Mini Rodeo Kicks Off Santa Maria Elks Rodeo Event
SANTA MARIA, Calif. – Kids came by the thousands on Thursday morning to the Santa Maria Elks Unocal Event Center. While their fellow classmates were in school, for a select group of local students, they spent a couple of hours enjoying pure rodeo action.
“It’s six thousand third graders, from Santa Ynez to as far north as Shell Beach,” said Phil Harwick, president of Elks Recreation.
The event is the Clarence Minetti Mini Rodeo, which serves as the official kickoff to the four-day rodeo that’s now in its 72nd year.
For many of the kids in attendance, it was their first time getting a chance to watch live rodeo action.
“It’s really fun because you get to see a bunch of acts that you never get to see,” said Samantha Reyes, a third grade student at Dorothea Lange Elementary School in Nipomo.
While the kids were able to see a variety of rodeo acts, such as bronc riding, team roping and barrel racing, one event in particular was especially popular.
“I really enjoyed seeing the cowboys and the bulls competing,” said third grade student Benjamin Ruvalcaba.
As for who got the better of who in the bull riding event, it was evident the bulls had a decided advantage.
“They were really good actually because only one cowboy actually held on for 8 seconds,” Jeremiah Philson, a third grader from Dorothea Lange Elementary.
Another big crowd favorite was Mutton Bustin’, an event where kids ride sheep bareback.
“You can ride and stuff and other people can ride and you can challenge them, who can ride the longest and farthest,” said Mutton Bustin’ participant Kaiden Fernandez.
The goal of the rodeo is to not only entertain the kids and expose them to the sport, there’s also an educational aspect to the event as well.
“We’re trying to expose them to the agrarian lifestyle, the lifestyle that Santa Maria and all of Santa Barbara County was built around,” said Harwick.
Kids also learned about the importance of patriotism, schoolwork and community pride, but most of all, they just had a great time!
The 72nd annual Santa Maria Elks Rodeo runs from Thursday, May 28 through Sunday, May 31.
For more information, visit www.elksrec.com
