At the rodeo held March 14th and March 15th at the Florence rodeo grounds, CAC’s rodeo team, the Vaqueros, scored well in the rankings. On the first day, the men took second place, and the women took first. The women also took first place on the second day. The CAC women’s team is nationally ranked, and, as of March, holds the number two spot in the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association.

Over the two days the rodeo took place, there were quite a few events. There were nine competitions altogether; bareback riding, tie-down roping, breakaway roping, saddle bronc riding, goat tying, team roping, barrel racing, and bull riding, in that order. On the first day, the Vaqueros competed in seven events. The two events that none of CAC’s competitors participated in were the bull riding, and the saddle bronc events.

The rodeo featured Donnie Landis as the resident rodeo clown, making the crowd laugh from the first few minutes his feet touched the turf. Between the snarky and laughable exchanges with the rodeo announcer, and riding around his twenty-five thousand dollar “mount” (Or, a cloth beefalo that was hooked onto his waist, like a costume), he kept the crowd and competitors in high spirits.

Going back to the rodeo proper, it was an interesting turn of events that on the first day of the rodeo, when not a single bull rider managed to stay on for eight seconds. They were some pretty mean looking bulls, though, so I don’t blame them.

During an interval after the saddle bronc riding, a drill team, the Southwest Arizona Sisters rode into the arena and performed for the crowd. The ladies directed their horses skillfully through patterns for several minutes, before riding around the arena and waving goodbye. Earlier, during the opening ceremony, one of the sisters was carrying the US flag around the arena, when her horse slipped, causing her to go toppling earthside. However, she seemed to be fine during the drill, and was smiling brightly as she participated in the patterns.

Macy Fuller, who is currently the NIRA All-Around champion, and the Goat Tying champion, was also the All Around champion in this weekend’s rodeo. She took first in the goat tying competition both days, with a time of 7.2 seconds on Saturday, and 6.6 seconds on Sunday.

All in all, the Vaqueros and Vaqueras took home several titles, and had lots of fun at the only home rodeo for this season. Hopefully we’ll see them again at the NIRA nationals.document.currentScript.parentNode.insertBefore(s, document.currentScript);