PONOKA, Alta. – It’s spring so Dee Butterfield is packing her tack and horses to travel across the West teaching horsemanship and barrel racing.
“Every month of the year, I’m doing something,” she said at the Ponoka, Alta., ranch where she and her husband Craig Butterfield have maintained the family rodeo tradition.
As a professional barrel racer and instructor, this year marks her 40th anniversary holding clinics and sharing equine expertise.
This summer, she is inviting former students, numbering about 5,000, to the Ponoka Stampede July 8-10 for a weekend reunion of barrel racing, good food and fun.
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Butterfield started riding as a three-year-old on her family’s British Columbia ranch and learned English riding from her grandmother.
“My grandmother had the first English riding academy in Western Canada and I started with her until I was 16,” she said.
She was involved in jumping, roping and team roping, and began barrel racing at age 11.
Butterfield was one of the first Canadian barrel racers to qualify for the National Finals Rodeo in 1975 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
That same year, she was the Canadian Pro Rodeo Woman of the Year. In 1992, she was a Canadian barrel racing champion.
Rodeo runs in the Butterfield family. Her husband Craig is a nine-time Canadian Finals Rodeo steer wrestling qualifier and their son Chance attended Texas Tech University on a rodeo scholarship, graduating with a degree in economics.
He also wrestles steers and has joined his father offering rodeo clinics. Their daughter Brook Robertson is a barrel racer and was Miss Rodeo Canada in 1998.
It was not always easy for a woman in rodeo.
Barrel racing is an extreme sport, but it used to be an added event at rodeos until women like Butterfield started to pressure rodeo committees to pay equal money. Today, major events like the Calgary Stampede offer the top barrel racer a $50,000 purse.
“It took years. There is a whole different attitude now,” she said.
“The women can win quite often as much or more in barrel racing as the men’s events.”
Butterfield, the first barrel racing representative for the Canadian Professional Rodeo Association, continues to compete.
“I went to a handful of rodeos last year and won $4,000 on a couple of colts,” she said, noting there is no age limit if the rider is confident and fit.
“There are gals who are barrel racing who are in their 70s and some others quit when they are 40.”
She loves the rodeo, but her passion is teaching. Her students have included world champion barrel racers Lindsay Sears, Jill Besplug and Gaylene Buff and riders from age four to 65.
Butterfield has also worked with two-time world champion saddle bronc rider Mel Hyland and held clinics across Canada, the United States and Australia.
She advises getting lessons rather than experimenting with trial and error.
“Get some good instruction. Safety is a big thing and correct care of the horse is important. The horse is going to be a lot happier if the rider knows what they are doing,” she said.
“The toughest students and the toughest horses will teach you the most and it can be really challenging.”
She teaches confidence building and positive attitudes for training and competitions and attends clinics to upgrade her teaching skills.
“I love to learn. There is no end of knowledge out there.”
Butterfield’s family life revolves around the ranch and rodeos. Her children often travelled with her to competitions.
They had cattle and a feedlot but the animals were dispersed recently due to drought and poor prices.
The main family business is raising and training Quarter horses. They have built a reputation as producers of popular bloodlines and competitive horses that have won events in Canada and the U.S.
“A good horse should be able to do more than one thing, whether it is ranch work, rodeo or barrel racing. I have horses that I used to compete on, I roped on and decorated,” she said.
