by Camie Leard
You can almost hear the spaghetti Western music when you picture Jimmy Nevada stepping off the plane into the desert dust. The heat rising from the tarmac blurs the distance in shiny waves as his boots meet the blistering pavement.
He is the only man within 3,000 miles with a black cowboy hat. It’s pulled low over his eyes to block the intense sun. He’s come a long way and he’s got a job to do.
But this isn’t the Wild West. It’s Muscat, Oman in 2005 and the ironic paradox of the global village becomes amusingly apparent when Nevada and his wife, Kim, from Airdrie, Alberta, are whisked away in an air-conditioned car driven by a rap-loving, hip-hopping, dishhasha-wearing Omani named Salam.
The story of the cowboy and the rapper began the year before when an Omani delegation visited the Calgary Stampede and fell in love with the chuckwagon races. The story of the Arabs and their horses goes back to the Bedouin tribes of 3,000 BC and Omanis pride themselves on their equestrian capabilities. In fact, the Sultan still employs a royal Calvary and equestrian sports are something the Omani people take very seriously.
So, when the delegation witnessed the speed, the danger, and the excitement of the GMC Rangeland Derby, they wanted to take it back with them to Oman. Of course, transplanting a Western Canadian tradition into the heart of Arabia was a lot easier said than done. But Airdrie’s Jim Nevada was up to the challenge.
“I got a call from an old municipal district cop named Arnie Wilson who said this travel agent had gotten an assignment from the Omani government: they wanted to bring chuckwagon racing to Oman,” says Nevada. And Arnie Wilson thought he’d be the right man for the job.
Nevada has been involved in the chucks since he was 13 years old working for Ronnie David mucking out stalls. Then he started outriding, and after two years on the horse, he took the reins and started driving chucks in 1984.
“I started lower on the ladder than most as I didn’t have family in the sport,” he says. But ever the entrepreneur, Nevada offered to outride for guys in return for transporting his team – an expense he just couldn’t afford.
He’s come a long way from those early days. Among his many accomplishments, in 2005, Nevada won the Newalta Clean Drive Award at the Rocky Mountain Turf Club Derby, and received two UFA Community Ambassador Awards at the Ponoka Stampede and the Klondike Chuckwagon Derby. Two years ago, Nevada claimed the Ralph Vigen Memorial Award for the Top Aggregate Chuckwagon at the Grande Prairie Stompede. But Nevada says the achievement he’s most proud of came in 1999 when he received the Calgary Stampede’s prestigious Guy Weadick Award, qualified for the Calgary Stampede’s sudden death championship final heat and was named the WPCA’s Chuckwagon Person Of The Year.
This year, he’s taking a break. As the father of an eight-year-old son, Nevada has troubling memories of his own childhood that make him want to be at home more.
“My father has been gone since I was 10 years old,” he says. “I’ve been on the road since I was 13 – I’d like to spend some time with my son. That’s the biggest reason for the break.”
So, with his boots off the wagon and on the ground, Nevada set out on his fact-finding mission for the Omanis.
“I called Ray Osterman to find out how long it would take to build five wagons and how much it would cost,” he says. “It’s not like a corner store. You can’t say ‘I’ll have five wagons to go, please.’”
After several months and many, many phone calls, the Omanis decided to acquire refurbished wagons, sending Nevada on another hunt.
“I made some calls, and all of a sudden I was loaded with wagons. Suddenly, everybody wanted to sell their wagons,” he says. Under the deadline given to him by the Omanis, Nevada had less than three weeks to get all of the wagons to his farm in Airdrie, clean them up, fix them and get them on a train to Montreal where they’d be picked up by boat.
“I called every friend I had and pulled in every favour I could,” he laughs. He managed to meet the deadline and ship the wagons off. Then, he got another call.
“Now they wanted me to go over there and put them together and show them how to drive the things,” he says. “It was a very nerve-wracking decision. When you think of the Middle East, you think of rocket launchers and suicide bombers. But we decided to go.”
Of course, getting there presented a challenge of its own. “I have 36-inch legs, so there was no way I was making that trip in economy,” he says. “So they agreed to a first-class ticket. But when the tickets came, I got a call from Kim and she was crying. They had put her in economy and me in first class. In the interest of my marriage, I paid to have the ticket bumped up to first class.”
But all of the nervousness and apprehension (Kim had dyed her hair black for fear her blonde locks would draw attention) melted away when they arrived in Oman and Salam, the rapping Cavalryman, picked them up at the airport.
