Welcome to our ranch near Canada's west coast in Beautiful British Columbia's West Chilcotin mountain region. Where calling the vet means hollering back at the house to bring your kit, new friendships are formed from the back of a horse and true fun for a five year old is getting a machete for Christmas. Where 'cutting the dinks off' has a totally different meaning than what first comes to mind, Muck Boots are a household name, a hand shake still means something and the coffee is always on.

Thursday 2 April 2015

Our local hero

Although every place has their local heros, most are not quite as famous as what little Anahim Lake can claim as their own.  Carey Price is the amazingly talented goaltender for the Montreal Canadians and to quote from the National Post, " the runaway league leader in nearly every goaltending statistic."    

Carey is also an ambassador for the Breakfast Club of Canada and  both local schools have received funding though this program.  Pretty darn awesome.  
The video I'm adding will explain itself.  In case the video doesn't work when I post this, the link is here

 www.youtube.com/watch?v=4m3ky6Mw28k



Although Carey was raised here in the community, I really didn't know him then at all as I was off in high school and then travelling.  However, I've met him several times here at Anahim Lake Rodeo over the past years.  He sure seems like a great guy, and out here at least, you'd never guess he is as famous as he is.  I think he likes it like that.  He is a whole lot quieter and more modest than the majority of the other cowboys!   
A few years ago I was asked to pack a flag for the local parade.  My horse was not worried about the flag, but noise of her feet on the pavement for the first time and the CRACKS were a bit of a concern to her.  I'm sure she didn't step on a single one.  When I got to the start of the parade it became apparent that Carey had just recently been talked into packing the other flag.  He was on a mutual friends barrel horse, in her little barrel racing saddle and in running shoes, much to his mothers distress.  She was quite rightfully concerned that he should not be riding without proper footwear but Carey wasn't worried about it and told her so.  As she insisted he kinda rolled his eyes and looked at me.  I told him not to worry, he couldn't fall out of that saddle if he tried.  He is a BIG guy and how he even squeezed in to it is a mystery to me.  I'm sure only a third of his leg was actually in the saddle.   As we got closer to the arena, the gelding he was riding started to perk right up, perhaps anticipating a good fast barrel run.  Carey felt the change in the horse and I distinctly remember him giving that horse a stern talking to....something along the line of "you better not bolt when we pass those gates you knot head, there are NO barrels set up!"  The horse and Carey kept it together and it all ended well.  
Carey likes to team rope and I'm pretty sure it was that same rodeo that he ended up winning the round.  You can be sure that his hometown crowd was very proud and rocked the stands with their cheering!  
Here is another link to another cool video of Carey's 'downtime' and his winning run!          

www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYrL13ewG9A

Cheers all!
Punky





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