AS Region Nine gets ready for Rodeo 2024 in March, the Rupununi Ranchers’ Rodeo committee is looking to expand the body to help make the yearly event more attention-grabbing and appealing.

“We are looking for Lethem and Rupununi residents who can join the rodeo committee to share fresh ideas, bring enthusiasm to the team, and assist with making Rodeo 2024 better than ever!” the committee expressed.

If persons would like to join, they can contact the event coordinator, Rayson O’Connell, with a short sentence or two about why they would like to join and which sub-committee that they’d like to work with.

Some of these sub-committees focus on entertainment events and animals and the rodeo events. There is also a sub-committee for the History and Artisan booth and infrastructure-related matters.

The committee is looking for five applicants to be shortlisted per committee and will do a short interview to make sure the person is right for the job; only two or three persons may be chosen.

Meanwhile, the committee announced that it is opening Rodeo 2024 celebrations with a spectator photo competition for its Digicel Rupununi Ranchers’ Rodeo.

Rodeo has always been a big deal for folks in the Region Nine communities ever since it got started in the early 1960s when ranchers would get together to do a big roundup once a year, assisting each other in identifying, branding and separating their personal herds from other ranch herds.

It was from this system of ‘self-help,’ starting south of the Kanukus towards the central and northern ranches and ending in a final big roundup at Pirara, that a friendly competition was born. Not too long after, as the ‘60s’ progressed, the rodeo became an organised event and moved to Stock Farm in St. Ignatius.

The event continued to gain popularity with ranchers from neighbouring Brazil and cowboys joining in for a chance at the title of ‘Rodeo King’, even as the beauties of the Rupununi participated in pageants for the ‘Rodeo Queen’ title.

Residents of the Rupununi really get to enjoy the arts and the skills showcased. It causes a “big excitement” in the Rupununi and people are often sad when it’s over, having been able to meet and enjoy the company of friends they haven’t seen in a long time.

Even as the rodeo is generally about riding animals (bull riding, bareback bronc and saddle bronc), there are other activities like calf roping, wild cow milking, the barrel race, horse racing, watermelon eating competition, dirt bike racing, tug of war, dance off on country music, a rodeo pageant, and prizes for best-dressed adults and children.