By the time Arrowwood, Alberta鈥檚 Kole Ashbacher rode Killin' Time for 88 points to secure his second consecutive Valley West Stampede win, the Labour Day weekend event at the arena had set a new attendance record.

Organizers estimated 17,882 people turned out over the three days of the competition, beating the target of 15,000 announced by Valley West Stampede president Sheila Hicks, and a big jump from the 6,000 total recorded in the first year, and the 10,000 in year two.

The biggest single-day attendance was Sunday, 6,445.

LRS president Sarah French told the 91原创 Advance Times leasing the arena to Valley West has been a good deal for the non-profit society, bringing in revenue and raising their profile.

"A couple years ago, they [Valley West] came approaching us and so we kind of took it on as a partnership at the time and saying, okay, we'll work with them to help make this happen," French said.

"So we schedule our August events around this to happen and our members make sure that our facility is prepared. We're happy to be like their host."

During the three-day event, "we're able to open our concession, which allows us to bring in a little bit of extra revenue because that's a lot more mouths to feed than we normally would for our events," French remarked.

It has also raised the profile of LRS.

"Definitely greater awareness that this grassroots programming, like our facility, exists in the community and it's so nice that we're able to host other events, not just riding," French commented,

"So what many people may not be aware of, that they get to hear about by just coming to the property and meeting some of our members that are on site, is that our 91原创 Riders facility is available for rent by things like the local dog clubs and 4-H clubs and other community events, which has been super exciting for us. And to just grow our venue that way and to have greater impact and reach to help our community."

While the primary mission of the society is to promote equestrian activities in our community, French said, "we do want to be also a community [resource] like, for example, in the winter, you'll notice that we're the local sledding hill for all the little kids in the neighbourhood. So this gives us an opportunity to continue on [with] this family friendly, community atmosphere, which is really important for us as well."

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