{"id":27245,"date":"2024-06-07T19:25:37","date_gmt":"2024-06-08T01:25:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/94th-ute-mountain-roundup-rodeo-starts-with-a-red-white-and-blue-flourish\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T23:55:04","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T05:55:04","slug":"94th-ute-mountain-roundup-rodeo-starts-with-a-red-white-and-blue-flourish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/94th-ute-mountain-roundup-rodeo-starts-with-a-red-white-and-blue-flourish\/","title":{"rendered":"94th Ute Mountain Roundup rodeo starts with a red, white and blue flourish"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A
A skydiver floats down with the flag to start the rodeo. (Sam Green\/Special to The Journal)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

If there\u2019s any question about the full decibel range of a few thousand people, it can be answered in the rodeo arena.<\/p>\n

From the reverent stillness when the national anthem is sung and when the announcer offers a solemn prayer, to the deafening roar that greets a qualifying ride, and back down to the tense hush after a bad fall, the 94th Ute Mountain Roundup had it all.<\/p>\n

Day 1<\/div>\n

The rodeo started with flare as a skydiver dropped into the arena Thursday at the Montezuma County Fairgrounds carrying the United States flag. As he drifted into view beneath the grandstand cover, fans erupted in shouts and applause. When the skydiver landed safely, a team of volunteers rushed the landing site to lift Old Glory off the ground.<\/p>\n

Shortly after, EMTs and members of the Montezuma County Sheriff\u2019s Officer were recognized for heroism.<\/p>\n

On top of the professional rodeo competition, fans enjoyed less formal rodeo events, including the stick horse race, mutton busting, and a race that rodeo clown Matt Merritt called \u201cThe Cycle of Life,\u201d which involved five fathers from the audience rolling, crawling, then running in the arena.<\/p>\n

\"Evandrus
Evandrus Wells hangs on for his mutton busting ride Thursday night at the Ute Mountain Roundup in the Montezuma County Fairgrounds. Sam Green\/Special to The Journal<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Audience
Audience members compete Thursday in a race that Ute Mountain Roundup rodeo clown Matt Merritt called \u201cThe Cycle of Life.\u201d (Sam Green\/Special to The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

It was a banner night for bareback bronc rider Bailey Small of Rock Springs, Wyoming, who tied for first place with an 82-point ride on Rockin\u2019 Cotton.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people look at (bronc riding) like it\u2019s a fistfight almost, but really you\u2019re in a dance with the bucking horse, and I think that\u2019s a lot of fun,\u201d Small told The Journal<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Lindsey Rosser-Sumpter, head rodeo coach at Otero College in La Junta and breakaway roping competitor in this year\u2019s Ute Mountain Roundup, also spoke about the artistry of rodeo.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Breakaway roping) is an awesome event, right? I mean the calf comes out of the chute, a cowgirl on a fast horse stops, ropes the calf and the calf runs away, so the calf always wins,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Breakaway roping has become more popular in the past five to eight years, according to Rosser-Sumpter. She is also the commissioner of Rodeo Women\u2019s World Championship<\/a>, the largest all-female rodeo in the world. She said the most important issue for female rodeo athletes right now is making sure the money is even across the board for men\u2019s and women\u2019s events.<\/p>\n

The backstage work of hosting the Ute Mountain Roundup includes dozens of volunteers and contractors.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got a committee that is just second to none,\u201d said Bentley Colbert, chairman of the Rodeo Committee. \u201cWe all come together, and we all have a job and everybody does their job well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Colbert was quick to recognize who he calls the \u201cproduction people\u201d for the rodeo, including Walton Scoreboards, Powder River Rodeo LLC<\/a>, which provided the stock, and rodeo clown Matt Merritt, announcer Jody Carper and trick rider Jessica Blair.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like putting on a TV show, it is a production,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association event gets off to a strong start in Cortez<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27246,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-27245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27245"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27245\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79999,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27245\/revisions\/79999"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27245"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=27245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}