They don’t get much more western than Irene Froman.
The first tack shop in Ponoka was on her acreage and countless cowboys and cowgirls learned how to ride horses at her school, Needsmor Stables, and you could always find her at the end of the rodeo, on her deck, enjoying a well-earned nip of her favourite drink, Southern Comfort.
In Ponoka Irene’s perhaps best known for her work managing the parking during the extremely busy Ponoka Stampede week.
In 2019 at the age of 87, Irene was awarded with a special recognition of 50 years of service to the Ponoka Stampede and she kept at it for a few more years after that, riding her ATV around the campgrounds, managing the parking and ensuring folks knew where they needed to be. She worked closely with Tri-Services to ensure patrons’ safety and accessibility.
It’s because of her dedication to Ponoka Stampede, to her volunteer crew, and to the western heritage sport of rodeo that the Ponoka Stampede Association recognized Irene this year as their Honorary Stampede President.
For Stampede President, Rick Wierzba, Irene’s volunteerism is significant in that she’s seen whole generations come to Ponoka. “There were probably people who’ve come back 40-50 years and she’s the first person to welcome them back,” he said.
“She’s the first person you see. It’s important to have somebody that is one of the Stampede community who sees thousands of people come through town,” explained Rick.
Besides this, Irene’s seen countless kids grow up and learn the ropes riding horses and learning horsemanship at her riding school, Needsmor Stables. Families would bring their kids from all over Alberta to be trained by Irene.
“She’s mentored literally hundreds of kids and adults throughout the years,” explained Rick.
For the Ponoka Stampede Association, recognizing Irene was an easy decision. Irene’s dedication is hard to beat. She took on the role before trailers were even a thing at the rodeo.
“When we first started parking there, people came in tents and campers. There were no motor homes. Then it went to trailers, little trailers, you know,” she explained.
She kept on managing the parking throughout the years, sometimes riding a horse, and sometimes on her ATV. She’d leave home early in the morning and come home late. The days were long but rewarding.
In her own way, Irene’s become a local legend, not just for the many student riders she’s mentored, but also for the people she’s gotten to know over the years. She still gets people calling her at home asking her to get her a coveted parking spot. When she started helping the association, the main entrance to the Ponoka Stampede grounds was at where the arena is located and the exit where St. Augustine Catholic School is today. At the time Highway 53 didn’t exist as a main thoroughfare.
To get the work done, it was no small task, Irene was a leader in the horse 4-H club and she recruited kids to help with the parking. They’d come together and as a team would get rodeo attendees to the places they needed to be.
“It just kept getting bigger and bigger and was only three days long when we started parking. I was teaching riding here and I had lots of kids learning riding, so we started parking cars with these kids. We used to put an entry into the parade on horseback. At one time we had 25 kids in the parade,” explained Irene. “Little riders right from six years old up and we used to go to the parade, and we’d come back and half the kids would put all the horses away and the rest would run up and park cars. The older rider would park cars on horseback.”
“The kids were hard workers, and they wanted to put in the time to support the rodeo and meet all the folks coming into town,” Irene added. “I had kids who had left Ponoka for university still coming back to park cars each summer.”
In all the years of volunteering, Irene only missed one Stampede. She was 65 years old at the time when she was seriously injured in a riding accident that hospitalized her for four months. There was no way she was going to be able to take care of the rodeo parking. So, her family organized all the kids and families she had worked with over the years and rose to the occasion and put in the time to do her job. They were doing it for Irene, and she was right back at it the next year.
The relationship between Irene and the Ponoka Stampede board has been a long and fruitful one and seeing her being recognized as Honorary Stampede President is a big deal for the people who know her.
Many of the Ponoka Stampede board members, their kids, their grandkids and great grand kids got their first riding lessons through Irene. In fact, there were probably about 100 kids a week going through Needsmor Stables. On top of that, Irene helped out former Miss Ponoka Stampede winners with horsemanship and riding skills to be ready for the rodeo.
Irene was all about helping and supporting the rodeo.
As things grew for Ponoka Stampede, so did the need to house horses. Back in the day it was tougher to find spaces for the World Professional Chuckwagon Association drivers and their thoroughbred team. Guess who stepped up? Irene of course. She gave the drivers space for their horses, allowing them to stay on her acreage during the rodeo.
“I remember one year they were really full and they couldn’t fit everybody. I had probably 25 Dorchester horses in the back pens,” Irene said.
Now 93 and retired from the volunteer work, Irene still loves the taste of her Southern Comfort.
“It’s the only thing that that kept me going some days!” she joked.
Ponoka Stampede’s the kind of rodeo that has a real western feel to it while also being a true professional rodeo, and Irene had the right western grit to make things work.
“If you didn’t get here fast enough, you weren’t able to find parking, that’s just how it was,” she said, adding that there were times Alberta premiers would visit but they’d have to park down the road.
An interesting fact about Irene is that she opened up the first tack shop in Ponoka. Coming from a strong western heritage, Irene’s grandfather was a coach driver with the Royal Mail, and her father ran the research station in Lacombe, and he raised and ran the heavy horses used at the research station.
Her love of rodeo went beyond Ponoka. Irene was instrumental in the creation of Christmas rodeos in Maskwacis at the Panee Agriplex and then at Diamond 5. Cowboys would head there from all over North America to compete in Maskwacis. She had a such strong relationship with many leaders and community members that she was gifted an eagle feather some years ago.
Irene’s love of horses could perhaps be found from when she was a young girl, riding a horse to get back and forth from school. It’s no wonder she found a love for the Ponoka Stampede and supporting its rodeo events.