Cyril Bender's Budweiser wagon, a project decades in the making, was named People's Choice for the Better Living.--NEWS PHOTO SAMANTHA JOHNSON
It was a project that took half a century to complete, spanning two generations and an extended period of downtime. On Saturday, Cyril Bender was awarded the People’s Choice Award for the Budweiser wagon, its second ribbon at the Better Living show at the Medicine Hat Stampede.
Bender’s father, who died about 40 years ago, was the carver and the horses were completed at the time of his death. Bender and his wife were the builders of the wagon, and the finished product was entered into this year’s Better Living show.
“My parents farmed at Hilda in the early ’50s,” explained Bender. “For whatever reason, one day my day decided to take a piece of fence post and started carving miniature bulls. These bulls were unique with horns made from mature rooster spurs. It’s not something you see very often, but if you let a rooster mature, they will grow spurs on the back of their legs that are about three inches long, curved and very sharp. They are designed for fighting.”
Rooster spurs were the exact size and shape Bender’s dad needed to make the horns for his bulls. The carvings are done using cedar, so are lighter than they look. Bender also entered two bulls his dad had carved, both taking home ribbons as well.
“Those bulls, he never sold one. He gave them away to farm families in the area. He also did some horses that were the same size as well and he gave those away,” stated Bender.
After his father passed away, Bender found the team of horses among his possessions.
“I had them for about 40 years and didn’t do anything with them. A couple of years ago I realized that he probably started this Budweiser wagon thing, so we completed it,” said Bender.
Bender, with support from his wife, built the wagon to scale. They looked at pictures of Budweiser wagons and each one had a dalmatian dog on it, so they added one. The clothing on the men driving the wagon took two days to complete. The grain of the wood is horizontal on the body of the horses but vertical for the legs, to make them stronger. If you look closely, you can see where the legs are joined to the body. The spokes on the wheels were made from chopsticks, courtesy of the Medicine Hat Buffet.
With no power on the farm at Hilda, Bender’s father did all his carving by hand.
“When my dad was younger, he was raised with horses. He knew harnesses and these are all done to scale,” said Bender. “I wouldn’t have a clue how to do a horse’s harness.”
