Calgary Stampede

Each day of the Stampede rodeo brings new drama and excitement as the cowboys go head to head with the athletes of the animal world.

One of the men helping tell you the daily stories is rodeo commentator Cody Snyder, who joins CBC's Doug Dirks in the broadcast booth.

Snyder is no stranger to the rodeo world.

Snyder competed as a professional bull rider for fourteen years, bursting on to the scene and leading the Canadian race as only a 19-year-old.

In 1983, he captured the world bull riding championship as a 20-year-old, the first Canadian to ever do so, and followed it up with a Canadian crown in 1986.

But Snyder's career ended prematurely - dogged by a wrist injury he didn't even know he had for five years.

"It cost me at least five trips to the NFR in the years when I had it," Snyder reflected. "I look back and, in 1987, the year that it happened at the CFR, I went into the NFR in fourth and I rode better than I did in '83.

"I still rode five out of 10 bulls at the NFR with a broken wrist."

The troublesome little scaffoid bone was the thing that kept Snyder from following his dreams in active competition for as long as he would have liked.

"If 'ifs and buts' was fruits and nuts, it would've been a heck of a Christmas," Snyder quipped. "But that's part of the sport."

Faced with not being able to rodeo actively and still hungry for the sport, Snyder turned his attention to other aspects of the game.

He admits timing was fortunate, since he put away his bull rope just when the idea of individual bull riding events was beginning to take off.

"It was kind of an easy transition for me," Snyder said. "I'd been around rodeo and the bull riding business my whole life and how do you stay involved in that?

"Virtually every person in this sport, when you're done, you walk away from it and aren't involved anymore. It's not like hockey, when you can go and coach hockey, or even golf, when you can go and be a pro at a golf course.

"From rodeo, you've got to go and find a job, and do something else. For me, I wasn't ready to quit.

"I couldn't imagine my life without it. The transition to go right into producing bull riding events was there and, a couple years later, the television opportunities came along, so I've been pretty fortunate to still stay involved in it."

'Put the best guys on the best stock'

Snyder has produced over 200 professional bull riding events throughout North America, including the PBR Rocky Cup Canadian National Finals in Calgary in the fall.

He's marked the 10th anniversary of his Bullbustin' event at the Ranchman's, held just before the Stampede starts.

He's also the coach for Team Canada for the PBR World Cup, this year being held in Brazil.

Snyder believes there's a key to the success of bull ridings that's also evident at the Calgary Stampede.

"You can look at the success of this rodeo right here and it's because they're putting the best guys in front of the people," he said. "If you put the best guys on the best stock every time, you've got something to sell."

Snyder recognized early on the importance of television to the future of rodeo, in bringing an exciting sport to a wider audience.

"With television, you can tell a story," he said. "You can explain it and show people what it is and get people following it.

"You build stars not only with the cowboys, but with the animals as well."

And that's what Snyder enjoys most about his work every day at the Calgary Stampede.

"That's what it's all about," he said. "Education. Rodeo 101.

"You're trying to create new rodeo fans. If you can get them involved in it and understanding it better, it's interesting for them.

"Everybody wants to be a cowboy. I don't care where you come from.

"Especially in European countries, it's a mystique to get to wear a cowboy hat and get your boots actually dirty. There's the possibility of injury, the athleticism of the guys and the animalsand then, when you put a bunch of money in there for guys to win, it elevates the sport."