4-H rodeo draws riders from across region

After Patricia Lammers walked out of the arena with her horse Bo, she stroked his mane a few times before planting a kiss on his brown neck.

The pair had just completed a run in the girls’ junior goat tying at the Hub Area 4-H Rodeo, which took place on July 3 at Akkerman Arena at the Brown County Fairgrounds. Lammers was proud of her time and part of that is having a good mount, she said.

“He just knows where to go,” Lammers said. “He’s been around my aunt, who was a goat tier. She trained him, so I really didn’t have to train him very much.”

Lammers, 11, traveled from Orient to participate in four events and hoped to qualify for the state rodeo, which will be held Aug. 19-21 in Fort Pierre. Her other events are poles, barrels and breakaway. She uses a different horse for those events, so the goat tying was Bo’s chance to shine.

“He did what he was supposed to,” Lammer said. “Then I have to tie the goat up.”

Also participating in the girls’ junior goat tying was Tyra Gates, 11, of Miller. It’s her fourth year participating in the 4-H rodeo and breakaway — an event in which a calf is roped, but not thrown and tied — is her favorite.

“I like to rope,” she said. “I learned from some of my friends and my dad.”

Cooper Smith, 17, of Utica was one of a handful of competitors in the steer wrestling event. Smith fared the best, as he was the only rider to successfully leap from his horse and wrestle the steer to the ground. However, it took him a few seconds too long and he, along with the others in the event, went without a score. Smith stayed positive after his run.

“It doesn’t really matter what time you get, as long as you get him down,” Smith said.

He was also participating in team roping and saddle bronc riding, which he thought was his strongest event.

Smith was one of the older competitors in the rodeo for participants ages 8 to 18. Treyson Boyd was one of the youngest.

Boyd, 8, traveled with his family from Sioux Falls to compete in several events.

After a clean run in the boys’ junior flag race, he hoped to finished seventh, which would be good for a first-year competitor.

“I felt good about it and I had hope that I would get it,” Boyd said, while still sitting astride his horse, Doc.

Boyd said his goal for the remainder of the rodeo was to post a good time in junior boys’ goat roping.

The rodeo, which was held at the Brown County Fairgrounds on July 2-3, brought competitors from around the state, as well as from North Dakota and Minnesota, as it is one of approximately two dozen 4-H rodeos in the state this summer. By recording one of the top four scores or times for an event at a 4-H regional rodeo, contestants qualify for the state finals.

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