05/24/2026
I would like to address the post that was made yesterday evening about the rodeo board making a bad decision to move the rodeo to this weekend. This board works all year long to plan this rodeo. The decision to move this rodeo to this weekend was not taken lightly. We did post on Facebook months in advance of planning for this weekend, asking for feedback from Madison County. At that time we had lots of positive feedback for making that change. Yes, we knew when set the date for the rodeo that HHS graduation was that Friday, that is the reason we move the start time back to help accommodate those that would like to attend the graduation and then still be able to come to the rodeo. Yes, we knew this was Memorial Day weekend. However, for the next 7 years the rodeo will be the weekend before Memorial Day! And that will also be true for graduation day. Yes, we knew this weekend was going to be rough with all the other events going on.
Would we have loved to have dry weather and 75 degree temperatures? Absolutely! We were just as wet as anyone else sitting in the stands. We can’t predict what Mother Nature will do. We have had it rain 5 inches on a Saturday morning in July. We are not meteorologists, we have to take what Mother Nature gives us and just work with it. If you have been around rodeo enough you know that the weather is never perfect.
We have had complaints for years that we don’t have enough rough stock riders or enough timed event contestants. Thats another reason we decided to move the dates, which paid off. We had more contestants than we have had in years! We also looked at what rodeos were this same weekend. We also tried to make sure we pick a weekend that would accommodate the cowboys and cowgirls so they had opportunity to make as many rodeos as they could the same weekend.
If we tried to accommodate everyone we would never have a rodeo. If you feel like you can make better decisions for the future of this rodeo, feel free to come to our meetings. Be ready to balance finances, talk with sponsors, plan extra events for the week of rodeo and make them free for the public to come enjoy. Be ready to sweat, scrub bathrooms that some think it’s ok to trash, and so much more. Be ready to pick up trash, because some apparently don’t see all the trash cans around, clean banners, flags, and signs. Be ready to work all hours of the day and night, to get ready for the next day of events.
We do this for our community, we enjoy seeing all the people up at the arena enjoy a family fun weekend of rodeo.
Thank you for the everyone that has supported this rodeo for the past 29 years. Thank you for all the contestants that came and competed in less than perfect conditions. Thank you to our stock contractor for working with us. A huge Thank you to our Sponsors, without each one of you this rodeo would not happen.
