The 2013 Rangeland Derby champion is cutting his lawn at his High River area farm rather than turning barrels at the Calgary Stampede this July.
“I am enjoying a bit of a different lifestyle,” said Jason Glass, a four-time world chuckwagon champion on July 2. “It’s not what I wanted it to be for sure. I would be very excited to be pulling into the Calgary Stampede right now… It’s different that’s for sure.”
The Calgary Stampede, which was scheduled for July 3-12, and the World Professional Chuckwagon Association season were cancelled due to COVID-19.
It’s the first time Glass — a fourth generation chuckwagon driver — hasn’t been on the wagon trail in his 49 years of life.
“This would have been my 49th year of me going to Grande Prairie (for the Grande Prairie races), he said. “I even missed my own grad so I could outride.”
Glass has been competing at the Calgary Stampede for decades, first as an outrider and then as a driver.
His legendary chuckwagon ancestry is former Calgary Stampede champions, dad, Tom Glass, grandfather Ronnie Glass and great-grandfather, Tom Lauder. His grandmother was the first lady of chuckwagons, Iris Glass.
The Glass dynasty is on hold for 2020.
The most important part of the Glass Chuckwagon team, Jason's horses, are chomping at the bit to run but doing fine despite not competing since August.
“They are just out enjoying life eating grass in the field,” Glass said. “But they look kind of bored to me. The are in great shape and ready to run, but they are on holidays.”
It’s an unpaid holiday for Glass and his team.
However, he believes he can weather the 2020 COVID-19 storm.
“It’s going to be tough on everybody financially,” he said. “I have worked my whole life. I will be fine to get through this year. Hopefully, I have worked hard enough and I am well enough organized that I can get through this without changing too much.”
Glass is a long-time stuntman, having been in The Revenant and Inception, but that work has also gone by the wayside.
So he is preparing for next year until opportunity knocks.
Glass has 10 new horses and the year off will allow him to build his team.
“I like most of them — maybe I will sell a couple, maybe buy a couple more,” he said. “This gives me a full season to prepare for next year.”
As for what next season will look like, he said it is too early to tell.
“I believe everyone will see some changes in the chuckwagon world,” Glass said. “Maybe some (host) towns will change or go away. And maybe some drivers may not make it through this.
“But everybody from the Calgary Stampede to the WPCA, we are trying to figure away to get through it and continue on.
“It’s a great western heritage and a sport that has been going on for over a 100 years.
“I think everyone is going to do all they can to keep it going with very few changes, but I think there will be a few changes.”
As for the present, Glass isn’t starting his workday with Ian Tyson’s Half Mile of Hell, instead it’s James Taylor's Handy Man.
“I have been cleaning up the farm, doing some small renos,” Glass said. “Just some stuff on the farm…I would rather be on the road racing wagons, but I am trying to find the positive.
"This is the first time I have been able to cut my own grass during the summer."
He said the most important factor of the COVID-19 pandemic is he, wife Brienne, and his two children are healthy.
