THUNDER BAY -- Murillo Fair organizers and attendees framed the 124th annual event as a comeback.
Nearly 20,000 people passed through the gates of the agricultural fair and rodeo west of Thunder Bay.
"The competition at the rodeo is just fabulous and it's nice to watch," said organizer Sylvia Goodheart.
"The competition at the rodeo is just fabulous and it's nice to watch. Anyone that hasn't seen a rodeo up close, you don't have to pay fifty bucks for a seat. It's five bucks to get in the gate and you can see everything."
The addition of a midway fair accounted for part of that comeback but locals say the ground below the hooves is what attracts the talent.
"This is the biggest arena on our circuit," said 20-year-old Cassidy Spencer. "It's really nice ground here. When it's deep, they have a better way of getting good traction. You want your horse's hind end underneath them in order to keep them going at an even pace."
Her riding comrade Paige Johnson sat atop Shakespeare, her eight-year-old horse. She said success at events like this depends on the rider's relationship with the animal.
"It's the bond with the horse. In order to be successful, you have to know your horse. Your horse has to trust you and you have to trust them in order to do the pattenrs successfully."
For the Walkers from riding is a lifestyle and trotting through the circuit from town to town is a matter of spending time with family.
At their home in Carberry, Manitoba, father Darren built his children what he calls a clunk; a garden trailer simulating a cow that is hauled through fields by an all-terrain vehicle. While his wife judged at the edge of the arena, his son and daughter prepared their horses to compete.
"My kids have been riding horses since they've been old enough to walk," Darren said. "We're here together. This way in the evenings, we know where they are: they're with us. It eaches them responsibility. There's nothing more proud than watching your kids ride out and rope a cow."
Fifteen-year-old Jessica Walker didn't rope a cow this weekend but she did wrestle goats to the ground. Horseback riding and rodeo tours are her life in the summertime.
"I love the people I do it with and I love the feeling of adrenaline rush before you do your events and the pride you get out of it when your horse does good and when you do good," she said.
Wade Walker loves the competition and at 17 years old, gives men twice his age a sprint for their money and is teamed up with his father for the first time. He said Darren taught him everything he knows and the tightness of the Walker family is a pocket of a larger community of cowboys and cowgirls.
"At night when dad gets home from work, we go down to the barn and we work with the horses together, then we come here and compete together on the weekend.
"It's kind of one big family around here. You ride in the arena and you hang out at night and we're best friends, it seems like."
