CALGARY — A rider was hurt and a horse killed during separate chuckwagon training exercises at the Calgary Stampede on Tuesday.
Tim Haroldson was a passenger on a wagon driven by fellow driver Jerry Bremner.
The wagon rolled while coming around one of the barrels during training, and Haroldson was thrown. He was taken to hospital in serious but stable condition.
"It was just a total freak accident," said a visibly shaken Bremner, who was not injured. "We caught a bit of an edge ait was just an accident."
"Tim is stable and resting well," said Haroldson family spokesman Darcy Simoneau. "We don’t forsee any issues.
"From the family standpoint it’s scary. But things happen, they happen for a reason. The prognosis is really good."
In a separate incident, a 12-year-old horse belonging to the team of Reg Johnstone collapsed after completing a run.
The Stampede said a necropsy had concluded the horse died of a ruptured aneurysm.
The death of the horse prompted the Canadian Federation of Humane Societies to call on the Calgary Stampede to immediately end the annual chuckwagon races.
The federation said since 1986 at least 60 animals have died or been injured at the event, half of which have been related to the chuckwagon races.
"Ironically, chuckwagon racing is not an event that is recognized by the Canadian Professional Rodeo Association," the federation said in a release.
"The sole purpose of the chuckwagon races appears to be excitement, show and entertainment at the expense of the life of an animal."
The federation said chuckwagon races reflect a shift in tradition from protecting the welfare of horses to profiting from their stress and suffering.
An annual safety review of rodeo and chuckwagon events at the Stampede was released last month; it concluded the sports are becoming safer and noted that rule changes now require full examinations of horses before a race.
— With files from Global Calgary