Chuckwagon Racing: Calgary Stampede's Half Mile of Hell!

Stafford Johnston was a freelance reviewer living in Mitchell, Ontario.

Among Canadian book-buyers, the number who are eager to read about chuckwagon racing must amount to a narrow slice of the market. For those within that slice, and for the curious who would like to be less ignorant about this typically western sport, this book offers an explanation, a history, and excellent action photographs. It will be of interest to any horse-lover with an appreciation of the qualities needed by race-horses and their trainers and drivers.

The team which constitutes an entry in the classic form of the sport consists of eight horses and five humans. One man drives the four-horse team that pulls the wagon; four outsiders, on saddle horses, load the wagon after the starting gun and manage the team at the start line. Assuming six entries in a race, the spectators will see and hear 192 hooves pounding toward the finish line. The only equine event one could imagine generating more excitement in a two-minute period would have been a cavalry charge in a nineteenth century shooting war. The book’s anecdotes of spills and injuries and its photographs suggest that chuckwagon racing may not be much less dangerous than a shooting war.

The book includes a 15-page history of the Calgary Stampede, where chuckwagon racing began in 1923. Since 1949 the sport has become professional, with outfits appearing on a circuit of rodeos in Canada and the United States.