Ceremonial Rodeo to start on Thursday: 17 events featured in Sunday’s exciting final performance

Posted by Quentin Jodie | Aug 8, 2024 | Rodeo |

CHURCH ROCK, N.M. – The books for 102nd Gallup Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial Rodeo are closed.

Entries for the annual event are on par with previous years, according to Ceremonial board president Kyle Tom.

“Last year we had 600 contestants with 1,000 entries, so this is a really good rodeo,” Tom said. “This year is extra exciting because we have over a dozen contestants in the women’s frybread pan throwing contest.”

Tom added that the buffalo riding contest reached its max with seven contestants.

“That’s the only event that closed early,” Tom said. “That event really depends on how many buffalos we can get from our contractor, and he’s going to bring eight.”

As one of the staples for its Old School Days Rodeo, fans will pack the grandstand inside Red Rock Park to witness one of the Ceremonial’s most unique events. Contestants who are entered will attempt to ride a North American bison for eight seconds.

“It’s something that brings in the fans on Sunday afternoon and our fans will wait for that buffalo ride all day long,” Tom said. “It’s a benchmark to Ceremonial and we’ve incorporated that into our rodeo logo.”

The four-day rodeo starts on Thursday with a slack performance at 9 a.m. On Friday and Saturday, there is a 1:30 p.m. performance with the Top 10 contestants in each event making it back to Sunday’s short round performance.

Sunday’s program starts at noon, and it will feature 17 events from bull dogging, bareback, calf roping, ladies breakaway, ladies barrel racing, open team roping and bull riding.

“We’re going to use some fresh cattle for our tie-down and breakaway ropers during the short round,” Tom said. “We’ll give the calves a 24-foot head start. We’re going old school with our team roping, too. The team ropers will come out of the same box.”

The major event winners will receive a buckle and a saddle.

“We’re awarding one-of-a-kind buckles,” Tom said. “The shape of the buckles are so unique to our rodeo.”

The Old School events include men’s and women’s frybread pan throwing contests, ranch broncs, pony express race, hide race, wild cow milking and buffalo riding.

As an added attraction, the Ceremonial rodeo will have a wild horse race. The winners of the minor event and Old School Event champions will be awarded jackets.

“Our goal is to improve on the things that we have done before,” Tom said. “We try to do that before we really launch new stuff. I feel all of our volunteer coordinators from our powwow, song and dance, exhibit halls, live dance performance, amphitheater and our parades have gone above and beyond to make sure every single event is as polished and professional as they can be.

“I’m excited to what the week has to offer,” he added. “Our brand new queen committee really hit the ground running and we have seven contestants vying for Miss Ceremonial and two for Little Miss, so it’s going to be an exciting week.”