Anti-lockdown rodeo rally planned in Bowden Alberta
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
202.64757
Summary
The No More Lockdowns Rodeo Rally is a three day rodeo in Bowdoin, Alberta. It's a three-day event being held by Ty Northcott of Northcott Rodeos, a fellow rancher and owner of a horse named "Third Rock".
Transcript
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hey there welcome to a western standard rodeo special you know i've been i've stated in past
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broadcasts and in articles i'm looking to see good rational pushback against the lockdowns
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i'm looking to see more people realize the human cost of the restrictions and and what it's doing
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to people it's crushing businesses traditions families all sorts of things unfortunately a lot
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of the uh demonstrations pushback have just been not the sort of thing your your average person
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wants to take part in uh i went you know i went the other weekend to to one of those anti-lockdown
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rallies and and they were uh just just out to lunch i i couldn't support them uh that same brad
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kerrigan i saw a video of him this week i guess he was trying to i don't know force his way in
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with a bunch of protesters to a whole foods outlet without masks or something i don't know where
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they're going but we did see for one of course the the grace life church uh protests and people
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standing up for that church that's been fenced in and in just a horrifying scene that's an
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embarrassment to the country uh at least people are standing up for themselves they're being polite
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they're crazed uh you know leftist style protesters and such and it's i was thrilled to see uh something
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going around popped up in my scroll with a no more lockdowns rodeo rally and and this is great this
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is two events in one there's going to be a three-day rodeo going on in bowdoin just what an hour out of
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the city of calgary uh events full rodeo competitors guest speakers concessions if you look on the
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poster it says there's no beer gardens because uh there's other challenges and i'll get a little
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more into that still i wanted to make sure this is legit you know i mean this what's going on here
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it sounds great um and and uh it was being run by a fellow named ty northcott of northcott rodeo so if
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you want to look this up and i'm going to repeat this a little later uh if you look up northcott
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rodeos on facebook he's got information and details on there and he keeps updates going
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uh as well the address to buy tickets if you want to buy them in advance it's $15 for adults
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$10 for 7 to 17 and kids under 7 are free you can email rodeo.rally at gmail.com and it looks like
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they're going to have a gate admission to so you can just go and and purchase at the gate so uh i
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jumped in the car i well i made a phone call and and uh jane and i headed up to bowdoin area and met
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with ty because i just really wanted to see details about what was going on with this this is ty here
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with uh one of his is his horses so ty uh northcott is from a family with generations and generations of
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raising rodeo stock this horse is named uh third rock it's the one that's in the background throughout
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the rest of this this broadcast here and uh by the way the the photographer's name was was billy jean
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uh i believe or billy jean duff i gotta write my notes better but i mean you know the the other
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thing that was striking going around the property with ty just so people know like these guys love
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their animals as ty will say in an interview i got a little later they're family to them this is this
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is their whole life this is what they're about these are well cared for animals and they've all
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been locked up like any other athletes doing nothing for a year and and uh this is costing in
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many levels uh yeah so there you see third rock in the background quite a horse um this is another
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business like i want people to realize the human side of what's going on and rodeo in the west i mean
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this is as albertan as it gets as traditional as it gets and these businesses are on the brink of
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dying so uh as ty said he's down to half or less than half of the amount of his usual standing stock
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because you can't just you know throw the cattle on the shelf for a year uh the bulls and the uh and
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the horses and that and wait until things reopen these are animals that need to be trained they need
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to be fed they need to be exercised you can't just put it on hold so these guys are in dire dire
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trouble it's expensive and they've got no revenue there's no rodeos entertainment in general i mean
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we should point out whether it's bands or the arts they're hurting and we're not hearing about it again
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we're not hearing about the real human cost and this is is we're losing whole family traditions and
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that's why ty's backs against the wall he's holding this rodeo because he's got nothing to lose like so
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many businesses you know and when we see um uh the gentleman scotch up there with the the whistle
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stop and mirror these restaurants they put their heart and soul into them and hey you can only
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bankrupt them once they're not standing up just to be jerks they're doing because they got their
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backs against the wall there's nothing else they can do so ty northcott what does he know how to do
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he knows how to put on rodeos so he's gonna put on a rodeo and let's get to this whole family thing
