How would you like a job where you only work for five minutes for your whole career and with a crowd cheering every second of those five minutes? That’s the charmed life of professional rodeo bucking stock.

The best four-legged athletes in the world will be competing in the 2009 Calgary Stampede Rodeo – along with the top 120 elite cowboys and cowgirls, ensuring the rodeo is destined to be a classic.

In less than a month, the cowboys will be trying to “make 8” and the toughest stock will be doing their best to buck them off. In the sport of rodeo, the cowboy actually hopes to draw a superstar animal because 50 per cent of the rider’s score in the bucking events comes from points given to the animal’s performance. High-quality, athletic stock is never more important than when $100,000 in prize money is up for grabs.

Every year, the Calgary Stampede Stock Awards recognize the top animals who display amazing talent and athleticism. On Sunday, July 12, Colt WorleyParsons will present bronze trophies to the owners of the Champion Saddle Bronc, Champion Bareback Bronc and the Champion Bull for their outstanding performance at the 2009 Calgary Stampede Rodeo.

This year, Stampede Ranch is bringing 150 head of stock to compete, and leading the way is five-time Canadian and five-time world champion bareback stallion Grated Coconut. Also doing his best to thrill spectators and challenge cowboys is Speed Dial, a six-year-old black bull who lives up to his quick-turning name.

The 21,773-acre Stampede Ranch, located outside of Hanna, Alta, is well known for breeding some of the finest bucking horses on the rodeo circuit today. The ranch is home to about 500 horses and 80 bulls including 170 mature bucking horses, 135 young horses, 60 brood mares, 10 stallions and 45 saddle horses. The majority of the horses are a product of the Stampede’s “Born to Buck” breeding program and have been ranch-raised. The bulls are purchased from other producers who have bred the Stampede’s top bucking bull genetics into their cow herds.

The Stampede’s stock also compete in many of North America’s biggest and best rodeos in places like Denver, CO., San Antonio and Houston, TX., Ellensburg, WA., Las Vegas, NV., and closer to home at the Ponoka, Strathmore, Innisfail and Hand Hills rodeos right here in Alberta.

Tickets are available now. Be sure to reserve your seat early, you won’t want to miss a minute of the action.