Ralph was born in Calgary on May 10, 1928 and lived in Rosebud for most of his life.
Ralph’s dad taught him how to ride and break horses and while Ralph was going to school he broke many horses earning $5/head. At 14 years old, Ralph entered his first bareback competition at Hand hills Lake Stampede and finished 3rd. By the age of 20, he owned his own string of approximately 30 bucking horses. He trailed these horses from Youngstown to the Calgary Stampede picking up horses along the way from Cosgrave’s to the Stampede grounds.
He ended up with approximately 200 head when they (Ralph, Dale Flett, Jim Armstrong, and Jack MacDonald) arrived at the Calgary Stampede grounds. Ralph sold bucking horses to Dick Cosgrave, Reg Kesler & Bruce Flewelling throughout the years. In 1950, at the age of 22, Ralph outrode for Bob Heberling who won the Calgary Stampede Championship and Ralph was one of the outriders who won the Outriding Championship. The next year Ralph started driving his own chuckwagon.
In 1951, Ralph took a Farrier course at Trout Springs and then shoed many wagon and track horses collecting a dollar for each foot shoed. In 1952 Ralph worked for the CNR (Canadian National Railway) and made $1.27 /hr. driving spikes and laying ties from Rockyford to Beynon.
Ralph married Babe Lauder in 1953 and they had 2 children, Laurell and Gary. They divorced in 1958. Ralph worked in 4 different coal mines (Nacmine, East Coulee and 2 different mines in Rosebud) and was the top loader in 3 of them. Ralph worked sometimes after supper until midnight to earn extra money to buy more horses.
In 1953 Ralph went to Lacombe and entered his wagon, took 2 seconds penalty and still won. Wilf Carter, the Country & Western singer, was there to sing after the show. Wilf and a few cowboys ended up in Ralph’s hotel room later and the party carried on until daylight.
In 1954 Ralph was in Hanna chuckwagon racing when his house burned down in Rosebud and he lost everything. Ralph left the chuckwagon circuit and worked on the drilling rigs East of Brooks for a while. Ralph had enough of the rigs when he ended up in the hospital for treatment of frostbite to face and hands after being exposed to extreme windchills when standing up on the wide-open derrick when it was -30 degrees F.
In 1962, Ralph met Faye in Brooks and they were married soon after. After having their daughter, Shauna, they moved to Chilliwack B.C. While Ralph lived in B.C. he bought and sold Holstein calves, buying them in B.C. and hauling and selling them in Alberta by the hundreds. Ralph soon got into racing thoroughbreds, driving a chariot and eventually started driving chuckwagons once again. In the day of Ralph’s competitive chuckwagon driving, Ralph and his horses became a force to be reckoned with on the professional chuckwagon circuit. Ralph put together top wagon teams on his own without having any big sponsors with large pools of sponsorship money and many horses to choose from. Ralph relied on his experience and knowledge of horses to build his wagon teams, one horse at a time.
It took quite some time for Ralph to get enough horses together for two wagon teams and soon began breaking track records. Ralph set 4 track records in the towns of Bassano, Byemoor, Lake McGregor and Lacombe. Eight different chuckwagon drivers who won the Calgary Stampede were driving a horse on their wagon that was bought from Ralph. (Richard Cosgrave-Pushin Fate, Jason Glass-Hanuman Highway, Ronnie Glass-Lars Percina, Ward Willard-Rugged Art, Dave Lewis-Freddie, Hank Willard-Cherry Cup, Bill Greenwood-Run A Lot, Slim Helme-Stein Song).
Ralph acquired the horse, Hanuman Highway who ran 7th in the 124th running of the Kentucky Derby and sold him to Jason Glass. While Ralph was in Chilliwack he organized a race meet where the World Professional Chuckwagons participated for the first time and it was a great show.
Many of Ralph’s accomplishments are in the horse racing archives. Ralph received the World Professional Chuckwagon Association lifetime membership award. Ralph won the 1973 American Chuckwagon Championship in Cheyenne Wyoming by 9 seconds and won the 1974 Lake McGregor Chuckwagon meet. One year while driving at the Coronation Stampede, Ralph was leading the show until he rolled his wagon on the last day. On his way home, he stopped in Drumheller and got an x-ray which revealed a broken thumb and forefinger. Ralph got a special cast put on which allowed him to continue driving for the rest of the year.
In 1975, Ralph was breaking some colts and needed some help, so he hired a man to help him and one day at breakfast the hired hand told him “I don’t have to go to the Calgary Stampede this year”. Ralph asked, “Why?” The hired hand replied, “because we have a Stampede here every day.”
After retiring from chuckwagon racing in 1976, Ralph raced horses on the tracks in B.C., Alberta, and Saskatchewan. Ralph also raised thoroughbred colts from 1976 to 1985. The Buzzard name as Breeder wasn’t uncommon to see under the winner’s category at any Alberta race track.
In 1988, Ralph was Lead Trainer and owned the horse Take Me To The Top, who was also Horse of the Year on the Alberta B Race Track. His horse, Northern Clipper, won the Millarville Derby in 1990. Ralph’s horses won over a hundred races. Ralph had two different herds of cattle, one Herford and the other herd were longhorns in the 1980s. Between 2004 and 2014, Ralph drove in parades and drove celebrities in the Calgary Stampede Parade.
In 2007 he drove Jann Arden and she was his favorite celebrity. Besides Calgary, Ralph drove in parades in Hussar, Strathmore, Standard, Gleichen, Rockyford, Rosebud, Drumheller, and Three Hills. Ralph’s many parade ribbons and trophies can be viewed at the Rosebud Museum.