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why is he so dedicated this picture is of harvey northcott the other thing he loved beyond rodeos
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apparently was his budweiser's as you can see he's pictured with it here's the late harvey north
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thought so that's ty's father uh this was a rodeo man quite well respected and renowned for a long
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time here's a poster with a picture of him on a bronc back in 71 uh when they were advertising and
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you know i'm not looking just to give a history of rodeos and such here but i'm just trying to drive
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home like we've got some really established traditions historical families historical
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businesses and they're going down in alberta if we let these restrictions crush them they aren't
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coming back we're losing more than just a little business we're losing whole family traditions and
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and where are they going to spring up from where is it going to spread out from how do you rebuild
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something like this so you know and this is a a thing for by the way so even ty's wife gail
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her grandfather was art johnson again you know a a well-renowned uh rodeo supporter as as you can
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see what this was given back in the the alberta 75th uh uh recognition so you know this is all at
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risk right now these these families these businesses they're going down and thankfully ty's standing up
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and said you know what i'm holding the rodeo i'm gonna do it i'm doing it in boden it's going on for
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three days and it's great i mean he's got the stock he knows the facilities he knows the
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competitors he knows how to set this sort of thing up concessions the work so it's happening
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so mark it in your calendars this is the way we can push back because yes alberta health within
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days of that going up in facebook they were trying to track them down they were sending warnings
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they're saying you can't do this we're going to stop you from doing this and ty's saying just you
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try and i love it i just love it he's pure albert and he's a great guy i sat with him so i interviewed
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him and as i said i picked up and rushed out of here in a hurry uh it's going to be you know you might
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have turned the sound up a little bit uh my i just uh did the interview with a phone but you get to
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know ty here with a five minute chat and see what motivated him and and what kind of person this is
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again it's not some crazed protester it's not some political lunatic this is a genuine uh salt of the
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earth hard working alberton who just wants to continue making a living as his family has done for
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generations in alberta and he's going to do it no matter what the ahs or the government tells him
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all right so thank you very much for talking to me ty i i'd like to start with the background
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you're from a well-established alberta family that's been involved in agriculture and rodeo for
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for a long long time but can you begin with letting us know a little bit about what your
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your history is here yeah i grew up around rodeo uh my dad was a stock contractor since 1967 and
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we've been in the business for oh i think we started in the late 80s myself personally
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okay and then uh so as you said the the industry is getting a lot of pressure these lockdowns i mean
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it's been a year of reduced turnouts or complete cancellations of events and so on uh you provide
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rodeo stock along with with other things and you said your stock is now down to a much lower level than
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it used to be yeah we've had to uh cut back on our animals just for the fact that uh the cost of
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wintering them and and the upkeep with them uh we've just had to take and probably reduce our numbers
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to 50 from what they would have been in 2019 early 2020 yeah so it's not like you can start on a dime
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it's not like other businesses where you can just take the stock and put it in a warehouse and leave
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it alone and bring it back out when when things change these are these are living creatures that have
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to be maintained uh veterinary bills feeding and and so forth so yeah we've uh these are all specialty
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animals that we use like they're especially raised to do the jobs that they do and and uh you just
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can't go down the road and buy one anywhere at any given time it's uh it's not like walking into your
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grocery store and buying a head of lettuce or anything these are animals that that we've spent
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years to get them to the point where they're at and and uh now we're having to sell a lot of them
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off some of them are like family members and and uh we hold close to our heart a lot of these animals
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yeah well i believe the term you used was animal athletes or something along those lines and
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yeah they're they're all athletes uh they've all got certain genetics and traits that make them what
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they are and uh at the end of the day they're as much athlete as a cowboy themselves yeah and uh with
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any athlete too you can't just stop for a while it takes training and ongoing uh you know exercise
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and so forth so yeah all these animals uh we take them put them on certain diets throughout the
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winter and then they change the diet come spring and summer as to when they're when they're competing
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and doing their thing so with your upcoming scheduled rodeo out here which is is looking
