CALGARY - Wendy Wenaas just claimed her third Calgary Stampede buckle in team cattle penning.
Her teammates in this year's competition were Jen Fleming and Hope Elkins.
A former Estevan resident, Wenaas won her first Stampede open-class buckle in 2000. The second one came in 10-class in 2021. This year saw her claiming her third Stampede 14-class buckle, but she says winning at this biggest competition never gets old.
"They're all just as sweet," Wenaas said. "To win the Calgary Stampede can never happen too many times. The excitement of the crowd that's there, the camaraderie of your teammates and even those that you compete against. It's a sport that you need a good horse, you have to have the skill and the mindset, and you have to have a little bit of luck because cattle placement has a lot to do with it too."
Wenaas left the Energy City close to 40 years ago, but she says Estevan was the place where she found her love for horses.
"I fell in love and got an interest in horses while I lived in Estevan," Wenaas recalled. "We had a couple of Shetland ponies; that was my start into the horse business. We boarded them at the community pasture, which was right by the city graveyard, so that's where I started with horses and then upgraded from there a little bit while still in Estevan.
"I didn't have fancy horses back then, but I had a love of competition at a young age. It didn't matter what it was, whether it was playing high-school sports, or going to Lignite Louis Days and competing on my horse there in some of the gymkhana events. My love of competition has always been there, but I didn't take the horse competition to the next level until I moved to Alberta."
Wenaas was born in Biggar and moved to Estevan when she was about five years old. The Energy City became her home until graduation, after which she moved to Regina for university. For three years she lived without horses, until in 1988 the company she worked for transferred her to Calgary.
"What better place for a horse-crazy girl to be rather than Calgary with the Calgary Stampede and mountain riding and lots going on?" Wenaas said.
Her competitive career didn't start instantly though, as she was spending a lot of time mountain and trail riding. Things changed in the early '90s when cattle penning became "a passion and an obsession," Wenaas shared.
"I'd gone to a horse event one day, heard about team penning, watched it at the Stampede grounds for one of their regional year-end events, and I just fell in love with the concept and decided that was something that I had to learn to do," Wenaas recalled. "I had never ridden a performance horse before, just trail horses. So, I spent many years with different trainers and people teaching me how to read cows and improve my horse-riding skills and continued on from there."
Throughout her competing career, she had to balance her passion with a regular job. Even though for the past 15-20 years Wenaas has been using her skills, talent and knowledge in her job – as she was running practices and teaching others how to work cows on horseback through lessons and clinics – it never was a full-time job.
She says throughout her career, she's had many great horses to throw a leg over. This spring she started competing on a little red gelding she calls Chilli, purchased last fall as a four-year-old, and saw a lot of potential in that horse.
"When he started to come on strong as a competition horse I decided he was ready to compete in the big show and he did not disappoint," Wenaas shared.
Wenaas has been competing in team cattle penning for close to 30 years, has travelled and competed all over North America, and won every award there is in Canada and many in the U.S. Wenaas has won at the Canadian Western Agribition in the past, competed in Saskatchewan, Alberta, B.C., Montana, Texas, Missouri, Nevada and other major places, and she is looking forward to continuing with her passion.
"You can never have too many wins under your belt," Wenaas said. "I've been very fortunate over my 30-year career, there isn't a major that I haven't at least won once in the sport within Canada, for which I thank great horses, great partners, and good health to be able to do it," Wenaas said, adding that she'd love to compete more internationally but often it becomes cost-restrictive.
"For right now, I'm happy to keep excelling in the Canadian market, and helping other people as they grow and excel in the sport is part of the reward that I get from it too."
While she hasn't been in Estevan for close to 20 years, she still has a few friends in the Energy City and keeps warm memories about the place that shaped her choices. She is planning on coming to Estevan for her 40th high-school reunion in August 2024.
Wenaas now resides in the Cochrane, Alta., area.
