By Julie Johansen
Since 2014, the Emery High Rodeo club has been sponsoring the Cowboys Memorial Rodeo with Dawnette and Kevin Gordon and Shannon and Cory Cloward as well as help from all the members and parents at the helm. It is an Rocky Mountain Professional Rodeo Association (RMPRA) sanctioned rodeo, adding to the competitors’ qualifying amounts for the finals later in the year. This annual event draws cowboys and cowgirls from all over the western states. This year was no exception as visitors joined several local cowboys and cowgirls.
The stock was furnished by Circle J and the announcer came from Wyoming. Some specialty events were added to the usual rodeo activities, which included a watermelon crawl for six, seven and eight year old kids, a four-year-old boot race and the ever-favorite buddy barrel race. Zane and Jess Magnuson challenged the older teams on their miniature pony, a highlight of the evening.
In conjunction with the event, Miss Emery County Royalty sold CMR t-shirts for a chance to win $100. The jumbo-tron, sponsored by Emery Telcom and Emery County Travel Bureau, added a close-up dimension to the rodeo along with replays.
A special attraction this year was McArthur’s mini-bulls and the youngsters who competed on them. This is new sport is gaining much popularity.
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- Photos by Jeff Barrett
