Cracker Day junior and pee-wee rodeo set for this weekend at Posse Arena
After a few false starts and months of waiting, the Cracker Day junior and pee-wee rodeo will happen this weekend at the Lee County Posse Arena.
The festivities will begin at 11 a.m. on Saturday, rain or shine, and conclude when every last rider between the ages of 4 and 17 have competed in the various timed events.
This could make for a very long, hot day, but the kids will have had their chance to shine, since they turn no child away.
Robin Ray, event organizer, said she hopes the event will bring in the crowd.
“We’re hoping to get a lot of people here, as well as a few vendors. It all depends on what the weather will be like,” Ray said.
The Pee-Wee events, for those 12 and under, include barrels, poles, goat tying, and a new event, Wagon Hay loading. Prizes will be for the top three competitors, with a buckle for the all-around winner.
Ray said she got the idea for the wagon event from a rodeo she attended in Texas.
“The competitors will roll out a wagon, fill it with bales of hay and drag it across the finish line. The fastest time is the winner,” Ray said. “I watched them do this and it was hilarious.”
The junior events will include, barrels, poles, goats, and breakaway, team and tie down roping, which will feature several of the top high school ropers in the area. There will be a 60/40 payout depending on entries and an all-around buckle.
There will be no rough stock events, but Al Curry, the traditional announcer for the Cracker Day Rodeo, will be there.
In recent years, the junior rodeo has had a difficult time finding its permanent place on the schedule.
The Cracker Day Rodeo has traditionally been held on a Friday and Saturday in the middle weekend of January, but the junior rodeo has been moved all over the map, from that Sunday to the following weekend to now.
Ray said it had become too much of a marathon for the volunteers who put on the rodeo annually. Also, the way the schedule worked out, especially with the PRCA Rodeo moved up to the end of February, made it difficult to find an open date.
“We don’t turn anyone down, so if we have 100 barrel racers, we have 100 barrel races. It was too much at the same time and whenever we tried to reschedule, there was something else going on,” Ray said. “When you hold two rodeos so close together, the volunteers get cranky.”
Ray said they plan to hold the junior rodeo in February next year.
Admission is $10 for spectators, with families of the competitors admitted in the back gate for $5. They are still looking for vendors.
The Lee County Posse Arean is as 17401 Palm Creek Dr., off Bayshore Road, North Fort Myers.