When people think of cattle ranching and cowboys, they tend to think of western states like Colorado and Wyoming.  But Florida is also a place that has a history of cattle ranching.  Before it became popular with tourists and retirees, central and southwest Florida were popular places for cattle raising.  If you travel inland away from the populated coastal areas, you will still see many cattle and horse ranches.

This ranching legacy is still active today in the small southwest city of Arcadia, FL.  For the past 90 years, the folks in Arcadia have been preserving that legacy by holding a semi-annual rodeo.

The Arcadia rodeo has been on my bucket list for a few years.  Arcadia is just 60 miles away from Fort Myers Beach, so this year I decided to attend the March event.

It’s A Real Rodeo

 

The Arcadia All-Florida Championship Rodeo is one of the largest rodeo’s in FL.  It’s a four-day event that’s held each year in March and October.  This rodeo includes all the popular rodeo events like steer wrestling, team roping, barrel racing, calf roping, saddle bronc riding, bareback riding, and bull riding.  Many of the events are sanctioned by the PRCA and WPRA.

In the Fall of 2017, the folks in Arcadia built a brand new area for the rodeo.  The new Mosaic Area is covered and seats 7,700 people. There are plenty of food and drink vendors set up outside the arena.  The arena has different levels of seating.  The Premium seats, which are down closer to the action, have backs.  The regular seats are bleacher seats.

Parking is plentiful but not RV friendly.  I wanted to take my RV there for the day so I called and checked on parking my rig in their lot.  I was told that they could not accommodate my 26 ft RV in the parking lot.  So, we drove my wife’s car to the rodeo.

We went to the rodeo on a Thursday.  Each day has the same events just with different contestants.  The rodeo is a 2 1/2 hours long.  It is fast paced with several contestants competing in each event.  Here are some pictures and explanations of the events.

It’s a Dangerous Sport

Overall, the Arcadia Rodeo is a fun event to watch.  But, rodeo is one of the most dangerous competitive sports.  There’s a lot of chances for the competitors to get hurt.  Falling off your horse, getting stepped on by a steer or bull, getting gored by a horn, and getting flung off a bucking angry animal are just a few the ways to get injured.

I’m not sure how the cowboys bodies hold up through all the bucking, jumping, and landing in the dirt.  I’d be a cripple after just two seconds on a bucking horse.  Luckily, we saw no one got hurt at the rodeo.

But we did see some incredible rides. And I guess that’s the draw of the rodeo. To see someone temp fate for the reward of a thrilling wild ride that’s better than all others.

 

 

PS.  The only downside of the rodeo is trying to get out of the parking lot at the end of the rodeo.  The single two lane road that the arena is accessed from does not accommodate 3,000 cars trying to leave all at once.  It took us over an hour just to get out of the parking lot.