Stampede Horse Tragedy

An Alberta Centennial 200 kilometer trail ride to the Calgary Stampede has resulted in tragedy just kilometers from the ride's end.

Ten rodeo horses are dead after they fell off a 10 meter bridge in Calgary's southeast into the Bow River.

They were being led by a chuckwagon over an Ogden Road bridge when some of the horses got spooked bunched up on the bridge and then fell into the water.

Stampede officials call the accident a tragedy as the animals are the Stampede's star athletes.'' The annual Calgary Stampede begins Friday.

Animal rights activists criticize the stampede saying that herding 200 animals through a city of a million people is dangerous.