Special Needs Rodeo by Montana

Special Needs Rodeo by Montana - January 2017 Scholarship Essay

When people hear the word rodeo, all they think about his horses, barrel racing, roping, etc. But it is much more than that. Rodeo is a family sport. Everyone takes people in, and we are always trying to be a family. I am apart of the Arizona High School Rodeo Association. Every year we hold a special needs rodeo. It is truly an amazing thing to be apart of.

Every rodeo kid participating gets a child to watch and help throughout the day. The special needs participants get a belt buckle, t-shirt, and a back number. We try to make the experience for them just like ours is. Not everybody can fully understand or handle kids with those disabilities, but seeing how the rodeo teenagers took them in and tried to show them what we do, you could just see their faces brighten of excitement. Through the special needs rodeo we have many stations set up that are mock trials of what we do in a competition. We have horse painting,barrels, goat tying, roping, a bucking bull, a grand entry, and dancing!

Horses have a way of reaching out to people and connecting with them. They are kind and gentle with the kids and make them happy. The kids are able to put their hand prints on the horses body, the kids enjoy this because they can interact with the horse. They are provided with a stick horse to run barrels in and many of the rodeo kids run with them. They get to pet a live goat and try to tie a fake one, they get to rope a roping dummy, and jump on a bucking bull as if they were riding a bull or bronc. Some of the children are able to get onto a live horse and walk in the grand entry, the whole time this event is going on the kids are dancing, laughing, and having fun with the rodeo kids.

Being apart of this event really means a lot to me because we get to show people what rodeo is, get more people involved in our sport, and we get to see that rodeo can bring happiness to everybody no matter what. Seeing how important the special needs rodeo is to the kids will for sure encourage me to participate in helping out again. It was a fun time and we made many people happy. Rodeo is about giving back and helping people and I feel we do with the special needs rodeo.