NORTH BATTLEFORD – The 50th edition of the North Battleford Kinsmen Indoor Rodeo is officially in the books.
The event took place April 29, 30 and May 1 at Access Communications Centre. It marked the return of the event for the first time since 2019.
There was overwhelming support for the rodeo this year, with capacity crowds on the weekend including Kids' Day on Saturday. Attendance was so large that organizers could not honour all of the Kids' Day tickets; those who weren’t able to get in saw their tickets honoured on Championship Sunday instead.
"Our attendance was really good," said organizer Heath Gabruch. "Saturday night was a sellout crowd - we actually had to turn people away at the door. We were at capacity in the arena. We were really happy with the way everything went, the performances themselves, just the support from the community, obviously people coming all three days to the event. It just made it a huge success."
There has been uncertainty about what the response would be coming out of COVID-19. In the end, people were enthusiastic about the return of the first major arena event to the Battlefords post-COVID-19.
"People were looking forward for something to go to in the community and ours was the one that they chose and the attendance were fantastic over the weekend," said Gabruch.
Championship Sunday saw the 2022 North Battleford Kinsmen Indoor Rodeo Queen first prize going to Zadee Chapman, who was also named Miss Horsemanship.
The event also marked the first year for the bull fighting category. It was reported Connor Larrivee took the $2,000 prize and emerged from the weekend in first place with 220 points in the bull fighting standings.
"Our freestyle bull fighting show at the end of the performance on Friday and Saturday was a big hit. We had lots of good feedback on that," said Gabruch. "We crowned the Queen on Sunday afternoon. Everything went really well. We were really happy with how the 50th Anniversary turned out."
Here are unofficial results for the North Battleford Kinsmen Indoor Rodeo as posted at the Canadian Cowboys website.
First are the results for the Friday and Saturday sessions:
In saddle bronc, Tyler Winters and Chase Bourque tied for first with a mark/time of 76. In bull riding, Reed Duncan finished first at 77 followed by Sean Clark at 76.5.
In tie down roping, Kobe Kmita was first at 10.3 followed by Tyce McLeod at 14.3.
In steer wrestling, Kal Klovansky was first at 5.4.
In ladies' barrel racing Karli Cowie was first at 12.74,
In team roping Brady Chappel and Kody Potts finished on top at 5.2.
In junior girls' barrel racing, Ashley Weber finished first at 12.78.
In novice bareback, Chase McNulty was first at 63.
In novice saddle bronc Lonnie Duncan finished first with 58. In ladies' breakaway roping, Kaybree Zunti was first at 3.2.
Here are results for the bonus round on Championship Sunday:
In saddle bronc, Cameron Lang finished first with a mark/time of 68.
In bull riding, Trinity Bear was first with 83.
In tie down roping, Scott Sigfusson finished at 11.2.
In steer wrestling, Dallyn Panchuck was first at 6.7.
In ladies' barrel racing, Shayna McCannell was first at 12.57.
In team roping, Scott McLeod and Chad Feil finished on top with 5.9.
In ladies' breakaway roping, Kaybree Zunti was first at 2.8.
