A local cowboy is basking in post-Calgary Stampede glory today, after coming in first place in the Horse Cutting Competition finals.

Brad Pederson trains horses on his farm just north of Lacombe, and picked up over $10,000 in prize money at the Stampede on July 5th.

Horse cutting is when a riding duo is given two a half minutes to try and isolate a single cow, or ‘cut’ the cow from a herd, and are judged on their technique and horse maneuverings.

Pederson says since he trains horses for a living, he basically gets to practice horse cutting every single day.

“You spent a lot of time training them to be a cutting horse basically, and that’s what I spend my days doing I guess.

A lot of the horses Pederson trains ending up in shows, including the biggest outdoor show on earth, the Calgary Stampede.

“Well, hopefully, yea…I train horses for, well, anybody but a lot of them end up becoming a show horse, that’s kind of the goal when they come here is to be a show horse.”

He goes on to say that these are practical skills that most people who deal with cattle eventually have to learn.

“When you’re ranching you definitely have to learn. There are more practical uses for those horses too, I mean you gotta sort a cow off, or a calf off, and doctor them, or sort them just to ship them into town to sale and stuff like that.”

Pederson says he's been cutting horses competitively for about 30 years and has probably competed in the Calgary Stampede for about half of those.

His competitive season goes from March until about November, and Pederson, along with his wife Heather, who competes in the Non-pro competition, will be riding their stampede victory high as they get ready for shows in Nanton, Ponoka, and another one in Calgary later on this year.

He placed third in the past and also won the reserve in the finals, but this is his first victory, which netted him a cool $10,820.