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Fred Palmantier back in the saddle again

Being a member of the older generation does not mean you need to sit in the rocking chair and contemplate life as it passes you by!
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Fred Palmantier rode his horse to round up cows at the Till Place on the third day of the Becher Prairie Roundup. it was a little bit cold but Fred was pretty warm and showed his true skill as a cowboy as he forgot his headstall and bit

Being a member of the older generation does not mean you need to sit in the rocking chair and contemplate life as it passes you by!

Freddy Palmantier who is well into the elder generation mode is proof of that.

Fred has been around for quite a spell in the Riske Creek area.

He has been a logger, he helped build a few of the buildings around Toosey in the 1970s, and he even began the Chilcotin Rodeo Association so that the local cowboys could have a rodeo to attend that was close by, generally in the Cariboo-Chilcotin area.

Once that association got well underway Fred started the Chilcotin Trails rodeo string of bucking bulls.

“I used to rodeo with Henry Bowe, with Gil Bowe and a lot of those guys,” Fred says. “We always looked after each other on the rodeo trail. We never let any of our buddies get stuck anywhere.

“But it seems as though we travelled a long way just to enter a rodeo so I thought ... why not have an association for rodeos closer to home. It was a good idea for quite awhile anyway.”

Fred’s best partner was Shirley, who passed away a few years ago due to health complications.

“She always went where ever I wanted to go. We set up camp and she`d cook meals for everybody. We always had the coffee pot on.”

But those days are over now, the CRA went out of business and Fred let his stock contracting go.

“Now I just ride for the Moon Ranch. I have had a few hard days where me and my dog have a li’l trouble getting those cows convinced to go where I want them to go but we got it done!”

Fred never gets in a hurry, just takes his time and gets the job done, never worries about the clock until after the job is finished.

Before he started to ride for the Moons, Fred was just waiting for his house to be finished at Toosey, but since he has been riding he has begun to look a lot better, walk a lot better and probably feels a whole lot better.

“Yes I was in a different line of work back in the day but look at me now. I ride every day, looking for and rounding up cows and moving them from one meadow to the next, I feel good. I’m happy I have a job!”