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Cowpunchers Rodeo returns this weekend<br>

This young man practices his roping skills during last year’s Cowpuncher’s Reunion Rodeo. Working cowboys and cowgirls of all ages will compete in Williams through Sunday.

Cowboy families from all over the West are set to come into town this weekend for the 25th Arizona Cowpuncher’s Reunion Rodeo. The rodeo has been an annual event in Williams since the first Cowpuncher’s rodeo in 1978, excluding two years in the 1970’s when the rodeo was held in Flagstaff.

Marty Burn, who is the current president of the Arizona Cowpuncher’s Reunion Association, said that the people involved in the rodeo are ranching and cowboy families from all over the state. The Cowpuncher’s Rodeo is unique in that it requires participants to make a living in the livestock industry in order to compete.

Burn said that the rodeo was started, “by a bunch of guys on ranches who decided to get together and put on a rodeo.” The reunion part of it is still a very relevant aspect of the rodeo. The rodeo may be the only time in a year that most of the rancher families get to see each other.

The Cowpuncher’s Rodeo is a very family oriented event. There are several events that are offered for kids including the Ribbon Roping event and the Dummy Roping event. The Ribbon Roping event is one of the more popular, according to Burn. Someone ropes a calf with a ribbon tied to the tail and a little girl has to take off the ribbon from the calf’s tail and race to the finish line.

Some of the other events offered at the rodeo include: saddle bronc riding, wild-horse racing, wild cow milking, Daly calf roping, all-girl team roping, wild cow riding and several mixed roping competitions, which involve two partners often of different ages. One of these mixed roping competitions is the century roping. In this event, the age of both partners must equal up to 100. Burn said that the three most popular events are usually Wild Cow Milking, Wild Horse Race and Saddle Bronc Riding.

Burn is expecting anywhere between 800 to 900 entries. That is about how many people are members of the Cowpuncher’s Reunion Rodeo throughout the state. There will, of course, be a lot of spectators. It is estimated that last year’s event brought between 5,000 and 6,000 spectators to Williams.

The Cowpuncher’s Rodeo is a non-profit rodeo. Much of the proceeds are divided evenly between two funds. The first fund is the Arizona Cowpuncher’s Scholarship Organization, which was started in 1995 by Bill Owens. Owens is a well-known western artist. The Scholarship fund helps high school graduates from ranching families pay for college. Certain qualifications must be met for this scholarship and it has helped many kids graduate with a college education, who may not have had the chance otherwise.

The second fund is the Arizona Cowpuncher’s Crisis Fund. The Crisis fund was started by Mike Oden about three years ago and is meant to help out ranchers who have been injured or are ill. Last year’s rodeo was able to give out more then $7,000 to each organization. Both funds were started with the idea of benefiting ranching families and they have stuck to this goal. Burn said that although they enjoy the events and company at the rodeo, it now has a higher purpose.

“We’re mainly in existence to support the two funds, everything else is just fun,” Burn said.

The name “Cowpuncher’s” has always been with the rodeo.

“All over people have different names for cowboys. For some reason out here in the Southwest they’re called Cowpunchers, especially in Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas,” said Burn.

The weekend is packed full of events. Thursday at 4 p.m. is Jackpot team roping. Friday at 7 a.m. starts off with all the flack since there are so many entries in this year’s rodeo. At 1p.m., the performance events begin and 9 p.m. is the barn dance.

Saturday at 7 a.m. there will be more flack starts. At 1 p.m. are performance events. At about 4 p.m., there will be a cow-cutter auction and another barn dance at 9 p.m.

Sunday at 7 a.m. there will be Cow-cutter roping and the Cowboy Church Service will began at 10 a.m. At 11 a.m., there will be a general Cowpuncher’s meeting. Performance events began at 1p.m. and the awards ceremony will take place afterwards.

There will also be vendors set up in the blue barn, including a concession stand. All events are to take place at the Bob Dean Rodeo Grounds and admission is $5.


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