During Stampede weekend in Williams Lake, former rodeo athlete Jack Palmantier of Riske Creek was reunited with one of his old saddles.
Fort St. John musician Kevin Busche presented the saddle to Palmantier during an Ol' Cowboy Gathering hosted by the Museum of the Cariboo Chilcotin on Saturday, June 28.
"It was Jack's saddle when he went to a lot of American rodeos and was one of the best bronc riders in North America in his prime," Busche said.
Busche said when he got the saddle, it had a broken tree.
"I had this saddle for all these years, I fixed it, rode it for many years. It fit me better than any saddle I ever owned," he told the people at the gathering. "It broke again and I put it on the shelf and it's been sitting there."
He did get it fixed again before giving it back.
Palmantier told the Tribune he didn't know where the saddle had gone to.
"Kevin had told me years ago that he had fixed it up and was using it," he said.
The saddle return came as a complete surprise Palmantier said, adding when he showed up for the gathering Busche brought him into the back of the museum. and uncovered it and said 'here's your old saddle, I want you to have it back.'"
Palmantier recalled how back in the days when Mike Isnardy used to have jackpots every Sunday at Springhouse, there was a fellow from Vanderhoof who brought the saddle there one day and plopped it in the grass where everyone walked through, hoping someone would like it enough to buy it.
"The second time I was walking through, I thought 'that's a gold seal,' so I hollered at him 'are you selling that saddle?' and he said, 'yah,'" Palmantier explained.
When Palmantier asked how much he wanted for the saddle, the man in turn asked how much he'd give him for it.
"I said $150 and he said 'it's yours,'' Palmantier said. "I was surprised, I would have given a thousand for it."
When asked if the saddle brought him some good luck, he said he had to work on it so it would fit him just right.
"'I'm kind of a smaller guy and it's got a fairly short seat on it so I had to adjust it around to fit me. It worked good for me."
In his rodeo days, Palmantier competed at the Williams Lake Stampede and across the U.S.
Later he went into the business of raising bucking horses, which he sold mostly to Americans.
The Ol' Cowboy Gathering was presented by the BC Cowboy Hall of Fame with refreshments and camaraderie.
It was held outside the Tourism Discovery Centre where the museum has been housed since 2017.
Williams Lake First Nation elder and councillor Chris Wycotte gave a land acknowledgement and welcoming.
The event, he said, celebrated the grit and endurance of the rodeo cowboy and honoured the 2025 inductees to the BC Cowboy Hall of Fame.
"We honour those who have lived the cowboy way of the life, their integrity, their endurance and respect for the land, animals and people around them whether on a rodeo, a trail, ranching in the high country or leading with their strength and knowledge."
Cecil Sheena drummed and sang a song he dedicated to all the riders.
"If you can imagine riders riding when you hear this song and that's all they are doing, just loving the land and being with one another," he said. "This is a song that goes with that.
Earlier this year, Tom Alphonse, who in his younger years competed on the rodeo circuit in bull riding and saddle bronc, Amber Nehring, museum president, and Patti Gerhardi, museum vice-president and chair of the BC Cowboy Hall of Fame, formed a committee to organize the gathering, something they hope to hold during Stampede weekend in future years.
Mayor Surinderpal Rathor brought greetings from the city and Gerhardi talked about this year's three Hall of Fame inductees - Gene Allen of Kispiox, the late Mervin (Merv) Churchill of Falkland, and Daryl Mills of Pink Mountain. She also recited a prayer titled the Cowboy Spirit.
"I want to thank Tommy and Patti," Nehring said. "They had this vision to make it happen and they did."
