Advertisement

Head 'em out

 
Published Oct. 29, 1990|Updated Oct. 18, 2005

They came from St. Petersburg and Dade City and from as far away as Ceres, Calif., to ride atop animals with names like Wooly Bully, Bad News and Misfit. And more than 3,300 people, dressed in jeans and boots, chewing tobacco and dipping snuff, came to watch them under picture-perfect skies at the 14th annual Hernando County Cattlemen's Association Rodeo on Saturday and Sunday.

"Last year, we had some empty seats on Saturday, although Sunday is always a better day," said Sam Sikes, president of the Cattlemen's Association and rodeo chairman for the group. "But this year, with the weather and with some of the national sponsors ... we had the stands full both days.

The rodeo, which was at the Hernando County Fairgrounds, brought out an estimated 2,500 people last year.

Most of the 150 or so contestants in the two-day rodeo were from Florida. But it was no day at the beach for the cowboys and cowgirls, who vied for cash purses in typical Western-style rodeo events like steer wrestling, barrel racing, bareback bronco and bull riding.

As if staying atop hundreds of pounds of raging bull or bronco weren't enough, riders often were slammed into metal fences or trampled by the animals they sought to tame.

"They have to stay physically and mentally alert and in shape, that's for sure," said Sikes, who has a few head of cattle at his small ranch in eastern Hernando County. "I wouldn't do it."

The rodeo was no backyard dogie-and-pony show.

Like any modern-day sporting event, the rodeo had a grandstand announcer doing the play-by-play and telling the audience a bit about each cowboy or cowgirl. Meanwhile, another microphone-slinging announcer rode out on horseback after the events to do brief interviews with some of the contestants.

Next to the grandstand announcer sat a musician who plucked fast-paced country tunes on a guitar each time the chute on the stock pen slammed open and another rider-topped bull or calf roper rocketed into the oval arena.

The rodeo even had a "halftime" show. Appropriately, it featured trick roper J.W. Stoker of Weatherford, Texas.

Clad in a sparkling, bright white-and-turquoise outfit and chaps, Stoker wooed spectators as he stood on the back of his white palomino and jumped through a twirling loop of rope.

Sikes said the event cost about $15,000 _ what with paying for entertainers and advertisements, the horses and cattle, and the purses for winners. Most of the money comes from admission and corporate sponsors.

Profits from the rodeo are divided between the 90-member Cattlemen's Association, the Rotary Clubs of West Hernando and Brooksville and the Hernando County 4-H Club.

"Most of (the proceeds) will be used for programs to help the area youth and try to get them interested in careers in agriculture and livestock," Sikes said.

Plenty of future farmers and cowboys attended the rodeo Sunday.

Nine-year-old Brandon Ennis of Ridge Manor said he is going to be a cowboy _ at least part time _ when he grows up.

"I like the bareback riding the best," said Brandon, clad in jeans and a straw cowboy hat.

But don't ask Brandon's 8-year-old brother, Justin, about becoming a cowboy: He will have no part of it.

"Not me," Justin said while watching bronco riders Sunday afternoon. "You might get knocked off a horse or something."