LAKELAND – It’s no huge surprise to Colin and Mary Balan, who raise cattle and performance horses for barrel racing and team roping in the Hoselaw area southwest of Bonnyville, that their sons Walker, 22, and Carter, 21, will compete in the Lakeland Rodeo Association’s Showdown Finals team roping this weekend.
“Both boys started riding at a very young age and for our family, if we were going to take a trip or do anything, it always involved horse,” Colin says.
The family has been involved with the Elk Point Riding Arena for many years, and that’s where the brothers got their first take of competition. “They started competing in barrel racing and gymkhanas and always had successes, but as they years passed, they got bit by the roping bug,”
“We are 16 months apart in age,” Walker says, “So we have always done everything together, including roping. There is nobody on earth I have roped more steers with than Carter and I think that plays a big part in our success. We grew up riding and learning to rope at the Elk Point Riding Arena, starting off barrel racing and going to gymkhanas and then gradually shifting our focus to roping, probably 10 or so years ago.
“I guess team roping has always appealed to me. My dad team roped some, and his good friend Steve Brooks, a past LRA qualifier in the team roping, also did. They were both critical in us getting the start that we got in the roping world.”
According to their dad, “They are very dedicated to improving their roping, often roping seven days a week to get better at their craft. They have set the goal to make it into the LRA finals for the last couple of years and are very excited to have made it! For the last three years there has a been a sign above their bedroom that said ‘LRA FINALS’ with the upcoming year below it… a reminder of the goal they wanted to achieve.”
And now, that goal has become a reality, Walker says.
“This year will be our first time competing in the LRA finals. It has been a goal of ours for a couple of years now to make it there.
“We had a great year, winning money at St. Paul, Killam, Gooseberry, Saddle Lake, Manning, Big Valley, Barrhead, Valleyview and Kikino. All those cheques were won on home-raised horses, which is another big reason for our success. My heading horse is a blue roan mare named Blueberry and Carter’s heeling horse is a brown mare named Jess.”
Although their season got off to a slow start, “Father’s Day weekend was good to us,” Walker recalls. “We had just $44 won going into the rodeos that weekend, which had us outside of the top 10. But after placing at all three rodeos that weekend – third at Gooseberry, third at Killam and second at Saddle Lake, we shot into the top 10, and kind of realized that we had a serious shot at making the finals this year.”
The best, however, was saved for last.
“Our best run this summer, in my mind, was probably at Kikino. It’s the last rodeo of the year and Carter and I were on the bubble for making the finals. It was raining, wet and muddy and we were one of the first teams to go, so we didn’t know what we’d need to place. We were 6.3 seconds, which was good enough for second place and secured us to the top 10.”
