Wild West Weekend In Cheney
Cowboys have been kicking up dust and splashing mud at the Cheney Rodeo for 28 years and Ron Miller has seen most of them.
Miller, a wheat and barley farmer from Rock Lake, Wash., sat in the corner of the white corrals, perched atop the same fence post he has worn down for more than 20 years.
“I had to get here early to get my favorite seat,” Miller said.
Nearly 275 competitors will have darted out of gates by the time the weekend is over, including Gilbert and Adam Carrillo, a pair of 23-yearold bull-riding twin brothers from Stephenville, Texas.
“It’s a real thrill-seeker event,” Adam said. “It’s something I’ve always wanted to do. Everybody likes to watch the bull riders.”
Coincidentally, the Carrillos drew a pair of bull brothers to ride Saturday night.
“You can’t get any greater excitement than getting up on a 2,000 pound bull,” Gilbert added.
Bob McClure and his daughter, Molly, 4, and son Kyle, 8, were among a standing-room-only crowd of well over 3,000 sun-soaked fans that filled the bleachers and raided the concession stands.
It was their first time at the rodeo, but both like to ride horses. Kyle hoped to get into the rodeo one day, but Molly had other ideas.
“No,” she said shyly from behind the bill of her baseball cap when asked if she too hoped to be in the rodeo.
Fans continued to trickle in 40 minutes after the rodeo started. Cars formed quarter-mile lines in each direction, waiting patiently for a place to park.
“It has been growing every year and getting better every year,” said Cheney Rodeo treasurer Vonice Parker, surveying a field full of cars. “It’s popping out at the seams today.”
The rodeo wasn’t the only activity Saturday. Hundreds of rodeo fans packed First Street in downtown Cheney in celebration of the town’s biggest weekend of the year.
Scarcely a whisper was left of the 90 minute parade as the time for the rodeo drew near. A half-dozen street vendors and dozens of paper cups were all that remained as local band Cornerstone took its instruments off the flatbed truck that had acted as their stage only hours earlier.
“It’s the last bash before harvest,” said rodeo veteran Miller, whose dad and three brothers run a 20,000 acre farm that has been passed down from his grandfather.
The rodeo began with amateur status before joining the Professional Cowboy Rodeo Association circuit six years ago. It has since become one of the largest rodeos on the circuit. The $30,000 in prize money the rodeo offered was the fourth largest of the 21 rodeos this weekend.
“The original purpose was to have a place for families to get together to ride horses,” said Don Wood, Cheney Rodeo president. “The initial purpose was never to have a rodeo. It just happened.”
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