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to be quite fun is it going to be a full event uh like any other rodeo or yeah it's a it's a full
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event it's a semi-pro amateur rodeo uh we have like bareback riding bronc riding saddlebrown
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barrel racing uh tie down roping team roping and steer wrestling and a couple junior events at it also
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excellent so what's inspired you i mean you've gotten the letters now and and uh they're already
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warning you uh the government is is not impressed uh with this uh what are your thoughts on standing up
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to the state i guess in the sense for the sake of your your industry and family traditions well
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somebody's got to do it uh we've been locked over for over a year now and uh we're seasonal business
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people the most of us in the rodeo industry just because in canada here uh our winters kind of
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prohibit a little bit of our events happening so when it's it's like the farmer making hay when
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when the sun shines we got to do it and the same with rodeo most of our events are outdoors and
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and we got to go when it's summertime uh this prolonging us till june july august kind of thing
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that that the government pulled on us last year and they're trying to pull on it on us again this
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year it doesn't cut it for us like a lot of our planning takes anywhere from three months to a year
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to put these events on and and uh when they tell us that we can't do something in april may and june
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uh or that we're prolonged until you know june july august that doesn't work for us we need the time
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to plan and do these events and i just decided you know what enough is enough if uh if we've got
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to do them we've got to do them and and i think there's a lot of people need to start jumping on
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the bandwagon and coming on the trail with us well that's great and it's so important i mean on so many
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levels we need to get out and feel human again we need to get around each other we need to socialize
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and this event's going to kind of provide all of that and hopefully i mean your business is in some
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pressure right now i mean this is very important just on on your personal level
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well yeah you can only afford to shut your door for so long and and have no income and then pretty
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soon you got to totally shut your door and and uh we're past that point uh there's no more shutting
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our door we're open uh we expect to have a very large crowd at this event uh our entries for
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competitors uh so far it seems like it's going to be a great entry and uh we're just going forward
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we're we're we're done it's it's time to make this happen great well have you got any further
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messages for for folks i mean i'll go into the details and how people can uh buy tickets and set
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aside time and come out to this it's going to be a heck of a good time yeah i hope to see the rest of
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the province finally get off their butt and do something uh i'm getting calls out of bc saskatchewan
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and manitoba right now and and we're going to look in to see what we can do to help them people move
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forward uh i've done a lot of research in the last year in regards to what's going on and
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and uh people need to just basically start standing up for their rights uh the government at the moment
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is trying to push rules and and them rules just don't cut it with me uh we have rights and we need
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to start looking after our rights and take our freedom back yeah we're albertans we're not going
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to take this for much longer exactly right on thanks thank you
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well there you have it ty's not backing down we're not backing down the western standard is
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going to be following this we're supporting this we are going to encourage this is a good safe event
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it's good for people get out supporting an alberta business we're not going to let this business go
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down and die we can't let this business go down and die ty is going ahead with this i really can't
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encourage others enough to help him out this is uh ty's daughter's bull by the way this is uh
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called name radioactive uh the picture is by carly boyd again what i'm trying to demonstrate here
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there's the next generation that's getting in on this this is a family tradition of business his
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daughter this business could be lost and and she's not going to be able to participate further with
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these sorts of things we can't let this die it's weeks away people aren't dying the pandemic's in
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retreat let's get out let's save these businesses while we still can get out there as i said before
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he needs volunteers uh people out there we certainly need people to attend he's rounding up guest speakers
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by the way as i said this is two events in one it's not just a rodeo this is a no more lockdowns
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rally as well it's the two bundled into one this is going to help save those athletes those rodeo
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riders those those livestock that take part it's just good for everything let's get out the email
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address again rodeo.rally at gmail.com look up northcott rodeo on on facebook and and ty is active
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on that site he'll keep you up to date on things and we're going to keep following up on this so mark
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your calendar set aside it's going to be a hell of a weekend i'll be there i'll see you there