Black Hills Stock Show and Rodeo in Rapid City, South Dakota

Winter and horse shows usually don't mix. After all most horse shows, rodeos and livestock shows are a spring and summertime event. When I was activity attending horse shows and rodeo events with my horses it was limited to those warmer and drier months. Now if you are living in the colder most northern part of the country like Montana or North Dakota then unless you had an indoor show during the winter then you would just plain avoid it altogether. You can imagine my surprise when I found out about the Black Hills Stock Show and Rodeo in Rapid City, South Dakota being one of the largest rodeos and horse show events in the USA. Of course this is largely due the fact that every event is held indoors.

The Black Hills Stock Show and Rodeo is being held from January 25 to February 3, 2008. It promises to be BIG, over 250,000 visitors are expected to attend. The timing is not right for me to attend but if I was going there here are some definite events I would be seeing. I would just have to watch the sheep dog trials since we have an Australian Shepherd mix. That dog helps us out when a horse gets loose by herding it back to the pasture or us. I would have to watch other herding dogs at the show, show off their stuff. The Sheep Dog Trial is set for January 28 at 12 noon in the Civic Center Arena. The next event I would watch would be the Ranch Rodeo event. The event will consist of three events that just sound like they would be fun to watch. The events are steer loading, where a 4 person team has to load steers into a stock trailer. I wonder if they will get the wildest steers for the events. If so it would be hilarious to watch. The next event is called Range Doctoring where a 4 person team has to administer medication to a steer. The third event is Rope Mug Tying. It involves a rope a steer and a 4 person team but I don't know much more about that event.

Of course in addition to those and other rodeo events there will be a western art show and sale. I would love to see that myself as our home is slowly being decorated in "old west" style. There will also be a livestock show for everyone that is interested in breeding and raising cattle. My brother-in-law use to take his cows to the local shows in his area and win all the time. That was how he got his 2 little girls involved in 4-H, they weren't interested in horses but they loved their cows. Of course there is the AQHA show which I could not miss at all since I love horses so much and we own an American Quarter Horse.

Now I am not going to tell you to go to this event if you don't like horses or cattle. You really have to enjoy that type of event or you will be bored to tears. My daughter shows her horse a few times a year and if she is not involved in the show with an event she is competing in she is bored. She will not attend horse shows just to watch. So if you are that type of person then don't torturer yourself by going. On the other hand if you are like me and are just plain horse crazy then the Black Hills Rodeo is the place to be this winter.

Here is the website for more information on the Black Hills Rodeo .The site also has links to various hotels and restaurants in the area. If you are planning on entering one of the events such as the team roping event you can enter it the same day as the event. You will need to call ahead to find out what the accommodations are for your horse if you are staying overnight. I would also play it safe and find out the availability of horse trailer parking too.

The Black Hills Rodeo event sounds like a great diversion to me - now if I was only single again, never mind.