Founder calls Labor Day-weekend rodeo ‘The best suggestion’
Around 9,800 turn out during four-day eventBy KATIE WILLIAMS, Messenger staff writer
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DAYTON - Cowboys and cowgirls from far and wide came to participate in the 71st Annual Dayton National Championship Rodeo on Monday.
Approximately 9,800 people attended over the course of the four-day event to watch bucking broncos, bull riding and mutton busting.
''You couldn't see the grass on the hillside for two nights,'' said the man who started it all, Allen Porter. ''Yes, I'm proud of it. It started from nothing and look at it today. We have a lot of faithful people who come back year after year.''
Porter said he and a couple of friends were just playing with horses one day when he was younger and someone asked them to do a trick show. They did it again the next year and someone suggested a Labor Day weekend rodeo.
''That was the best suggestion anyone could have given me,'' he said. ''After that it just kept going and going.''
Now the event pulls bull riders from as far away as Australia and Wyoming.
''We have some of the world champions,'' said Porter. ''And we have an outstanding crowd. We try to put on a good show because it's the people who come that make the show a success.''
And Boyd Polhamus, the rodeo announcer and 2007 Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association Announcer of the Year, agreed.
''When people come out looking for a good time and mentally decide to have a good time, they are going to leave satisfied,'' he said.
Polhamus has announced for the Dayton Rodeo three years running and said it's just as fun and entertaining as some of the larger shows he does.
''It's live entertainment, which is the best kind,'' he said. ''You try to choreograph as much as you can, but the animals don't read the script, so it's that spontaneity that keeps it exciting.''
Polhamus said a rodeo is some of the most fun anyone could have.
''It is so much more than the stereotypical stuff you see on TV,'' he said. ''It has humor and drama. Be prepared to be impressed.''
And the winning champion, Bobby Welsh, of Wyoming, made it impressive.
''This is the seventh show I've done this week and I haven't been riding like I wanted to but today I rode like I wanted to,'' Welsh said after his victory. ''It's outstanding. Everything went exactly as planned.''
After he dismounted from the bull, Wasp Dandy, and was announced the winner of the $1,000 prize he knelt in the dirt and thanked God.
He said this was the first time he had attended the Dayton Rodeo and loved every minute of it.
''It's one of the best put on,'' he said. ''They really take care of the cowboys.''
And part of that is making sure they are safe in the ring, said Cory Wall, professional bullfighter.
Wall has protected men like Welsh for 18 years as a rodeo clown and has had a couple of injuries along the way.
''I broke my leg twice,'' he said. ''It can be very difficult to work with an injury like that. You just get through the performance.''
Wall said he removes his casts so he can continue his work during the show for 20-minute stretches. He cares so much for the riders that he would rather suffer through an injury than to risk the possibility of a rider receiving a similar fate.
''I've never had any life-threatening injuries, but it's worth it all to me to be able to protect these men,'' he said.
Contact Katie Williams at (515) 573-2141 or katie@messengernews.net
