By Lindsay Whelchel
In the winter you might find Carl Bernier doing activities you’d expect from a Canadian, like playing hockey with his friends and riding snow mobiles in snowy Quebec where he’s from.
But much of Quebec and Ontario, Canada turns into cowboy country by late spring for the International Professional Rodeo Association’s season. And Carl, who has been competing professionally for many years, keeps busy much of the year as a bareback rider. He has qualified multiple times to the International Finals Rodeo in Oklahoma City and the Canadian Finals in Quebec. In the most recent Canadian Finals held in May, he split second in the average and walked away with the Year-End Championship for the 2016 season.
But rodeo almost wasn’t the path Carl chose. He didn’t come from a huge rodeo family, but began in the sport at a young age, inspired by his hometown rodeo. However, he also began to race dirt bikes competitively in motocross and focused on that for a couple of years growing up.
Adrenaline clearly being the common factor in his chosen sports, Carl found his way back to rodeo by 2011 since his friends and brother were still involved. It was then he began to compete professionally, first in the bull riding. In 2014 he began doing novice bareback riding in addition to his bull riding.
“I always knew I would ride bareback later [in my career], and I did well the first time I tried,” he describes. He quickly fell in love with the competitive nature of the event and how well you had to spur to take home a check. He also found he was more consistent in that event than in bull riding. In 2015 Carl focused his attention beyond the novice ranks, and it has paid off. “I quit bulls to be more intense in the bareback and reach another level. So that would be my fourth year bareback riding now.”
He’s made the trip to Oklahoma City twice now, the first time unfortunately breaking his wrist during the third round. This past IFR went better, and the 2017 season is already off to a strong start for Carl, who has gotten a jump on much of his Canadian competition by coming south of the border for early-season rodeos in Boston, Alabama and Georgia.
He says overall, the rodeos are the same north of the border as they are south. The stock contractors take their work very seriously, the stock is good, the added money is strong to be an incentive to grow the talent. He thanks contractors, Wildtime Production and Equipe de Rodeo, for their efforts to grow rodeo in Quebec. And Carl cites a special kind of energy with the fans up north who make the rodeos about dancing and getting into the action.
Rodeo in either country has changed since earlier times, perhaps becoming more focused on the athletic requirements of the sport and fitness of the professional athletes, Carl reflects.
“Rodeo is different from all of the other kinds of sports,” he says, citing how contestants help one another even though they are competitors, but he adds that like any athlete, he stays focused and stays in the gym to be in the best possible shape to deflect injury and maintain a competitive streak. “I like to win so I take it very serious,” he says.
There are many people he credits with his success. “Thanks to all the people who believe in me and keep pushing me forward, all the friends especially the guys who compete against me, they help me a lot to be better,” Carl says.
Watch this Canadian cowboy compete for his third IFR qualification on either side of the border this summer.
