Lincoln Rodeo Has Changed Over The Years

LINCOLN — True to an American original representing cowboy character as an innovative creature bent on overcoming every circumstance, the Lincoln Rodeo showcases a longterm sustaining effort.

Area rodeo competitors, rodeo fans and the community have enjoyed the event since the first Lincoln Rodeo was held in 1954. The Lincoln Rodeo has been held annually for 65 years.

Rodeo Pioneers

J.R. and Anna McCratic were among the rodeo founders. The McCratics still reside as nearest neighbors to the Lincoln Riding Club Arena and have been in Lincoln since the rodeo started. Club members point out without their pioneering efforts to establish the Lincoln Riding Club, the rodeo wouldn’t be what it is today. Nor would the club enjoy facilities that have been improved over the years. Anna McCratic was among the early queens of the Lincoln Rodeo and she and J.R. served as grand marshals of the 2016 rodeo parade, plus attended each night’s performance.

Another key contributor, Louie Guess, was born during the Great Depression. Yet those hard economic times didn’t diminish his entrepreneurial spirit. Guess established the Lincoln Rodeo street dance in 1967, an event which helps kickstart the rodeo scheduled for Wednesday, Aug. 8, 2018, from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. at the Lincoln Square.

Weather Mandates Change

This year’s rodeo is scheduled for Aug. 9-11 at the Lincoln Riding Club Arena one mile west of town. The show will go on after the dates were changed about a week before the rodeo was originally scheduled to begin in May.

“We really didn’t have a choice,” said Lincoln Riding Club Secretary/Reporter Marlana Edgmon. “Our parking was a swamp. We would not have been able to park spectators let alone contestants. We are excited it is being moved back to August and hope for a much larger turn out from both spectators and contestants. Our board has worked very hard to make this the best rodeo so far.”

The American Cowboys Rodeo Association (ACRA), which co-sanctions the rodeo along with the International Professional Rodeo Association, could not be reached for comment by telephone so the Enterprise-Leader inquired with Lindsay Whelchel, who handles membership and communications for the IPRA, about logistical challenges of changing the rodeo dates.

“For that particular rodeo, we are just a second sanction on it, more of a supportive role,” wrote Whelchel in an email.

“It’s not an IPRA rodeo as it would be if we were a first sanction,” Whelchel stated. “That means that our specific rules and processes for moving a rodeo’s date don’t apply in this case. This rodeo is an ACRA first sanction.”

Changes Same As Always

In January 1849, French author Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr, editor of Le

Figaro, a daily newspaper in Paris, wrote in the monthly journal he founded, Les

Guêpes, what is frequently translated into English as “the more things change, the more things stay the same.”

Social interaction may be a lot more complicated through modern technology, but when going to the rodeo — cowboys are always going to be attracted to cowgirls.

Last year Michael KnoxSmith attended the Lincoln Rodeo for the first time in 43 years. He highlighted some of the changes between the 1975 and 2017 events in his blog, mikesfilmtalk. com. Smith observed, “One particularly telling moment was the sighting of a young cowgirl, dressed in all her finery, texting on her iPhone while easily sitting and riding her mount. It was a surrealistic moment which spoke volumes about the female of the species being able to multitask and the technology that these modern rodeo participants have access to.”

Smith seemed to remember a large crowd in attendance and lamented that cowboy hats were not in overabundance. He noted the rodeo has changed somewhat since his childhood with cowgirls now competitively roping calves along with bull riders all wearing protective helmets. One thing that has not changed, according to Smith, is the “innate beauty of the young women riding their steeds around the rodeo arena,” with each one possessing a poise and incredible confidence displayed by their expert handling of the horses they ride.

Devil’s Den Trail Rides

Three years prior to the McCratics organizing the first Lincoln Rodeo in 1954, the NWA Cavalcade riding club was established. The NWA Cavalcade holds three annual rides a year at Devil’s Den State Park. There are organized rides that leave out each day at 10 a.m. or riders can go on their own.

Riders are of all ages and both horses and mules are used to ride the trails, which abound from courses safe for a beginning rider to more difficult terrain for advanced riders. Various trails allow horse and rider to meander along open meadows, walk through wooded areas, go up and down hills, gait alongside bluffs or wade the creek.

Riding the trails is considered therapeutic.

Some riders, such as Bailey Sizemore, a contestant for 2017 Lincoln Riding Club princess, participate in both the Lincoln Riding Club and NWA Cavalcade. Bailey has been a member of the NWA Cavalcade since she was born, and has been riding the trails of Devil’s Den since she was two. At the age of four she got her own horse, and rode her own horse with the group, which rides the Devil’s Den trails three times each year for nine days at a time. Bailey received an award for being the youngest rider.