David Cowley took his 16th trip to the top of the Calgary Tower this past Saturday (July 5) – his 16th trip riding a horse that is.
Cowley, from the Rafter Six Ranch Resort, has been riding up the elevator to the top of the Calgary Tower on his horse for the last 15 Stampedes – making it a yearly Calgary tradition.
“There is not really anywhere else in the world that you can see something like that,” said Cowley in an interview a day prior to his annual trip to the top.
Cowley has trained six different horses to go up the tower and has made over 40 trips in the last 16 years. This year, he took his horse Tucker to the top for the second year in a row.
The event may sound like some sort of crazy college dare, but Cowley said it is designed to show people “the kind of bond that is possible with your horse.”
This bond is an important part of Stampede culture according to Cowley.
He said the training involves a lot of trust and consistency and he has developed a “sixth sense” of when the horse is ready to go up.
“It’s a lot of stuff I have developed myself over the years through trial and error,” he said. “It’s really all about trust, so I have to trust him as much as he trusts me.”
Cowley was 19 years old when he made his first trip and said he had a horse at the time that developed a reputation for doing anything for Cowley. He said he would ride him into the main lobby of the lodge at Rafter Six and once people heard about it, a few other hotels started to ask if he would ride in for Stampede functions. Cowley said he agreed in an effort to get some publicity for the ranch and, for the most part, to have a bit of fun.
“All of a sudden, I got requests from bars, nightclubs, hotels and Stampede parties all over the city to ride in and add to the atmosphere,” explained Cowley.
Cowley said he thought that these events were easy and he wanted something that would pose a challenge.
Cowley said he stepped out of the Delta Bow Valley Hotel in downtown Calgary, looked up at the tower and thought, “I wonder if they will let me go up there?”
Cowley said after everything turned out well the first time up the Calgary Tower, it became a tradition.
As far as how long Cowley will continue to make the trek to the top, he said as long as the Calgary Tower allows him to keep going up, he’ll be game.
