Every Friday night, except in December, at the Kissimmee Sports Arena on South Hoagland Blvd there is a Rodeo. The Rodeo has a local feel rather than a staged theme park show as it’s a competition between riders rather than a show.
After the riders have warmed up the evening starts with a single rider circling the arena flying an American flag. The audience are requested to stand and for the US National Anthem. Then there is a prayer for the competitors and livestock.
When we were there, the first competition was bull riding. There were six or seven competitors who took it in turns to ride a bull. Most of the bulls were quite large and clearly did not want to be ridden. Some of the bulls charged their riders after they had thrown them off and the rider had to be pretty quick to get out of the arena. The winner is the rider that stays on their bull the longest
The second event is where children, under 10, are allowed into the ring to try and pull off a ribbon that’s attached to the tail of a calf. The children are all lined up and then a few calves are allowed into the ring. The children then chase the calves around the ring and the first 4 to get a ribbon are the winners (no prizes).
The next event was ‘roping’ a calf. Two horseback riders team up to lasso the calf, one has to lasso the calves’ horns, and then the second rider has to lasso both its hind legs. The fastest team to do this wins. The day we were, there no one achieved this.
The next event was another round of bull riding and the final event was barrel racing where riders have to ride round three barrels. The fastest rider wins. When we were there were 6 rounds of this.
The evening ended with a band playing in the bar area.
Food is available from three areas:
- A quick snack of boiled Peanuts or Corn.
- A concessions stand selling drinks, hot dogs burgers etc
- Another building which sells Steak dinners. These are eaten in the bar.
South Hoagland Blvd is just after marker 15 on SR 192
In summary it has the feel of a local event of real completions rather than a staged show. The site does not have the glitz or glamour of a theme park. We had a good time. When we were there in April 2005, the admission price was 18 Dollars.