The Pike County Cattlemen’s PCA Rodeo weekend was a great success with a good crowd Friday night and one of the biggest crowds in Pike County rodeo history Saturday night.

Ed Whatley, executive director of the Pike County Cattlemen’s Association, said it will be a couple of weeks before organizers know exactly how much money was raised to improve the facilities at Cattleman Park.

“But the rodeo was a great one start to finish,” he said. “Friday night, the rodeo had to compete with the Pike County and Charles Henderson high school football game and Pike Liberal Arts played at home. But we still had good crowd and it was a good night for rodeo.

“The Sweet Young’Uns concert after the rodeo attracted local folks but also folks from Auburn, Opelika, Selma and Dothan. The concert proved to be a good draw and helped make up the loss to the ball games.”

Saturday was Western Festival at the rodeo and it was exciting to see so many kids out having a good time enjoying the rodeo, Whatley said.

“The Cattlemen gave free tickets to students in area elementary schools and that brought in a lot of kids and many who had never been to the rodeo before,” he said. “For an afternoon, kids had a chance to be ‘real’ cowboys and cowgirls and they were loving it.”

The young cowboys and cowgirls participated in stick horse races, steer roping and mutton bustin’ and rode the wagon around the grounds.

“About halfway through the Western Festival, we had more than 150 kids in the arena,” Whatley said. “The Western Festival was a great success. We had kids ropin’ and ridin’ and The Benton Brothers and Company bluegrass gospel band on stage and it was a great atmosphere for rodeo.”

Bar W Rodeo provided the stock for the Pike County Cattlemen’s PCA Rodeo and Whatley said the quality of the stock made the rodeo a barnburner.

“Bar W’s stock was tremendous,” he said. “Only one rider stayed on the bull the full eight seconds on Saturday and nobody on Friday. They all got bucked off. And very few bareback and saddle bronc riders stayed on. That makes it exciting for rodeo fans.”

The Cattlemen’s PCA Rodeo featured eight rodeo events and a full number for each event.

“We had 125 cowboys and cowgirls and we had slack on Friday night and Saturday morning, so it was a good rodeo for the competitors and for the fans,” Whatley said. “We want to thank everyone who came out and supported the rodeo and all of those who worked so hard to make it a success. The Cattlemen are already looking toward next year and what we can do to make the rodeo even bigger and better.”