An Okotoks cowboy is competing at the Calgary Stampede with the big boys for the first time.
Pascal Isabelle, who is up in the bareback in Pool B July 9-12 at the Stampede, competed at the Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth when he was a novice in 2012 and not even an Okotokian.
“When I first came out there as a novice I didn’t know too much about the Calgary Stampede. — I didn’t grow up in a rodeo family,” said Isabelle, who grew up in Quebec. “When I saw how big it was, that was my goal to make it there again someday.”
Isabelle was in the slack before the big rodeo in 2012 and had a ride of 73.5, to qualify for the short round of the bareback. He got bucked off in the short go, but Isabelle got more than a taste of infield dirt, he got Stampede fever.
“I told myself, next time I go there I am going for the big stage,” Isabelle said from Cody Wyoming on July 1.
He’s going to Calgary on hot streak.
Isabelle won $6,999 US by winning the Greeley Stampede in Colorado on July 3.
"I go on Bad Influence and had a 90," Isabelle said. "I felt like just in the storm the whole ride. I knew he was bucking under me and I was just trying to stay on him and I guess it went good."
He also picked up $2,236 for finishing second at the Molalla Buckeroo Rodeo in Molalla, Oregon in early July.
The points in the U.S. goes toward Isabelle's goal of reaching the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas in December.
He’s doing pretty well north of the border 49th as well.
He sits 11th in the Canadian Pro Rodeo Association standings at $4,437 (less than $100 ahead of Linden Woods from High River).
Last year, he finished 12th in Canada in the final standings.
He’s going to collect a few air miles before returning to the Stampede on July 9. Rodeo athletes travel more miles than Jack Kerouac and Charles Lindbergh. He flies out of Salt Lake City to get back for the Stampede.
If he didn’t have a rodeo family in 2012, he does now.
“My parents are flying in and they will be there to see me on July 9,” Isabelle said. “I am pretty excited – ready to go and try and win that $100,000.
“I am feeling confident.”
He will have some familiar faces with him when he gets to Calgary some pals from those novice days. Jake Stemo and Danton Bertsch, who competed against Isabelle in 2012, also were invited to the Stampede.
The Calgary Stampede format has 10 competitors in Pool A and Pool B. Pool A goes from June 5-8 with the top four moving on to the Sunday Showdown for $100,00 on July 14. Pool B goes June 9-12.
Those six in both pools who don’t make the top 4, will compete in Wildcard Saturday at June 13. The top two from Wildcard Saturday will advance to the July 14 final.
Wildcard Saturday is where bull rider Jordan Hansen and barrel racer Kylie Whiteside will be.
Hansen finished fourth on Monday, but his Stampede earnings of $3,250 put him in eighth place in Pool A.
Whiteside, who is competing in her first Calgary Stampede, didn’t cash a cheque in the four days of Pool A competition.
DeWinton bull rider Brock Radford, like Hansen a Comp grad who took welding, is up in Pool B this week.
