PHOTOS: Yee-haw! Cowboy festival takes over Spallumcheen Ranch

People of all ages tried their hand at lassoing a wooden horse. (Brendan Shykora - Morning Star)

Multi-talented musician, storyteller and performer Duane Marchand played music throughout the day at the ranch Saturday. (Brendan Shykora - Morning Star)

Horse cutting demos took place at the arena on the ranch throughout the day Saturday. (Brendan Shykora - Morning Star)

Wagon rides are a popular part of O’Keefe Ranch, and the wagon was busy giving tours on Saturday. (Brendan Shykora - Morning Star)

The Cowboy Bunkhouse was built in 1941 and is staged as a replica of the type of dwelling the O’Keefe Ranch cowboys would have lived in. (Brendan Shykora - Morning Star)

O’Keefe Ranch was bustling with cowboys and cowgirls during its second Cowboy Festival, which started Friday, Aug. 4, and wraps up Sunday, Aug. 6, 2023. (Brendan Shykora - Morning Star)

A crowd watched from the bleachers as cowboys demonstrated horse cutting Saturday. (Brendan Shykora - Morning Star)

Cowboys demonstrated how to separate a steer from a herd for the purposes of doctoring. (Brendan Shykora - Morning Star)

It was a rootin’ tootin’ good time Saturday at O’Keefe Ranch during the main day of the second annual Cowboy Festival.

Cowboys were on hand at the historic Spallumcheen ranch, demonstrating horse cutting throughout the day.

The festival began Friday, Aug. 4, with a cowboy dinner show and campfire, featuring toe-tapping music and mouthwatering food.

Saturday was jam-packed with activities for the whole family. In the morning, there was rodeo horse creation as well as a kids’ rodeo with prizes. Horse cutting demonstrations took place in three sessions, featuring Lee Poncelet, a horse trainer from Lavington for over 20 years who showed audiences how cowboys capture a cow if they need to treat it for ailments or infections.

There were also animal presentations featuring donkeys, lambs and sheep, and Ken Mather gave a presentation on Indigenous cowboy history at 3 p.m.

Multi-talented musician, storyteller and performer Duane Marchand performed live music throughout the day.

The day featured wagon rides, croquet on the mansion lawn, mini donuts served via food truck, cowboy hat and bonnet creation, old fashioned games at the quilt barn and goat petting at the goat pen.

Tonight, the ranch will wrap up its activities with a ticketed event involving cowboy poetry and music. A cowboy concert with local cowboy singers and poets Butch Falk, Gordie West, Ken Mather and Jocelyn Winterburn entertains guests from 7 to 9 p.m. There will also be a hoe-down where people can learn how to square dance and line dance.

“Last year we did that and it was extremely popular, people didn’t want us to shut it down,” said Greg Hurst, treasurer of O’Keefe Ranch, who was out enjoying the day with his border collie Piper.

“It’s just a lot of fun and it’s a great place for families, kids love the animals that we have, they’re all accessible, there’s just no better place to bring a family than out to the ranch for a day or two,” Hurst said.

Tomorrow morning will see Cowboy Church wrap up the festival. Rob Dinwoodie and his band will play some good old gospel music and share a short word, cowboy style.