You Never Get Over the Thrill of the Rodeo

I wanted to meet Katie Leonard.

She had sent me several excerpts of her Snake River Stampede memories when I had put the word out that I was collecting people's memoirs. I could practically feel her excitement through the computer screen, for both the Stampede, and her adoration of the country western lifestyle. From her notes, this was what I understood so far:

She was born and raised in Nampa, Idaho. She feels that the Stampede is a huge part of her heritage. When she was a kid, the Stampede was the highlight of her summer... and if she wasn't able to attend the rodeo, she sat up on her carport and was able to hear the whole thing, from the booming loudspeakers and the voice of the announcers. There was always a lot of anticipation surrounding which 'star' would be featured that year. She would go down to the grounds to watch the stock being unloaded, often standing in pure fascination at all of the bulls and horses, and how they all interacted with each other.

Even though she was born in Nampa, for a brief time her family moved to rural New Plymouth, where they had a dairy farm. Katie says that the 'farm life' is the only way to go. She had always loved horses and all 'critters', but her mother, who had been in an accident involving a horse, did not allow Katie to have one. So Katie made the best of it, and began to ride the dairy cows. Where there's a will, there's a way. She had one that she liked to ride in particular, named 'Buttercup'.

Eventually, her mother and father got 'worn down', as she put it. They sold the farm, moved to Nampa, and bought that girl a horse. This is, Katie says, where her journey began.

There was the excitement of the Parade each night, which Katie rode in many times until, as she says, she got her ribbon and was able to come back for the Saturday night parade. Her daughter seems to have taken after her, as later I was told a story of the then-three-year-old rider at her first parade. Her miniature pony was so small, the horseshoer had gotten down on his knees to shoe it. Worrying that this little girl might not get a ribbon, the horseshoer had given her a blue ribbon he'd had....Just in case. After the parade, Katie's daughter handed it back to him, saying that she didn't need it anymore...she'd just won a blue ribbon of her own!

Katie also remembered the singular feeling of entering the arena and seeing the people in the audience looking, as if to say, "Look at that horse, look at that rider...aren't they pretty!" and the feeling of awe in the air from the whole experience.

Today, Katie is a judge for the Parade; she's been doing that for years. Every year, she looks forward to judging the parade and attending the rodeo. She still owns the pair of spandex pants that she wore when she rode, and she still has the pictures. But her current wish is simple: she wishes that our young people could somehow go back to those times, to know what it was like back then. Wholesome. Exciting. Being in the stands and singing the National Anthem, amongst your friends and neighbors...the feeling of unity that this created. The electricity of the joy and the expectancy of what they were about to witness at the Rodeo.

Katie seemed interested in the fact that there were non-country people out there that were reading about her culture, and were becoming rather fascinated by it. She is glad that folks are being told the story of the Western way of life, and that stereo-types are disintegrating. She hopes that the stereotypes will disappear altogether; we are really more alike, after all, than we are different. She wrote: "What we so take for granted, others are so curious about. Maybe all of the writing about it will not only instill a love for this culture, but will encourage others to embrace what they have been given."

Katie wrote: "I have been blessed to be a part of history, where your word meant something, and a handshake was better than a document."

She continued, "These were treasured times, treasured memories....but even today, I can still feel that anticipation that I felt when I was younger...The Stampede is coming....The Stampede is coming..."