Bucking Bulls Kick Off Sheriff Posse Round-Up

It's been 47 years since the San Juan County Sheriff Posse held a rodeo at its principal grounds on Marseille Boulevard in Farmington. The day event included 10 bull teams competing with 20 bull riders, a woman's bull riding competition, and mutton busting. You're watching "The Local News Network," brought to you by Traegers Bar and Ace Hardware in Farmington. I'm Hayley Opsal. Wait a minute, mutton busting?

Mutton busting is kids' sheep riding, so they get to get on a sheep and ride it just like they would if it was a little bull.

21 year old Yovanna Malagon, bull rider, started out mutton busting when she was five and moved on to the big guys about six years ago. A bucking bull weighs about 1500 pounds. They're selected for their tendency to leap high, plunge low, and spin like a top. Malagon had had her face and other body parts stepped on and her helmet kicked clear over her head. In order to win, she says you cannot get under the bull and have to keep your nerves in control.

Everybody gets scared. I know a lot of guys that get all nervous and scared and they just got to push it out of their head. You got to have a clear head for eight seconds, and you have an adrenaline rush or adrenaline builds up so much that when you're finally on him and you nod your head, it just all comes together and you let your body do what it's been taught to do and yeah, it's really thrilling, especially when you win.

Sheriff Posse member Jordan Rhead, explained that this was the first event in nearly 50 years because of lack of membership.

Just not enough members to help host it, and so we got a few this last year that really worked hard to make some events happen and to move forward and make more bigger events.

With only 15 or so members, the Posse has worked hard in the past year to get things back up and running. They've improved the rodeo grounds, put in for a couple of grants, and plan on a number of fundraisers this year, with funds going into kids projects and the Posse itself. Their first roundup has plenty of vendors to feed a sizable crowd of mostly families.

I think the event was fabulous. You know, we had nothing to go by. We kept saying, how many people are we going to have? How many people are we going to have? And there hasn't been anything really up here like that in a long time, so we were just, our main goal was getting the word out there that we are here and we are wanting to build and start having the western way of life functions up here, and it's nothing against McGee Park, but we're going to start doing stuff here and not just everything at McGee Park.

The San Juan County Sheriff's Posse Fall Festival will be on Saturday, September 10th. It'll have games, door prizes, live bands, a poker run, and a Dutch oven cook off. To learn more about this and other stories, go to farmingtonlocal.news. Thank you for watching this edition of "The Local News Network." I'm Hayley Opsal.