The celebrations were on for the Megeds on the Fourth of July.
One set off by a win by local-lass Shelby in ladies breakaway roping at the Calgary Stampede.
And another lit for the victory by her hubby, Haven, in tie-down roping at the Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth.
Yup … two bronzes made for quite the fireworks fest for the family — one that’s freshly three now — to help celebrate the holiday.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah … it’s a great Fourth of July, you know?” said American tie-down roper Haven Meged, who’s hitched to breakaway roper Shelby Boisjoli-Meged from nearby Langdon, Alta.
“I don’t think we’ve both won it the same day here,” continued Meged. “I won the championship here in ’24, and she won in ’25. So I think that’s the closest as it’s come, I guess, for us.”
Indeed, there was much joy last summer when Boisjoli-Meged made history last summer by lassoing the Stampede’s first-ever breakaway roping title.
Being a local cowgirl, she was kind of lifted up to royalty status by the fans at GMC Stadium.
And this year, the breakaway queen has returned to Stampede with a prince in tow.
The Megeds’ little boy, Wylder, is just nine weeks old, but that didn’t stop him from being up on stage to help mom and dad accept their bronzes Saturday.
“Now, we’ll go to sleep,” said Meged, when asked how they will mark the occasion beyond enjoying the limelight at the stadium. “We’re sleeping. We’re not out there partying.
“And we’ll buy some diapers with the money.”
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First, it was Meged with the tie-down triumph — he took just 7.0 seconds to get the job done for the $7,000 first-place prize. That puts him on top of all ropers with a two-day total of $13,250 with Pool A’s final day on tap Sunday.
Then a little later on Saturday, it was Boisjoli-Meged with a lightning-quick 2.5 wrap for the victory — and another $7,000 — in the ladies breakaway roping event.
For Boisjoli-Meged, she shook off a rough start to the Stampede that saw her calf get away on her in Friday’s first go-round.
But you had to know the defending queen would be back up to snuff on Day 2.
At least, those in the stands figured she would.
“I didn’t know,” admitted Boisjoli-Meged. “I was pretty nervous. I knew that I had a great calf, and I had a chance, but confidence-wise, I didn’t know anything.”
Given she’s a new mom and has just returned to her roping after her pregnancy and Wylder’s arrival, her uneasiness is understood.
“It’s been pretty tricky coming back, especially trying to find my competitive edge,” Boisjoli-Meged said. “I’m just kind of wired. I just worry about Wylder all the time — he’s all I think about. So it’s been hard of kind of just to tell myself to focus on my business here and my job.
“I’m slowly getting back to that.”
It hasn’t been a smooth road in their recent rodeo travels, either.
Just last week, they were roping B.C.’s Williams Lake Stampede when their vehicle broke down.
“Yeah … the rig — our bus — broke down, when the DPF system clogged up,” Meged said. “But we won in Williams Lake, so that money took care of it.”
“We need to send a huge shout-out to Carleigh King and her family,” continued Boisjoli-Meged. “They sent us with their pickup, and then they met Haven with the bus and got their truck back from him in the mountains, and he was able to get to the Ponoka Stampede, and we were actually able to get to this rodeo, too. So we wouldn’t have been able to do it all this last week or so without really good people. They’d never met us before, and they just brought their truck and gave it to us for the week.”
And here they were Saturday, celebrating two-fold at the Stampede.
“Her family’s from up here,” added Meged, of Miles City, Mont. “So it’s great to have everybody up here and for us to both get a win in front of her hometown.”
tsaelhof@postmedia.com