Mount Pleasant Rodeo Ready to Kick Up the Dirt at 51st Outing May 26-30, 2015 The Mount Pleasant Rodeo Association will build on its reputation of providing top notch rodeo action and quality familyfriendly entertainment when its annual rodeo kicks off in late May. With last year being the rodeo’s 50th anniversary, the MPRA is looking forward to continuing its heritage with even more rodeo events throughout the week. “This year, we are excited about started the rodeo with a Team Roping event on Tuesday night (May 26),” said MPRA President Jason Snodgrass. “It’s an event where local cowboys come in. It was new last year and we had a great turnout even though we had some light rain that night.” The structure of the rodeo’s Slack competition has also changed. Slack is part of the rodeo competition for overflow contestants who don’t get entered into the main performance schedules on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, which are limited to 10 contestants per event. “We are having our entire Slack on Wednesday night,” Snodgrass said. “We previously haven’t started Slack until about 10 p.m. and sometimes we go until 3 o’clock in the morning. This will give those participants the opportunity to be in our Slack and then make another competition on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. That really encourages a lot of cowboys to come participate in our rodeo.” With the structure changes, some other rodeo events have been dropped, including the stock parade through town and
the Releasing of the Broncs. “We carried that through the 50th year, but we are retiring that event to put more focus into the rodeo,” Snodgrass said. He said the MPRA continues to be recognized among the top rodeos in the state. The local association earned the 2014 United Finals Rodeo "CINCH 2" Top Money Payout with more $66,000 in total payout. The MPRA has also been named the United Professional Rodeo Association’s Committee of the Year for the past three years. The 2015 rodeo will still include the Kids Day event on Thursday morning. The special event is a free invitation for kids from elementary schools in the area to experience what rodeo is all about. “About 1,800 kids came out last year. We invite kids to come out and get a taste of rodeo. We have some local teachers, who are cowgirls, roping steers and we put on demonstrations. That’s always been a big success,” Snodgrass said. The Kids Day event will include rodeo favorite Whiplash the Cowboy Monkey, who will also perform all three nights during the main performances May 28-30. Each night has a special theme: Thursday is Family Night. Friday is Heritage Night and Saturday is Veterans Night. For more information on the rodeo, visit the MPRA Website at mtpleasanttxrodeo.com or Facebook page at facebook.com/MtPleasantRodeoAssociation. mtpleasanttx.com
5