Fiesta Days in La Plata County is back for its 91st anniversary with barrel races, team and breakaway roping, and roughstock rides taking place in Ignacio, Bayfield and Durango.
Events kicked off Wednesday with barrel racing in Ignacio. Rodeos were scheduled for 1 and 7 p.m. Saturday in Durango. Breakaway roping is scheduled for Wednesday in Bayfield. And Bulls, Bares and Broncs roughstock rides are scheduled for Friday in Ignacio.
One organizer, Mary Helen Maese, said Fiesta Days is put together by 10 to 12 people every year – who of course wrangle some friends to help along the way.
“There’s so many people who make a living on rodeos, and so it’s so important for us to keep that going,” she said.
Maese, who was working the ticket booth at La Plata County Fairgrounds on Saturday morning and afternoon, said Fiesta Days is all about family and rodeo.
“It’s such a tight community, and it’s really good. It’s encouraging,” she said. “It helps kids learn about animals, take care of them, take care of their partners if they’re roping together, take care of their parents – their parents haul them all over. It’s really great.”
Maese said everybody in the rodeo world takes care of one another. If someone’s horse loses a shoe, someone else will jump in to replace it, or lend them a bridle, or help them with a saddle, or whatever the occasion calls for, she said.
It’s the “Old Western way, which is a great way of life,” she said.
She used to do the breakaway rodeo, a girls’ event, which is about roping a calf.
“Everybody here works so hard,” she said.
Volunteers jump in left and right to help manage the arena, keeping it watered, helping with stock and tickets. It’s a great event, she said, but the rodeo art is dying.
“That art is dying, and it’s really sad,” she said. “So we’re just trying to hold onto it and keep it coming.”
Hunter Salter, 27, said he’s been bull-riding since he was 5 years old.
He said his expectations for the Saturday rodeo was to “stay on some bulls.”
The experience is a lot of adrenaline, he said – “a whole lot.”
Salter said he visited Fiesta Days when he was growing up, and when it comes to bull riding, “you’re going to lose a lot more times than you win.”
“The biggest thing is getting up after you hit the ground. You got to get up quick,” he said, adding, “There’s usually not a whole lot of brace (for impact) in it. You’re the ground.”
Salter said he’s from Edgewood, New Mexico, and he’s currently living in Aztec. He’s looking forward to the Bulls, Bares and Broncs roughstock rides in Ignacio on Friday.
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