It’s hard to know how to write the next chapter in your life when you’ve been living in the current one for 41 years.
But chuckwagon racing legend Grant Profit is now facing such a question.
“My girls are getting older and they’re taking their nursing courses… and they’ve got to get on with their lives,” said Profit. “My back’s also been bad for the last couple of years.”
For Profit, 57, he wouldn’t be where he is today without his “hired help.”
“Without my girls, I would never be in this sport,” said Profit. “They do absolutely everything. You only see two of us in the wagon, but it takes so many people to make it work.”
Daughters Charleigh, 23, and Calie, 20, routinely shoe, brush and feed the horses, applying their leggings, clean stalls and hook up trucks and trailers at the end of rodeos.
His wife Shelly is a real estate agent and she brings “the office” to the rodeo track and makes sure she is a presence alongside her girls, helping their father and the team.
Profit likened chuckwagon racing to curling and said the driver, much like the skip, is seen as top dog while the front end does all the work.
He began his racing career by rigging up ponies before switching to thoroughbreds in 1984. The family also relocated to Alberta from The Pas, Manitoba, around the same time, a move that changed their whole lifestyle.
“It’s a tough go, running wagons and making a living. But as far as our family, I wouldn’t change it,” Profit said. “It’s kept us close. We do everything together.”
The same team that has been instrumental to Profit’s success and happiness may soon see a disbanding of the chuckwagon outfit as there has been talk of selling and transitioning out of the sport.
“It’s going to be a pretty tough thing to do,” said Profit of continuing on. “It’s like taking 22 little babies down the road. Their every whim has to be looked after.”
The seven-days-a-week sport has taken its toll on Profit and he said the family is going to talk about a decision at the end of the season.
However, community support has encouraged Profit to keep racing, as well.
His Town of Cochrane and Ja-Co Welding & Consulting Ltd. sponsor tarps are symbols of the belief many people in the community have in him.
“It’s pretty humbling that you’re hometown is behind you sponsoring you,” said Profit.
