HALL OF FAME BULL RIDER SETS SIGHTS ON STEER RIDING BRONZE
June 22, 2009  By Pamela Porosky
When Lawrence Hutchison set a record as the youngest Canadian champion in 1957, he certainly didn’t think he’d be the one making the trophies some day.
“No, dear, I certainly didn’t,” he chuckled over the phone from his home in Cremona, Alta.
Hutchison, a two-time Canadian bull riding champion who was inducted into the Canadian Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame (CPRHF) last year, spends much of his time in Alberta, but also owns property in Kennedy, Sask. where he runs calves. He happened to be out in Kennedy when the CPRHF asked him which rodeo he preferred to be honoured at during the 2008 season.
“And it was a long way away [from Calgary, Alta.], but Lester Gurnett did travel all the way to present the plaque to me at the rodeo,” he enthused of the CPRHF President’s 10 hour cross-prairie delivery.
“The [Moose Mountain Pro Rodeo] committee men all seemed to be quite taken up with the fact that I picked Kennedy,” he added. “And when it was all over, one of the committee men asked if I would be interested in donating something to the boys steer riders, like a buckle or purse money.”
Hutchison had fond memories of his early rodeo days in the boys steer riding, so he went home and brainstormed over part of the winter, trying to think of what he could do for the up-and-comers.
It just so happens that his neighbour is Gina McDougall-Cohoe, a celebrated western artist who’s been sculpting bronzes for over 30 years and has known him “ever since he used to rodeo many, many years ago – actually, since he was a young fella, if ever he was.”
That’s when the notion of a sculpture came into Hutchison’s arena of ideas.
“If it wasn’t for Gina – I don’t know what made her think I could do it, but she said, ‘I think you can do it,’” Hutchison exclaimed.
“I don’t know if there were words of wisdom involved or not, but I just set him absolutely free. I said, ‘Here’s the tools, get busy and do it,’” McDougall-Cohoe laughed.
“She showed me how you start out,” Hutchison elaborated. “You use wire and tape and glue and everything else until you get your form made, so I did that, and the first one I made turned out not too bad.”
According to Hutchison, he ran over to show McDougall-Cohoe as soon as it was done.
“I thought it was very good,” McDougall-Cohoe remembered.
She phoned BronzeArt Casting Ltd. in Calgary, Alta., who cast her own sculptures, and made an appointment for Hutchison, to see if the sculpture could be bronzed.
“And they thought it was worthwhile going ahead and pouring it, and that’s when I decided that since it was the first one that I’d ever made, I’d donate it to the boys steer riders at Kennedy,” he confirmed of the seven-inch tall figure of a young man riding a bull.
He’s going to have 12 made in all, and donate one every year to the winning steer rider at the Moose Mountain Pro Rodeo every year for the next 10 years. Hutchison will keep the first bronze, as well as the artist’s copy.
“Then the form is destroyed so there’s no more of that particular edition. The kids would be the only ones that would get one,” he said excitedly. “I’m 70-years-old, so I don’t really need to push them for sale. And I think the kids will really appreciate them when they get older. I rodeoed for 20 years and sometimes you don’t understand what these trophies are all about until you actually hang up your gear.”
Hutchison hung up his own chaps in 1975, signaling the end of a run that included two Canadian championships, and two trips to the National Finals Rodeo (NFR).
“I rode for a long time and I wasn’t satisfied with the way I was riding anymore,” he explained of his retirement. “And after I quit, I hardly ever went to rodeos, and that was a lot of years ago.”
But a new chapter has since begun in the cowboy’s rodeo career, through the bronzes he spent six weeks making the initial mold for with virtually no artistic experience behind him, and the stock he provides for the boys steer riding in Kennedy.
And with glowing reviews for the young competitors, it’s clear he’s looking forward to presenting the first award.
“When I was over at Kennedy last year to get my plaque, I seen those kids getting ready to ride and was totally impressed with them. They looked like regular little grown-up bull riders. Their chaps were just perfect and their spurs… they were all geared up and those kids could ride.” |
