Show Must Go On

LINCOLN — In between the clanging of cash registers ringing up rodeo apparel and a mud-caked arena, the show must go on.

Muddy conditions caused a change in venue for Saturday’s Lincoln Riding Club Rodeo royalty horsemanship contests.

“We ended up having to call in a favor on a location change for horsemanship,” said Club Treasurer Ashley Thomas. “The arena was still too wet to perform horsemanship patterns safely. We were able to move into an indoor facility, and the girls and their horses did awesome even though they had never practiced there.”

Thomas said the contest benefits from home-town merchants opening the doors of their business to host part of the 2017 Lincoln Rodeo pageant.

“We were very fortunate to have a Lincoln Riding Club royalty sponsor like Double J Farm and Home Supply to allow us to have our speech and modeling portion of the LRC rodeo royalty contest at the store,” Thomas said. “We appreciate Joanie Hannah and Courtney for getting everything set up for us to let these girls compete there. We would like to think Chic Gypsy Boutique and Malorie Smith for allowing the current LRC Royalty and this year’s contestants to model her clothing. This takes a burden off of the contestants and their family’s not having to pay for the expense of a modeling dress.”

In past years the cost of rodeo attire was a factor. Lincoln Riding Club’s response has been to seek out merchants willing to loan clothing from their inventory for the contestants to model. This has helped level the playing field and opened up the contest to more girls. The challenge led the speech and modeling portion of the 2014 pageant to be held at the NWA Mall in Fayetteville, but this year the contest was held at Lincoln, home of the rodeo.