Rodeo champ and his family celebrate 96 years of horsing around

Glacier FarmMedia – Legend has it that nary a horse could buck off Bud VanCleave’s dad, Claude.

The apple did not fall far from the tree because that horsemanship got Bud inducted into the Canadian Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame in 1998.

He competed in every event under the sun, except for bareback riding.

Now, recently celebrating his 96th birthday, the former Fincastle, Alta., rancher and his family reflect on a rustic life that is just as colourful as his vast rodeo accomplishments of prize money, trophies, saddles, buckles and the bumps and bruises needed to earn them.

VanCleave spent his whole life around animals, growing up in a family of eight that raised pigs, wild turkeys and goats along with the regular farm/ranch fare.

VanCleave was moving dozens of horses by himself as young as 14.

“Dad was the oldest boy, and that’s what they did,” said VanCleave’s daughter, Dalyce Hubek, who with her husband and father, affectionately referred to as Budly, recently gathered around the dinner table to spin yarns of life done the cowboy way.

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“Dad would go by himself, run a bunch of horses to Vauxhall, through the coulee overnight.”

Two years later, VanCleave would hit the rodeo circuit.

That youthful vigor included once competing in three rodeos in a single day in Raymond, Fort Macleod and Bassano in southern Alberta.

When all was said and done, VanCleave would earn two Canadian championships, an all-around championship, three calf roping championships, 15 trophy saddles and enough belt buckles to fill numerous drawers, before retiring from competition in 1966.

VanCleave’s impact was felt in North America.

He appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated in 1954, the only time rodeo has appeared on the front of SI.

In 1951, his Canadian rodeo prowess was showcased in front of Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh and for Princess Margaret in 1958 in Calgary.

If VanCleave ever found himself short of spending money in his younger days, the mischievousness he learned as a rodeo clown and bullfighter would be applied behind the scenes.

“Joe (his brother) used to go to the rodeos and behind the chutes, get a wild horse and say, ‘my brother can ride that,’ and he’d bet and come out with pockets full of money,” said Hubek.

Like a pool hustler wearing spurs, a young VanCleave would also travel with his brother and friend, Robert Paterson, to rural Montana dive bars, where patrons did not know his skill on a horse.

“Dad would act like, ‘I don’t have a clue, I couldn’t ride a stick horse in a rainstorm.’ “

So the patrons would bet that he couldn’t stay on a horse and then VanCleave and his brother would clean up when he did.

”They were pranksters,” said Hubek with a chuckle.

He once went for a drink in a bar after the Taber Rodeo, but also brought his horse, tying it to his chair. The owner, afraid he was going to lose his liquor licence, pressed charges.

In court, VanCleave offered to reenact the horse scenario before an English judge, and his cowboy charm and the judge’s memories of similar stories back home resulted in the charges being dropped.

VanCleave’s wife, Doris, was made of sturdy stuff back in the day, raising three kids in siblings Phil, Dalyce and Shelley. Dalyce’s birth came at prime rodeo time on July 1. VanCleave won a rodeo in Swift Current, Sask., before having to make his way to Calgary, unable to attend his child’s birth.

Doris proceeded to hitchhike her way to the hospital as she felt contractions before eventually getting picked up by a rural neighbour who was driving by.

However, her tough-as-nails motherhood still could not stop from being a mortified wife with her husband’s run-in with the law by riding horses into bars.

“My poor mother, she would not come to town to get the mail for a month. She was so mad at Dad, she was afraid to show her face,” said Hubek with a sigh.

That humuorous spirit included a heart of gold.

VanCleave would often have a Shetland pony or other horses hooked up to his trailer for rural and city slicker kids alike to pet.

When he was not competing in a rodeo, he was volunteering, from flagging, judging or running the timed event chutes to providing roping calves and steers.

He was also a partner in a commercial fishing operation. They would haul a half-ton box full of fish and then give it away to those who needed it.

“Anybody that was poor that didn’t have enough to eat, anybody could just come … and take as many fish as they wanted. People appreciated it,” said Hubek.