Gary Rempel – Background 3/7/08

Born Sept. 5, 1951 in Elrose, Saskatchewan. He was raised on the Matador Ranch near Kyle, Saskatchewan, one of the largest ranches in Canada. At it’s inception in 1905, the Matador Land and Cattle Company was six townships (140,000 acres) and was a part of the Matador holdings that stretched south to Texas. In 1923 the lease was taken over by the Saskatchewan dept. of Agriculture to establish the first government supervised community pasture in western Canada. John Rempel, Gary’s father, started riding on the Matador in 1943 and was appointed manager in 1962, he was there until his retirement in 1984. Gary grew up on the back of a horse doing everything on a ranch.

 

His father John worked occasionally as a pickup man for the late Jerry Meyers, of the Bar T Rodeo in Saskatchewan. Gary competed in calf roping and team roping, but always wanted to pick up. Gary got his opportunity when Jerry had 2 rodeos on the same weekend, and the rest is history...

 

He worked his first amateur finals (The Canadian Cowboys Association) in 1984, and the following year (1985) he was asked to work at the Calgary Stampede. He has been a pickup man at the Calgary Stampede every year since then.

 

He has been selected by a vote of the Cowboys to work the Canadian Finals ten times: ’86, ’87, ’99, ’01, ’02, ’03, ’04, ’05, ’06, ’07.

 

He moved to the State of Montana in 1992 and has worked the Montana Circut Finals Rodeo a total of seven times: ’00, ’01, ’02, ’03, ’04, ’05, and ’07. He also worked the Columbia River Circuit Finals once.

 

He achieved his ultimate goal of being voted by the cowboys to pick up at the National Finals Rodeo for the first time in 1998 and has gone back in 2000, 2001, 2003, and 2007. (a total of five times) He is only the second Canadian to work as a pickup man at the National Finals Rodeo. The other was Wayne Vold. Ironically, Gary attributes much of his success to having worked with Wayne Vold at the Calgary Stampede.

 

He has also worked the Dodge National Circuit Finals Rodeo twice: in 2003 and 2005.

 

Gary’s first Pendleton Roundup was in 1991, an opportunity that came about through the invitation from Pendleton for Calgary Stampede to bring their bucking horses to Pendleton. Calgary hauled horses down for the first time in 1990, and after experiencing the unique arena, then rodeo manager Winston Bruce wanted a Calgary Stampede pickup man to be in the arena. Gary has picked up at Pendleton every year since then, and has worked with other notable pickup men there with many credits to their names including Kenny Carpenter, Pat Beard, Lloyd Faria, Del Northcott, and Billy Ward. Pendleton remains one of his all-time favorite rodeos.