Sandpoint, ID

Each August the Bonner County Fair starts out with the annual rodeo. The rodeo is always the Friday and Saturday before the fair starts. I rounded up a few of my friends and went on Saturday night. We showed up about 30 minutes early and found that the grandstands were not full, as they had been in past years. I remembered that Wynonna Judd was preforming at the Sandpoint Festival so I figured some of the crowd was there. My friends and I picked out our seats and waited eagerly for the rodeo to begin. While we waited the cowboys and cowgirls were warming up their horses, walking them around the arena which gave us something to watch while we waited. The arena was filled with colorful rodeo outfits of fringe, glittery shirts and cowboy hats.

It was time for the rodeo to start and our first event was the bareback bucking broncos. Cowboys tried their best to stay on the unruly horses as they were tossed to the ground. The next event was the mutton busting. If you are wondering what that is, brace yourself because it was both shocking and hilarious. Mutton busting is when children ride sheep, just like the cowboys riding the broncos. The funny part is most of the kids only make it a few steps before they fall off, which resulted in a few chuckles in the crowd. The shocking part was the ages of the kids, one of them was only two years old!

The rodeo resumed with tie down roping, when the cowboys rope a calf and wrestle them to the ground and tie the calf’s feet together. The tie must hold for 6 seconds in order for the cowboy to earn points. The events moved on to women’s calf roping and then on to men’s saddle bronc riding. The next event was what we had been waiting for, bull riding. Only a few cowboys made the 8 seconds to be scored. The bulls were more than happy to throw them off as quickly as possible and then proceed to chase the rodeo clowns around. This was the most exciting event in my opinion. The rodeo continued with calf team roping, one cowboy ropes the neck of the calf and one ropes the two back feet and then steer wrestling, where the cowboy jumps off his horse and wrestles the calf to the ground. My second favorite event is barrel racing. The barrel racing event has one cowgirl riding her horse around 3 barrels, usually under 20 seconds, trying to complete the circuit without knocking over the barrels. After barrel racing was over we were treated to a second round of bull riding which was the final event of the night.

The rodeo was a lot of fun and I am sure we will be there next year when they help kick off the start of the fair. If you would like to go to the rodeo it is held the weekend before the fair starts, usually mid-August. Tickets are available at the ticket office in front of the rodeo arena, located near the horse barn at the fairgrounds. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for 10 yrs old and under. The rodeo starts at 7pm. For more information you can call the fair office at 208-263-4554. To get to the Bonner County Fairgrounds take US hwy 95 to Schweitzer Cut-Off Road, turning left at the light (Wal-Mart will be on your right). Turn right at the T intersection on N. Boyer and take the next immediate left. Parking is found for free on the grass lawn near the horse barn.