This is the 25th year the rodeo has been a part of the Henryetta Labor Day celebration and some new and exciting activities are planned each night.
Delighting the audience this year will be trick and Roman rider Dusti Crain Dickerson.
Originally from St. Peter, Ill., she has been in the rodeo arena since she was a little girl. Her father owned a rodeo company and she started barrel racing and carrying the American flag during grand entries.
Her real calling came when she was eight years old when, with her family at the Dolly Parton Stampede, she saw Roman riding first hand. That style has a rider standing on a pair of horses with one foot on each. Within a year, she was doing that at rodeos.
Just after graduating from high school, she became a member of the Stampede doing trick riding including the Roman ride.
Dickerson has taken that up one notch with the addition of a third horse. Both nights at the arena at Nichols park, she will be riding three horses.
Also in attendance will be Summer Weldon, Miss Rodeo USA 2018.
She is a sophomore at the University of Tennessee and is a six-time qualifier for the National Junior High and National High School Rodeo Finals. She has held a rodeo queen title since she was 11 years old.One of the highlights each night will be the humor of Ron “The Ice Man” Hunter.
A native of Holdenville, the rodeo clown started rodeoing in 1975 and decided he wanted to make the fans laugh after he saw a clown that he said was not funny.
It is now some 25 years later and he has been bringing laughter to arenas across the nation. That has included the International Finals Rodeo, an appearance he described as,”the big time.”
When he was not in the arena, Hunter took on a more serious note, that of educating youth. Starting out as a classroom teacher, he eventually worked his way up to the principal’s office at Weleetka.
It’s the arena though that he says he has the most fun.
