It was a busy night at the Stettler Agriplex as it hosted its 13th annual Roughstock Rodeo with crowds filling up spots as fast as they could to witness some of the best bull riding, bareback and saddle bronc that the province has to offer.
As the night ended the best walked away winning the events, with Armando Davila Rodriguez being declared as the Stettler Roughstock Champion Bull Rider with 85 points, Mike Solberg was the Champion Bareback Rider with 85 points and Layton Green became the Champion Saddle Bronc Rider with 88 points.
A group of enthusiastic people, which included Lyle Smith, Dale Chapman, Darrell and Darla Rairdan, Gene and Twyla Stuckey, Stan Pennington and Warren and Donna Weatherly started this event way back over a decade ago, and since then Roughstock Rodeo has been an annual fixture at Stettler's rodeo circuit drawing large crowds from the community and surrounding areas.
This year there were 30 participants in each of the three events, with 10 riders being in bareback, 10 in saddle bronc and 10 in bull riding.
"We start about November of the previous year in the office getting ready for Roughstock Rodeo, because by the end of January we'd like to have all our volunteers in place," said Darla Rairdan, secretary at the Stettler and District Agricultural Society and one of the main event organizers. "It takes a big crew to pull off an event of this stature and we are able to with the help of the great resource of volunteers that we have at the Stettler Agplex."
Rairdan acknowledged the help and generous time of Gordon LaRose, one of the hired hands, who was a great help this year with set up/tear down, which freed up some of the volunteers.
"I would like to say a big thank you as well to Stan Pennington, Donna Weatherly, Warren Weatherly and Heather Weatherly for all their help with this event," added Rairdan. "This is our biggest fundraiser of the year and so once again I would like to thank all of our sponsors, volunteers and our great little community that supports this event each year."
Funds from this event will be put into the new tractor that the Agplex has bought and for other maintenance needs throughout the year.