HELENA — As rodeo fans in Helena excitedly anticipated the Last Chance Stampede’s second performance Friday night, Cool Alley Arena felt more bitterwseet for legendary pickup man Gary Rempel.
In every rodeo arena across North America, you’ll find pickup men helping keep cowboys safe and bucking horses corralled. But finding a more accomplished pickup man than Rempel — who has decided to retire following this year’s Stampede — is just abut an impossible task.
“You know what? I’ve never thought about it,” Rempel said of all the recognition he’s received. “I’ve just done the best job I can do. Sometimes it don’t turn out so great, but I’ve always tried to do the best job I could. I guess they’ve noticed it.
“I never tried to be any better than anybody else. That wasn’t in my mind. I just was doing what I do. And it’s turned out well for me.”
After a 45-year career in the rodeo arena that has included 21 Canadian Finals Rodeos, nine National Finals Rodeos, induction in multiple halls of fame and countless other accolades, Rempel will call it a career following Saturday’s third performance in Cool Alley Arena.
“It’d be nothing for me to be gone like three months at a time,” Rempel said of his schedule during rodeo season. “Swing through home, pick up some clean clothes and different things like that. It’s all been great, don’t get me wrong. I’ve loved every minute of it. But it gets to be a time when home’s a good place. And that’s what home is beginning to be is a good place.”
And as Rempel now reflects back on his career, it’s not the long hours on the road or the months away from home that stick out to him most. Rather, it’s all the people he’s met along the way.
“The people that are around, the people you work with, the stock contractors, all the fans that you get to know,” said Rempel. “The people that get to be your friends — every rodeo you go to you get to meet people. And you see them the next year when you come back. And you can create some friendships in that deal.”
