Rodeo ready to ride

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The High Plains Junior Rodeo Association Finals will run Wednesday through Saturday at the Curry County Events Center.

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It’s mid-July in Clovis. It means hot weather, but it also means rodeo and family.

Clovis, and more specifically the Curry County Events Center, will play host once again to the High Plains Junior Rodeo Association Finals. The HPRJA, which was chartered in Clovis in 1974 and now boasts around 250 members from New Mexico, Texas and Oklahoma, is ending its 12-rodeo season with the four-day event.

Organizers said it should bring just over 100 rodeoers 19 and younger to compete for dozens of saddles and other prizes.

Clovis has been the home of the finals throughout most of the association’s existence, and the city is contracted to keep the finals through 2017.

“It’s central,” Association President Bob Holt said of Clovis. “When I was a kid, it was always there. They moved to Lovington for a little bit, had the finals, but they would end back up in Clovis. After Clovis built that indoor facility, you wouldn’t have to go anywhere else. It would rain (in other years and) they’d have to move to Portales. Now that they’ve got the indoor arena, (rain is) no big deal.”

The rodeo starts at 8 p.m. Wednesday with a dad’s barrel race, but the rest of the week is daytime rodeo for the kids with the night set aside for family time. The kids will rodeo at 9 a.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

The only night events are the dad’s barrel race on Wednesday, and an optional parent/contestant team roping event Friday night.

Family events in the evening include a family fun event with stick-horse races and pie-eating contests Thursday night, a dance Friday and the awards dinner on Saturday.

Holt said the family aspect has always been part of the rodeo, but the regular season schedule now builds more camaraderie.

“Say we come to Lovington. It’s a two-day rodeo and you see everybody,” Holt said. “Previously, there might be three different performances and you might not see people all year. They see each other every weekend now. Back then, there were a few you saw every weekend, but sometimes you wouldn’t see some people until the finals.”

Kelsy Abel, a Jal native who now lives in Hobbs, said the socializing remains his favorite part of the rodeo. He first started in the HPJRA when he was 9 and he now watches his daughters do a half-dozen events.

“When I was growing up, I did calf roping and breakaway,” Abel said. “That’s about the only thing my girls do that’s close to what I do. It’s more interesting to me than the barrels and poles.”

Fortunately for Abel, it’s more comfortable to support daughters Rylee and Anistyn than it was for his parents.

“These days, it’s air conditioners, indoor facilities, like in Clovis, which is very nice,” said Abel, who credits the Clovis-Curry County Chamber of Commerce — particularly Karen McDaniel and Courtney Bailey — for making the finals go so smoothly.

“Back in the day, I remember my parents used to take a shower under a raincoat. Everything was an outdoor arena. Now there are all kinds of living-quarter trailers. Everything’s gotten a lot nicer.”