboy Monkey or the Western Shootout Comedy Show and Cowboy Music Review. There’s also a livestock barn, an exotic petting zoo, a lineup of bands performing throughout the day on the outdoor stage, and a famous carnival.

It’s a great event for the whole family, and a great place to show the kids the prime environment for western wear. Look no further for the cutest children’s boots than Allens, located just across town from the Austin Rodeo.

Of course, like all Texas rodeos, you’ll see a fair representation of the best cowboy boots in the world. Don’t forget to bring yours!

Houston, the Rodeo Show is coming!

The Houston Rodeo Show will be here before you know it, and tickets are selling at a frantic pace. By all indications this will be one of the most crowded rodeos in Houston Rodeo history, so polish up your cowboy boots show up early if you want to avoid the crowds.

Speaking of Houston Rodeo tickets selling out, Hanna Montana’s concert, set for Sunday, Mar. 9th of the Houston Rodeo Show, has completely sold out. That’s no surprise, considering the ticket scandals that have made news throughout her “Best of Both Worlds” shows. One Ticketmaster official compared the intensity of show demand to that of the Beatles or Elvis. Let’s hope that’s a bit of a stretch, but some of the shows on the tour sold out in less than five minutes, and then showed up on StubHub or eBay at prices as much as 10 times the face value. But even if promoters didn’t see all of the money from Hannah Montana madness, the tour was still the 15th highest grossing in 2007, with a total show revenue of $36 million.

Hanna Makes It Hard to Get Houston Rodeo Show Tickets

Performing as Hanna Montana, Miley Cyrus set the Houston Rodeo Show’s paid audience record with 73,291 fans. She also played the Houston Rodeo show last year, as did her cowboy dad, Billy Ray, in 1993 through ‘95, when Miley still went by Smiley. (Her real name is Destiny Hope Cyrus, but her dad called her Smiley because she smiled so much, which later morphed into the nickname Miley.)

Other entertainers on the Houston Rodeo Show bill include country music staples Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Martina McBride, Big & Rich, Brooks and Dunn, and Pat Green, to name a few. So line up your Montana Silversmiths Jewelry, lay out your best Western wear, and show up early for those Houston Rodeo shows, too!