The 2026 edition of the Ponoka Stampede will be memorable not only as the 90th, but also for some challenging weather conditions. It kept the Stampede Association Board hopping to adapt to the ongoing rain, which led to the eventual cancellation of the chuckwagon races. However, great team and machinery efforts enabled the arena to be in safe shape for rodeo competition, so the show went forward, and the result was Finals and Showdown rounds of first-class rodeo.
It was a mere one and a quarter points separating the four bareback riding finalists in the Showdown round. But coming out on the top end of the equation was the 2022 Canadian Champion Ty Taypotat, who managed to draw his old friend from the Calgary Stampede pen, Agent Lynx. The two combined for an 89.75 points, to clinch the sudden death Showdown, for the $7500 bonus, pushing Taypotat’s Ponoka earnings to $12,491.
“That’s a phenomenal bucking horse,” credits Taypotat. “I’ve been on him four times. I couldn’t be happier, honestly.”
The 34-year-old has been riding bareback horses for fifteen years, and Wednesday marked his fifth time in the four-man Showdown round at the Ponoka Stampede.
“I’ve been wanting this one in the collection for a long time. I’m pumped. I’m happy I could seal the deal today and get ‘er all done.”
Taypotat received the champion’s jacket and buckle, as well as the special 90th anniversary trophy saddle.
The champion’s spoils in the tie-down roping were swept up by Shane Hanchy, who’s no stranger to the Ponoka winner’s circle. The Louisiana cowboy, who now makes his home in Texas, won the rodeo in 2016 and 2022, and took the average in 2012.
“It’s special. I’ve always had great luck here,” says Hanchey.
This win marks his second on the famous rope horse owned by the Bird family, Peso. But there were some tense moments before the Showdown round started because Peso was not on the grounds. Owner Logan Bird had taken him to compete at a rodeo in Airdrie in between the afternoon Finals and evening performance.
“He’s done it before,” says Hanchey, shaking his head. “But we’ve always had ten heats of chuckwagons. The chucks were cancelled and the next thing we know we get a call that they’re starting (the rodeo) at 6:30. He’s 58 miles away!”
Along with Hanchey, finalist Ty Harris was scheduled to ride Peso as well.
“Luckily we started with a pre-show at 6:30,” says Hanchey. “We got Peso off the trailer and threw a saddle on him, and they were riding bareback horses.”
In the cash department, Hanchey collects $19,390. He’s already won four Canadian championships, but the Ponoka win has him wondering if he can get to the required number of Canadian rodeos to potentially qualify again for the Canadian Finals Rodeo this fall.
Breakaway roping made its debut at the Ponoka Stampede one year ago, and this year, the prize money was boosted up to $45,000. It was a rookie who managed to collect the biggest portion of the jackpot, as Falyn Thomson won the aggregate with 9.8 seconds on three runs. She then came into the Showdown as cool as ever, and in just 2.9 seconds collected the Ponoka championship, along with a total of $17,702.
“I drew a lot of good calves, and my horse worked really good all week,” says the college grad who comes from Clinton, BC. “The calves will harder than a horse in a slop like that, but my horse was really good and she loves the mud, so she was right there for me. She’s a mud bogger, it doesn’t phase her one bit.”
“I wasn’t nervous today. I was pretty excited. I knew it was a clean slate coming in and I was just going to go blast one, so that was my goal.”
“Winning here as a rookie is pretty frickin’ crazy,” grins Thomson.
The man with the Midas touch in steer wrestling came through for the second Ponoka Stampede championship of his career, but Scott Guenthner guarantees it will be his last. Recording the fastest time of the week in one round, winning the Finals, the aggregate, and then finishing with a 4.7 to take the Showdown means the Provost cowboy takes home a whopping $23,431.
“It’s a dream come true to win it, especially when I’m going to retire at the end of the year. So it was nice to win this one more time. It’s definitely a prestigious one to win in Canada, and the world, actually.”
