Bucking contest comes to Sheridan
May 4 marked another in the long tradition of bronco buck-offs at the Mitchell horse farm outside Sheridan.
When it comes to raising and training horses, it’s generally with a notion toward gentling them to ride. In the case of rodeo stock, it’s exactly the opposite — the ranker, the better. In fact, from earliest age, they’re rated by degree on their individual bucking quality and ability to unseat a rider.
The annual spring event brings more than 100 spectators from across south Arkansas to watch a rodeo of sorts where young horses are comfortably fitted with fleece lined waist belts that tickle just enough to make them try to buck them off.
Upon being released from the chute into the rodeo arena, each animal shows its potential as a bucking bronco. After a brief exhibition, the waist belt automatically drops to the ground and the colts rejoin their friends in the paddock. Judges rate the young horses according to quickness, extension and elevation.
Thomas Mitchell and his wife, Jody, host the festivity that draws stock contractors from across the South to test their ponies against some of the finest bucking stock in the nation.
The day’s festivities began with a solemn pause to remember a longtime member of the Mitchell Farm team, former Grant County sheriff’s office sergeant, Chris Palmer. After relocating to Arkansas County to become Stuttgart chief of police, Palmer succumbed to a fatal heart attack Jan. 16.
The Mitchells are the owners of 130 bucking mares, foals, geldings and stallions. Their breeding operation is unusual in a number of ways, but one outstanding difference is how they’ve proved quality bucking stock can be successfully raised
on smaller farmsteads.
They rear their animals on only 340 acres. Most rodeo broncs are raised on much larger Western ranches ranging into the thousands of acres.
“We’ve got our breeding down pretty darn good. You don’t see a dud in the bunch anymore,” Mitchell said of his long-term program.
“Our buck-off program started several years ago to test young colts at ages one, two and three. They don’t start rodeoing until they’re five years old. By bucking them at an earlier age, it allows us to identify the best rodeo stock in the herd. As they get older we sell the better ones to rodeo contractors as premier bucking stock,” he said.
Their efforts have reaped some notable rewards. In 2011, the Mitchells’ world record high selling mare Rascal brought $100,000 at the famous Benny Binion Bucking Horse and Bull Sale. She has since gone by the moniker Golden Girl, appearing at the biggest, nationally renowned rodeos in such places as Ft. Worth, Houston, Abilene, and San Antonio, Texas, Franklin, Tenn., all over the Dakotas, Montana and Wyoming.
Breeders and stock contractors from Texas, Louisiana, Florida, Oklahoma, Iowa and Arkansas brought horses to the event, much of which stock is descended from Mitchell Farm horses.
The event announcer was Lorri O’Harver from St. Louis. She is the founder of “Bronc Riding Nation” non-profit and social media network.
“Horses are herd animals.” O’Harver said. “We take them out of the herd for brief periods to perform eight seconds in the arena. The rest of the time they get to live their lives with their buddies.”
Overall winner of the May 4 contest was a 2-yearold palomino named Flirty, owned by Randy and Amber Schmutz of Texas. She took the day with a score of 89.5.
“She had a pasture injury of unknown origin when she was just 1 that left a large gaping wound in her left flank,” Schmutz said of his winning mare. “We doctored her with a solution of Betadine and sugar.”
Other than a telling scar on her left hip, the 2-yearold filly made a complete recovery to the point of capturing the coveted prize from among the 27 others she was matched with at the event.
Schmutz is a well-known figure among rodeo circles, having acted as the in-house announcer for the long running American Rodeo series at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.