Waurika prepares for ranch rodeo

Jeff Kaley

WAURIKA — There are several ways to measure the success of an event, the most common being how many attend and how much revenue it generates.

Since it first began in 2006, the Waurika Chamber of Commerce’s WRCA Ranch Rodeo has passed the ticket sales tests and income tests — each year, the two-day event at Coyote Hills Arena has drawn larger crowds and reaped more profit.

The 2009 Ranch Rodeo on July 10 and 11 should continue the upward trends in attendance and fundraising. But along with those measures of success, the popularity of the rodeo can also be gauged this year by two other factors — there’s a new event being added to the schedule and it appears a large group of vendors hopes to get in on the action.

“We’ve always had some vendors come, but this year I think there are going to be more vendors setting up shop during the rodeo,” said Chamber President Brad Scott. “There will be a lot of things for sale, and we’ll be setting up the vendors around the stock pens.

“I think having more vendors wanting to participate reflects that the rodeo has become successful and gotten a reputation.

“Plus, we’re also going to have a new event on Saturday morning, which is a ranch horse competition.”

Carl Gholson, one of the primary organizers of the Carl Gholson, one of the primary organizers of the rodeo, said the horse competition that begins at 9 a.m. on July 11 “will give the cowboys something to do during the day Saturday.”

Each ranch can enter up to two horses, one a show horse and the other a working ranch horse.

“The horses will have to walk, trot and lope following a set pattern. They’ll also have to do lead changes and other things that are consistent with both ‘dry’ work and cow work,” Gholson said.

The horse event isn’t the only thing new this year. While most teams from the 2008 competition have returned, the 12 entries include two new competitors — Redwine Cattle Co. of Throckmorton, Texas, and the combined Blasi Cattle Co. and MR Cattle Co. from Nowata and Ramona.

Two local teams, Stuart Ranch and the Drummond Land & Cattle Co., are back for another shot at $4,800 that goes to the overall winning team. Plus, the Tongue River Ranch crew from Dumont, Texas, returns to defend its 2008 title.

Payoffs for placing among the top four teams remain the same, and each member of the winning team receives a belt buckle. Because the Waurika rodeo is sanctioned by the Working Ranch Cowboys Association, the winning team also qualifies to participate in the WRCA World Championship, which is held in November in Amarillo, Texas.

Scott noted there will also be prizes going to winners of each of the six individual events, which include a new event — wild cow riding.

Here’s a look at the other five traditional events at a ranch rodeo, all of which are timed events:

• Ranch bronc riding: This is a familiar event at any rodeo and is the core of the ranch rodeo format. It reinforces the relationship between the cowboy and the horse. Riders try to stay aboard a bronco for a full eight seconds.

• Wild cow milking: When a heifer stops producing milk during calving season, somebody has to check the cow for milk and get it to the young’un. Three cowboys contain a cow and one of them tries to get the cow to squirt milk into a long neck bottle.

• Ranch team sorting: This is a basic cowboy function, separating certain cows or calves from a herd.

• Team doctoring: This event simulates the process of a cowboy recognizing a sick animal, determining its treatment and then roping the cow to give it medication.

• Team branding: Determining ownership remains crucial to cattle ranching, and it highlights another basic — the spring roundup. All the cowboys involved have to show their skills in riding, roping, sorting and handling a calf, which is then “branded” with paint or flour.

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