Fingers crossed: Rupununi Rodeo planners hoping to stage first event in three...

Restaurants and transportation services get a boost too and the modest tourist sites also benefit from a temporary increase in their visitor numbers. There is also income to be had for ranches by hosting visitors who visit the Rupununi for the Rodeo and to further enjoy its ‘wild side’. Rebecca says that some of these revenues are re-invested in maintenance and upgrading initiatives.

Two years without the Rodeo have meant two years without the customary windfalls. “Without these prize monies many ranch owners were unable to invest in their ranches during the last two years.” Point Ranch, which Rebecca manages, is in the same boat as the others. The ranches, their cows, and their cowboys, bring to the Rodeo the exhilaration and thrills that attend the fast-paced, high-tension events… like the Bull Riding, Bare Back Bronco, Saddle Bronco, Horse-Racing and Cow-Milking, among others.

The Rupununi Rodeo is not just one of Guyana’s major Easter weekend entertainment events, it is, as well, the only hinterland pursuit – leaving aside gold-mining – that attracts the interest of large numbers of coastal Guyanese. Visitors get there by air, bus, SUV, even motor cycles.

The popularity of the Rodeo is reflected in the wide range of commercial sponsorship which the event attracts. Coastal sponsors from the aviation, cattle ranching, banking, hospitality, telecommunications, and retail sales sectors, all throw their financial weight behind the event.

The Rodeo has its origins in the 1960’s at the Pirara Ranch (of which some information is available on the internet in an article “My Life on the Pirara/Meritezeiro

Ranch – by Denise D’Aguiar”). It was during those roundups of more than four decades ago, the Rodeo Committee Chairperson says, that the skills associated with the Rodeo, were derived from “the working practices during the cattle roundups” and from which came competitions to determine “the best racehorses and the best breed of cattle, among others.” During the roundups “It was a great feeling of accomplishment among the ranchers to conquer such daunting challenges. As time went by these small competitions became the biggest attraction in the Region. They are now part of the Rupununi culture. These days, the event, officially named The Rupununi Ranchers Rodeo, so named because of its history, is organised by the Rupununi Livestock Producers Association (RLPA). It is held biennially and has become, arguably, the most important ‘domestic’ event on the Rupununi calendar.

The Rodeo was first held at Pirara Ranch in the North Rupununi after which it was relocated to the state-owned ‘Stock Farm’ at St Ignatius. It remained there until the Rupununi Development Company (RDC) donated the Dadanawa Ranch to the RLPA. A 50-acre portion of that was dedicated to the staging of the Rupununi Rodeo after which, in the mid1980’s, it was further re-located to its current ‘home’ at the Rupununi Ranchers Rodeo Ground at Tabatinga.

The RLPA is committed to celebrating the people, animals, land, and values which make up the Rupununi through this event. The Rupununi Ranchers Rodeo highlights this unique lifestyle which is still vibrant in many parts of the Rupununi, the RLPA Chairperson told the Stabroek Business.