Hold on tight — it’s rodeo season in Ontario. You don’t have to travel to the Wild West for serious rodeo action: Each summer, hundreds of cowboys and cowgirls from across Canada and the northern U.S. compete for cash prizes and pride in the Dodge Rodeo Tour, which winds through central and southern Ontario from June through September.
This Canadian Cowboy Association-sanctioned tour is set up as a circuit, with 10 to 15 stops each summer. Cowboys compete for points in each round, and the top seven competitors from each event — including bull riding, saddle bronc riding and barrel racing, also called “chasing the cans” — compete in the championship, which will be held in Mississauga in September.
Rodeos have been an Ontario tradition for more than 50 years, and in the last five years, the sport’s popularity has skyrocketed — the Dodge Tour has seen a 20-percent increase in its attendance each year since 1998, and rodeo membership has more than doubled in the last decade. In truth, the region is a natural candidate for rodeo action, as the province is home to more than 315,000 horses living on more than 48,000 pastures.
And the sport’s recent surge in popularity may have something to do with its big bang for a relatively small buck. The rodeo weekends are jam-packed with activities and entertainment, including Shorty Leggs the clown. A retired cowboy who’s been with the Dodge Rodeo Tour since its inception, Shorty Leggs provides entertainment between events, from jokes to magic tricks. Visit ontariorodeo.com for all tour dates.