Roosevelt rodeo set to begin Saturday evening

PORTALES — If you can breathe, walk, ride and buck, the Roosevelt County rodeo wants you.

It’s mainly a youth rodeo that’s taking place at the Roosevelt County Mounted Patrol Arena in Portales this Saturday, but adults are more than welcome.

“As long as they can ride, up to 99 (years old),” rodeo organizer JoAnna Provencio said. “We have different age groups.”

It’s happening at 506 East Spruce Street in Portales, where the arena that was once abandoned has been resuscitated by a six-week rodeo Buckle Series and a separate weekly rodeo that happens the second weekend of each month.

Hence Saturday’s festivities, taking place Aug. 10 — the second week of this month.

“We would like to bring life back to rodeo. ... That’s part of the reason why we opened it up to everybody,” Provencio said. “We know there’s a need for everybody to come together and show what they know of their western heritage and come together as friends and family ... and have fun. It started out as a drive for the kids and it’s turned into a family event.”

According to Provencio, Mounted Patrol formed in 1949. In the 1990s it was leased to the city of Portales, which decided there was no more use for it when the county built the indoor arena at the fairgrounds and Little Wranglers Junior Rodeo moved there.

“And we figured it needed to be used,” Provencio said of the old arena, “so we started putting on, during the summer, just little play dates for kids to come out and play with the horses and learn.”

That was 2013. The ‘play dates’ were not part of a buckle series and cost $20 per child. “We tried to make it cheap enough for everybody to come out and ride,” Provencio said. “We just wanted to use all of the facilities. ... It sat there for a couple of years because nobody was using it. That’s why we decided to do something or we were going to have to get rid of it.”

Six years later, there’s the Buckle Series that begins on Memorial Day weekend and runs for five weekends after that. And there are these monthly Saturday-night rodeos that have various age-range groups — 5-and-under, 6-9, 10-12, 13-15 and 16-18 for kids, and then ‘Open’ for adults.

The entry fee is $10 per event, and any stock event has a $5 stock charge. There’s a 50 percent payback on the entry fee; the other 50 percent is kept for lights, updates on and upkeep of the arena.

The rodeo is open to the public, who can watch for free. The doors open Saturday at 5 p.m. and the rodeo starts at 6 p.m. The number of participants varies from year to year.

“It depends,” Provencio said. “I don’t take pre-entries, so it just depends sometimes. Sometimes we have 20, sometimes we have 30, sometimes we have five. It just depends on how busy people are.”

Provencio said the Buckle Series drew 30 contestants last year and 22 this year.

“We have been successful,” she said. “We were able to put up lights this year and we were able to move the Summer Buckle Series to night, which was great. Everybody was much happier and not as hot.”

Provencio says installing the lights came with much help from Roosevelt County Electric Cooperative.

“If it was not for Roosevelt County Electric we never could’ve gotten them up,” Provencio said, “We still could use some more lights, we still do have some shadows. But we’re getting there.”

With the lights available, it should be a fun Saturday.

“I would encourage people to come out and join us, even if it’s just to cheer the kids and the participants on,” Provencio said. “Anybody can go out there and ride.”

For information about the rodeo, upcoming events, or about leasing the facility, contact Provencio at 575-631-6291. Or look up Mounted Patrol of Roosevelt County on Facebook.