Ryan Graham, Observer Reporter
The Quesnel Rodeo Club will be holding a roughstock clinic April 7 – 9 at Alex Fraser Park. The school will feature bull and steer riding, bareback and saddle bronc. President of the QRC Ray Jasper said they decided to hold the school because they thought it would be a great benefit to the sport.
“This year we wanted to do something that could help the sport of rodeo grow and we thought that a roughstock school was something that needed to happen,” Jasper said.
He adds Matt O’Flynn, one of the instructors at the school has been putting on this type of school for the past few years, but it was strictly a bull riding school and this year they decided to combine it into one. He says the goal of the school will be for the students to learn the fundamentals.
“We are hoping it will be a grassroots and fundamental school for the students so they can get a basic understanding of the events and with that can work on their skills coming into the year,” Jasper said.
He adds although they are holding four events at the school, students will choose their events.
“The students will register for their specific events so that’s the beauty of it because no matter what your preference is we will hopefully offer something for everyone,” Jasper said.
Instructors at the school will be O’Flynn, Steve Hohmann, Cash Kerner and Jared Marshall, who are all former champions at the British Columbia Rodeo Association level. Jasper says this is not the first time they have tried to get a school like this going.
“We tried to do a saddle bronc and bareback school at our summer rodeo but the weather took that away from us,” Jasper said. He adds they wanted to focus on saddle bronc and bareback to draw some interest in those events.
“We know that bareback and saddle bronc need more people so we took it upon ourselves to offer it,” Jasper said.
“Those kinds of events were born out of ranching and there are not many kids out their in that genre. I think there are kids out there that will try it but I don’t think there has been an opportunity, unless you lived in an area that had something like that going on.”
The cost of the school is $350 for all three days. If you would like to register for the school or receive more information you can contact Lori Joaquin at lori.joaquin@ bcgeu.ca.
