Why we Rodeo...
Why We Rodeo….
It starts as the sun comes up. People walk into the barn, talking quietly to their horses as they fill hay nets and water buckets. Leg wraps and fly sheets are taken off, horses are taken out for walks to the river or are turned out in the arena for some free time. The rough stock (the bucking horses) are fed truckloads of hay and huge pans of grain and they jostle and nudge one another to eat next to their favorite herd mate. With full bellies, and as the heat of the day rises, the horses rest, napping with legs cocked, quietly observing the tractor grading the arena, banners being hung, vendors unpacking their wares, the fairgrounds preparing for the evening performance.
Midday lopes or long walks down to the river break up the horses' time and connect them with their people, who are staying in trailers nearby. The rough stock herd is quietly sorted by their trusted cowboys, and then they settle in to nap again, laying out fat and shiny in the heaps of leftover hay in their pens.
As afternoon wanes, the energy level around the rodeo grounds starts to pick up, a subtle buzz that will grow gradually as day turns into evening. Horses in the barn are groomed, tails are braided, their protective boots are put on. Some are led to trailers by their riders, where they both will get “dressed”, a team ready to clock in to work together. You can see the relaxed faces of both the horses and riders becoming more focused, concentrating, preparing for their evening’s tasks.
As the music and the announcer call the arena to order, the vibration is palpable. Children line up for mutton busting, cotton candy flies off the wheel, beer and soda foam over in plastic cups, and all the town’s cowboy boots and jeans are on display in the stands. In Eagle County, most of us don't usually dress like this, but for this week every summer we do, trading in shorts and sandals for jeans and boots that don’t see much dirt or manure, but we like to imagine that maybe they could. Thousands of us gather each night for sold out seats: hard, cold benches that we will not feel, because we will be perched only on the edge of them, holding our breaths with eyes locked on the gate as athlete after athlete enters the arena to give it their all in front of the roaring crowd. The riders are incredible too, but it is the flared nostrils and streaming tails, the flat back ears and flashing hooves of the horse athletes that rivet our attention. For this one week, our entire town is rooting for the horses….and this is why MVHR supports our local PRCA rodeo.
Governed by a 250 page rule book, PRCA rodeos bring together the best that rodeo and western heritage has to offer. Athleticism, commitment, hard work, ethics, fairness, and animal husbandry. From the texture of the dirt to the tightness of the ropes, from the softness of the flank straps to the number of times they can “work” in a week, every detail of the animal handling within a PRCA rodeo arena has been considered, ensuring the best interests of the animals. The activities that have become rodeo competition were born in the pastures of ranches that founded our incredible country, and are still critical skills for ranchers today. For this one week a year, all of the rest of us get a close up peek at some of those skills, and just what it takes to raise and care for animals on our country’s ranches.
As the agricultural lands in our country, and especially in our county, dwindle, so too do the spaces for horses. Whether they are ranch horses or rodeo horses, trail horses or children’s ponies, with fewer ranches where horses work, with less open pasture for horses to be boarded on, with fewer small acreages where horses can live with their families, there are less horses for all of us. Horses to marvel at as we drive by, to feed apples to over the fence, to bond with on a trail ride, or for pony rides at the local farmers market. And this too, is why MVHR supports our local PRCA Rodeo when it comes to town once a year.
For these four nights, our community comes together to cheer on, be awed by, and love horses for the beautiful and incredible animals that they are. If horses could have a roaring crowd of supporters rooting for them every week of the year, if we could sit on the edge of our seats and throw our hands in the air to cheer when a pasture is kept a horse pasture, if we could always hold our breath when one breaks from the gate or races for home after the last barrel, and if we could always let a tear slip down our cheek when we see a magnificent herd like the one turned loose in the arena at the end of every rodeo night…if that passion and care for horses could live with us every week of the year….well, there might be fewer at risk horses, and MVHR might be out of work. And that would be okay. We would have more time to watch rodeos.
Shana Devins
Executive Director, Mountain Valley Horse Rescue
Picture is of Leila Devins, as ECFR Royalty Queen 2026 on Jet, a horse who she adopted from MVHR!