Bull-team, barrel-racing rodeo event jumping off Saturday
Aug. 2—DICKINSON — The shadows might be getting long as autumn approaches, but hopefully the rides on Saturday, Aug. 5 will be even longer for area residents and rodeo enthusiasts to enjoy the Stark County Bull Team Challenge and Futurity event at the fairgrounds in Dickinson throughout the day. It's a unique event that features special rules for evaluation of not only participants but the bulls themselves, and it looks to be a lot of fun.
The morning event is free for all as of 9 a.m. until the nighttime events start at 7 p.m., and it's free for youths 8-and-younger during the nighttime festivities all day. There will be team-bull-riding with talent from the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association on hand, and tickets are only $10 for everybody older than 8 during the evening.
Hosting the event will be Nathan Hofer, the owner of Frontier Productions, who said it will be a bull-team/futurity-style format, which means the event is designed to allow contractors to display their bulls and they enter two bulls on a team. They then pick a rider to ride and the whole idea is to have four judges scoring the bulls and the rider, but the ride-time also counts with the bull-rider staying on the bull for 8 seconds, hopefully for a win.
"The team-style format equals a lot of really good rides, obviously they need the bulls ridden to win this, so if anybody wants to come see some really good bull-rides you're going to see them on some really good bulls," Hofer said. The bull contractors come from Arizona, North Dakota, South Dakota, Colorado, Idaho, and some from the local area, he added.
"As far as the rider-base is concerned, we have some awesome riders and experienced riders from the PRCA and PBR tours," Hofer said. "It should be a really good lineup with some good rides."
"Every bull that's going to buck will be a competition-style format for the contractor," Hofer said. "We've done a couple (of these) in Dickinson, on the futurity-side of things, and in the morning we have the futurity. ... Instead of a rider, we will have a bucking dummy on the back of a bull."
He said the competitions of this style in Dickinson have been well-received. The free, 9 a.m. futurity event will feature bulls of 2- and 3-years-old, with the bucking dummy placed on the back of a bull for 4 seconds for the 2-year-olds, and the 3-year-olds will buck for 6 seconds. The judges will then judge the bulls during the free event, and the best-bull wins.
"Whoever has the best bull, wins," Hofer said. "Dickinson really hasn't seen — outside of the events that I've done — an event like this too much."
The event is co-signed by the American Bucking Bull Association, Hofer said, and the competition-style format should be exciting. There will be three sections of bulls, he added, and a barrel-racing format as well. There also will be added entertainment for everybody to enjoy.
"It should be a pretty-fun event to come to, and just a little bit different," Hofer said.
Bull-riding and bull-team events are on the slate, with a smidgen of cash & cans barrel-racing thrown in for good measure.
"Come and buy a ticket and have fun with us," Hofer said. "If the community supports these events, we'll be bringing a lot more of them and they're just good family fun and we've got a good lineup of local sponsors."
Among those sponsors are Dakota Community Bank & Trust, Dan's Body Shop, West Plains Inc., Charbonneau Car Center, Rudy's Lock & Key and others.
For more information, please keep reading your Dickinson Press, and/or visit
https://www.visitdickinson.com/events/2023/stark-county-bull-team-challenge—futurity
.
