Much of the work women do behind the scenes to support rodeos and rodeo competitors consists of emotional labour: urging people on, worrying if they’ll get hurt, and offering emotional support—win or lose.
Robert Barclay’s 1964 short film, Chuckwagon, gives us a glimpse of that emotional labour in brief shots of Bernice Cosgrave, wife of chuckwagon driver Bob Cosgrave, watching the races at the Calgary Stampede. Chuckwagon races are a Canadian-born rodeo event and a dangerous adrenalin sport. In the film, Bernice appears with her young son, showing us how much was at stake when she cheered on the father of her kids in this dangerous competition. In the summer of 1968, she told the Calgary Herald she loved traveling with her husband on the summer circuit: “I’ve only missed one race since we’ve been married. That was when my second oldest son, Ronnie, was born.”*
* “Wife of Chuckwagon Happily Travels Race Circuit,” Calgary Herald, July 13, 1968.