New rodeo producer Kynan Vine will be this year's Cloverdale Rodeo Parade marshal.
The Rodeo Weekend tradition usually sees upwards of 5,000 spectators hit downtown Cloverdale for the parade.
Vine is known for producing major rodeos around North America, including the Calgary Stampede, along with other events, such as 2024’s Major League Baseball all star game.
As marshal, he'll head up the parade as it winds through downtown Cloverdale.
“Kynan will be on horseback and he will be leading a riderless horse as a tribute to Jamie Rogers,” revealed Rick Hugh. “For part of that tribute, and it’s a traditional thing, there will be a pair of boots facing backwards in the stirrups of that riderless horse.”
Hugh, 1st vice-president of the Cloverdale Rodeo and Exhibition Association, said Rogers, longtime rodeo organizer and head of sponsorship, died suddenly in June, 2024.
“He was very honoured to be asked to lead Jamie’s riderless horse,” Kathy Sheppard, Rodeo Association president, said of Vine. She said the idea of the riderless horse is to honour Rogers for the work he did for more than 25 years for the Cloverdale Rodeo and Country Fair.
Hugh said Glen Valley Stables will supply the horses for both parade marshal Vine and Rogers’ riderless horse. He added the Rodeo Association also “very much appreciates” Terry Stewart from Express Employment Professionals as Stewart is also helping defray some of the costs through sponsorship.
Matt Kinvig is organizing the parade this year. It’s the first time in nearly two decades the parade is not being organized by the Cloverdale BIA.
“It’s an excellent opportunity to get creative, meet and greet thousands of spectators, and start the 2025 Cloverdale Rodeo and Country Fair in true Western style,” Kinvig said in a press release last month.
There will be 11 categories this year in which float entrants can be judged and win prizes. Those categories include: commercial floats, non-profit floats, junior band, senior band, junior marching unit, senior marching unit, wheeled, antique division, comic division, mounted drill team, and dance division.
The 2025 Cloverdale Rodeo Parade will start at 10 a.m May 17.
The parade will be about a third of the length shorter again (it got shortened last year) than it has in years previous. This year’s parade will start from the corner of 177B Street and Highway 10. It will move west on No. 10 before cutting north at 176th Street. The parade will then hang a right on 58th Avenue and head east before terminating at 177B Street.
Last month, Paul Orazietti, executive director of the Cloverdale BIA, told the Cloverdale Reporter the parade always warms up spectators for the rodeo and fair.
"It raises the community’s spirit and welcomes people to Cloverdale for the rodeo."
The 77th Cloverdale Rodeo and the 134th Country Fair will be held May 16-19 (May long weekend) on the Cloverdale Fairgrounds.
For more info on the parade, the 77th Cloverdale Rodeo , or the 134th Country Fair, visit cloverdalerodeo.com.