“I knew the steer was good on the ground but it was so deep, the steers were having trouble coming out of it. So I knew I wasn’t going to be able to swing him out, but I’d just have to keep hustling with my feet.”
Guenthner has tried to retire before, but his winning keeps getting in the way. Not this time, though.
“I’m ready to be at home. I don’t love the miles, and I feel like I have to live at Sport Medicine. I get the S-I joint in my back injected every three months.”
It was a star-studded saddle bronc riding Showdown at the Ponoka Stampede. In the end, it was Q Taylor of Parkland claiming the honors, after he rode Calgary’s Dandy Delight to 88.75 points.
“Dandy Delight was the only one in the draw I’d never been on before,” says 24-year-old Taylor. “He took the mud good. It’s mostly just water laying on top. They’ve got it packed down there in front of the chutes, so the footing was good. Normally that horse goes out there and has a couple big moves, so I was a little worried about him keeping his feet, but shoot, it worked out real good.”
Taylor’s Ponoka paycheck was worth $18,844, plus a jacket, buckle and the 90th anniversary trophy saddle.
“This is special. Growing up in Alberta and always hearing about Ponoka and watching it on TV, this is what you grow up dreaming about, to win this one,” adds Taylor.
Three-time Ponoka saddle bronc winner Zeke Thurston of Big Valley finished just behind Taylor, but because he won the average, Thurston actually wound up with $20,978. As well, since he entered the team roping with his cousin Beau Cooper, Thurston won the All-Around as well as the High Point awards at Ponoka as well.
Ponoka rodeo fans were treated to seeing one of their own come through in the team roping event, when local horse trainer Derek Hadland and his heeling partner Jeremy Buhler were the only one of the four teams to make a clean run in the Showdown, with a 7.9 second run.
“I knew that was the best steer,” says Buhler.
“We ran him in the twelve-man (Finals) and we knew what he was going to do, so that made it easy,” adds Hadland.
The two started roping together just this spring.
“It’s always a dream to get hooked up with a champ, and it’s working out,” says Hadland.
“It was honestly an easy choice for me,” explains Buhler, a World Champion heeler. “I’ve been watching Derek develop over the years. You can tell when someone’s got a style, and then you look at their horses, and go, ‘yea, he’s got it’. Just glad to be on his team now.”
While Buhler is enjoying staying closer to home and his young family this season, the score of $20,539 apiece may have the team rethinking their travel plans.
“It’s huge, winning a rodeo like this, so it’s something to think about,” says Buhler. It was his third Ponoka heeling title.
“It never gets any less special. It’s just as important to me.”
When some barrel racing horses were running more cautiously in the mud, a big bay mare out of Texas proved she was no prima dona, even if her name is Stiletto. Michelle Alley made her first trip to Canada as her jockey, and despite a muddy track on their inaugural trip, she came in second fastest overall with the horse. They came back to win the Finals, the Showdown and the overall Ponoka title, not to mention the $20,799 payday.
“She almost tipped third (barrel) going in. I really had to hold her off, and that’s why we bowed off. But the good Lord was looking over us and it stayed up,” says Alley. “I think every run I rocked a barrel!”
“Holy cow, this is really going to help out our season. I only entered Ponoka, Cody and Oakley over the fourth (of July run). I really limited my runs, so I wanted to capitalize on them, and obviously we did here.”
It was a battle in the bull riding Showdown when B.C.’s Jacob Gardner strapped an 88.85 point ride on a bull called Judge and Jury. But then Saskatchewan’s Grady Young rode the Vold bull All Gold Rolex for a 90.25, to claim his first Ponoka title.
“Checked off the bucket list,” grins Young. “All the rodeos I enter are on that bucket list to win. I’m trying to win every single one. I’m just here to ride bulls and have fun and let the rest take care of itself.”
“That’s the first time this bull has been ridden. I’ve kind of got a hankering for rank bulls. They’re more fun to ride and when you ride them, it’s more rewarding.”
Along with the trophy saddle, buckle and jacket, Young also wins $19,962.