“I’ve been all over the world, and this is a place you’d never think to go on your vacation, but it was probably one of the most interesting places I’ve ever been to,” says Nevada. “We met some great people and made some great friends. In the end, I was choked that I didn’t have a few more days to see the country.”
Not that it was all fun and games. When Nevada arrived, the wagons were still on a truck somewhere between Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and Muscat. When they did arrive, finding the right tools to assemble the wagons was like trying to find a banana split in the Sahara Desert.
“There was a language barrier for sure,” says Nevada. “It took three days to get a horsepower drill and Salam had to translate everything.” But as Salam and “Mr. Jim the Canadian Carriage Driver,” as Nevada came to be called worked together, they forged a friendship that would last a lifetime.
Finally, the wagons were assembled and hitched up and ready to go.
“I hopped in the back and Salam was driving,” recalls Nevada. “I began laughing out loud. This guy could drive!” Harnessed to the finest Arabian horses of the Omani Royal Calvary, a piece of the Calgary Stampede and of Western Canadian history took off in the Middle East.
“The speed wasn’t there, but they could really drive those things,” says Nevada. “We needed to talk about getting some Thoroughbreds over there.”
Under the Omani’s original plan, they would conduct races in a stadium something like McMahon Stadium in Calgary, AB. Nevada said no-way.
“You can’t drive chucks in a space that small,” he says. “It’s dangerous. So we had a Plan B where they’d have other drivers come over from Canada to pull a show-off for the Sultan.” Drivers like Jason Glass, Troy Dorchester and Chad Hardin were on the list.
However, after eight days in the desert, the cowboy was scheduled to head home where he was met with rumours that he’d made $100,000 (Nevada says he barely made enough to cover his expenses) in Oman and questions as to why he was chosen as opposed to a more recognizable name.
“When it came time to make the decision of going back in January,” he says. “I decided that I needed to clean up my own back yard and set the record straight before bringing anyone else over there with me.”
In the meantime, Nevada is enjoying his role as the man in charge of Canadian operations for Roper, a Western wear outfitter supplying Western apparel retail stores as well as corporate logowear – a job that indulges one of Nevada’s other passions: fashion.
“Don’t laugh,” he says. “I pick out 70 per cent of Kim’s clothes. I have one of the only wives who gets mad if I don’t buy her clothes for Christmas.”
With a new promotion under his belt buckle and the controversy surrounding his visit to Oman having died down, Nevada is ready to get the Arabian chuckwagon project underway once more.
This summer, the Omanis are donning their Stetsons and heading for Calgary to learn the ropes of chuckwagon racing. Having arrived on July 18, the delegation has come to learn about the history of the chuckwagons, how events are run, and the entire culture surrounding this sport beloved by Western Canadians.
“They’ll be here for three weeks and we’ll be taking them on an actual tour of events,” says Nevada. “They’ll go through the actual routine and be with the drivers and their horses every day … they’ll learn the difference between an Arabian and a Thoroughbred.”
While Nevada didn’t make his fortune bringing chuckwagon racing to the Arabs, he certainly takes satisfaction in his role in the project.
“The Omanis pride themselves on being great horsemen,” he says. “Their national holiday has a horse theme and I want chuckwagon racing to be a part of that.
Here in Western Canada, we don’t have to be the only game in town. There is an opportunity to take this sport onto an international stage. I think it’s something we can be very proud of.”
Reprinted with permission from Business in Calgary.
Spruce Meadows went back to its roots this summer by adding the “Skyliner” tournament – specifically tailored for Junior and Amateur riders – to its roster of summer competitions.
Dear Alpha Mare:
The sole Canadian entry at the Fort Howes CEI*** 100-mile Endurance Race was ZF Mocha ridden by Trisha Dowling, DVM of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
From June 18 to 25, 2006, Canada’s Steele’s Scouts Cavalry re-enacted a march along the Whoop-Up Trail from Sweetgrass to Fort Benton, Montana.
The world-renowned Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Musical Ride was recently “strutting their stuff” at the Spruce Meadows’ North American Tournament (July 5 to 9, 2006) in Calgary, AB, as well as at Capital Ex in Edmonton (July 20 to 29, 2006). So, what better time than now to learn more about these fabulous horses and what their lives are like on the road as part of the Musical Ride. 
In many equine classes, achieving championship status, at least partially, relies on having a costly, exceptional horse, where the dedication and skills of the rider are secondary to the quality of the horseflesh beneath.
