Eighteen years in, the Reno Rodeo still runs on ranchers who somehow find the time

Not to be confused with its much larger Nevada namesake, the Reno Rodeo held near Consul, Saskatchewan draws its horsepower from a much smaller pool: the ranchers, farmers and small-town volunteers who make it happen between haying seasons.

The eighteenth annual event brought hot weather and hotter competition to the area this past weekend, with a full rodeo card running from junior roping through bronc riding, according to SwiftCurrentOnline.com's on-the-ground coverage. Beyond the rodeo ring, the weekend also served up music, beer gardens, the 20th annual Reno Rodders Car Show, a street fair, and a slow-pitch tournament — enough programming to fill a weekend well past the final whistle on the last event.

Donna Beierbach, with the Reno Rodeo, told SwiftCurrentOnline that most of the livestock came from local ranchers, and that the competitor pool draws heavily from the immediate area. "There was a handful of local talent, with quite a few from Maple Creek and a few from right here in Consul," she said. Because the rodeo is sanctioned by the Canadian Cowboys Association and the Chinook Rodeo Association — putting it on comparable footing to rodeos across the border in Alberta — it also counts toward year-end finals standings, pulling in competitors from across both provinces.

What stuck with Beierbach most, though, wasn't the competition. "Just seeing the community spirit that Reno or Consul and all these small-town communities have [is amazing]," she said. "Everyone rallies and makes it work; they're all busy in the fields, haying, ranching, or farming, and they somehow make the time."

That's really the story underneath the story: an event that's run for eighteen years not because anyone has spare time to spend on it, but because a small cluster of southwest Saskatchewan communities keeps deciding it's worth making the time anyway.