In the dim light of the indoor arena of the Alex Fraser park cowgirls/boys line up to rope bales of hay.
With each toss of lasso, an older gentleman with a white cowboy hat and a mustache gives pieces of advice and encouragement.
“I appreciate all the students coming and participating in this,” Dennis Watkins, the white-hatted teacher, said.
“I’m hoping that I can better their knowledge in the sport of team roping.”
Watkins has a lot of wisdom to impart. He’s been roping competitively for most of his life, making nationals first in 1972 when he was 18, and has won nationals twice and been runner up at Worlds twice over that time. For 19 years, he worked the circuit before settling down to turn his mind to teaching, though he hasn’t set the circuit behind him, still taking part a couple times a year.
The clinic start off slow, with the learning curve picking up from there.
“We do a lot of groundwork. We rope the heading dummies on the ground,” Watkins said.
“Then we go to a mechanical steer, a Heel-O-Matic, that we pull behind a quad and rope from horses. It’s to get them familiar with how to play the game. There’s a lot of technical things we have to go through and I try to keep it simple. From there we go to live cattle and practice those same procedures. Naturally when you move to live cattle it gets a little more difficult, ‘cause cattle have kind of have a mind of their own and they don’t want to be a very good playing partner.”
Watkins speaks in a soft drawl that matches his cowboy hat and mustache. He’s as far from home as he sounds, in amongst the Canadian lilt. From Bakersfield, California, this is only the second time Watkins has been to Quesnel and the first time he’s taught his clinic here.
For three years prior, Watkins taught his clinic in Prince George, with many Quesnel ropers making their way north to take part. But this year the organizers in Prince George needed a break, Ray Jasper decided to bring the clinic to Quesnel.
Watkins has been all over the continental United States, to Hawaii and down into South America teaching ropers how to more efficiently snag cattle.
And with all that travelling he still enjoys the pine-sea of the Cariboo.
“I like coming up here to B.C., the people are wonderful. I have a great time,” he said.
