Ride em': NRA rodeo comes to Havre tonight

There are many traditions that go along with the Great Northern Fair. The food is one, and another one is the Northern Rodeo Association's Great Northern Ram Rodeo.

The annual rodeo, which is a sanctioned event by the NRA, will start tonight at 7 inside the Great Northern Fairgrounds Arena. The event will conclude Friday night. The second day of the competition Friday also starts at 7 p.m. There is also plenty of time for slack which is scheduled to start Friday morning at 8 a.m.

Like it always does, the rodeo will feature all the classic events such as bull riding, saddle bronc riding, bareback riding, steer wrestling, tie down roping, team roping, as well as some women's events such as barrel racing and breakaway roping.

Just like last year, special events will be featured at the two-day rodeo. Last year, one of the special events was wild cow milking, in which teams attempted to catch a cow, tie up and milk it; the team that filled the entire bottle of milk won. This year, the cow milking will be back. Two other special features slated for the two-day rodeo are ladies calf dressing and a junior bull riding competition. The ladies calf dressing will be tonight and the wild cow milking will be Friday.

The rodeo will get things started today with a number of different events such as bareback riding, junior barrel racing, steer wrestling, team roping, tie down roping, breakaway roping, saddle bronc riding, junior breakaway roping, bull riding and ladies barrel racing.

Locals who will be competing tonight include Chris and Jimmy Cole of Harlem in team roping, Eric Watson and Brandon Cole of Harlem in team roping, Tenley Keller of Big Sandy in breakaway roping, Aaron Erickson of Havre in bull riding, Isaiah Turn Toes of Box Elder in bull riding, Judy Geldard of Havre and Laura Kleinjan of Chinook in ladies barrel racing, Kristen LaMere in junior barrel racing and Watson of Harlem will also compete individually in tie down roping.

Friday many of the same events will be continued as bareback riding, junior barrel racing, steer wrestling, saddle bronc riding, tie down roping, team roping, ladies breakaway roping, ladies barrel racing, junior breakaway and bull riding will all be back it.

Local rodeo standouts that will be in action Friday include Casey Delaney of Havre, who is the top-ranked steer wrestler on the NRA circuit, Dennis Barta of Havre, who will also compete in steer wrestling as well as Heath Box of Havre in tie down roping and Doug Kallenberger of Havre in saddle bronc riding.

Tylynn Rettig of Rudyard will be competing in ladies barrel racing Friday, while Jade Nystrom and Barta will participate in team roping. Anders Andreason and Lynden Billy of Rocky Boy are the other local participants and will compete in team roping as well.

The stock contractors for the rodeo are Black Eagle Rodeo and Jacobs Livestock Rodeos. The bullfighters for the rodeo will be Lyle Miller and Scott Crump. Miller will also serve as the rodeo clown. The rodeo is also a stop for several Indian rodeo association tours, so points to qualify for the Indian National Finals Rodeo will also be at stake.

The Great Northern Ram Rodeo kicks off tonight at 7 and will conclude Friday night with the second day of events which also start at 7 p.m.