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The event opens Friday and continues Saturday and Sunday at the Coulee Region Riders Club grounds on Briggs Road in Holmen.
Tim Devine, president of the club, said more than 150 contestants from Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota are expected to compete.
Girls events are barrel racing, pole bending, breakaway, goat tying and cutting. Boys events are saddle broncs, bull riding, calf roping, steer wrestling and cutting. There are also team roping events.
Devine said admission is free to Friday events, which begin at 6:30 with cutting and slack competitions for the riders who don’t get chosen for the main events.
Slack events begin Saturday and Sunday at 9 a.m., with the regular rodeo at 1 p.m. The event will be run as two separate rodeos each day.
“This is a real rodeo,” Devine said. “We’ll have about 20 bull riders and a lot of ropers. There will be a lot of kids here.”
The event benefits from strong community support from volunteers and local organizations, including the Brice Prairie Lions, which cook chicken dinners; the Holmen American Legion, which donates prizes to the winners; the Holmen Fire Department and the Holmen and Brice Prairie first responders, which volunteer to be on standby in case medical treatment is needed.
Devine said no one has been seriously hurt, but the sport comes with plenty of bumps and bruises.
“It’s a full-contact sport, no doubt about that,” he said.
Saturday’s events also include a dance at the Holmen American Legion which will begin about 8 p.m.
Devine said the arena seating is up close, so spectators will get a good view of the competition, which includes sanctioned bulls and bucking horses.
The event is the second in the 2007 season for the Wisconsin High School Rodeo Association.
Chris Hardie is weekly newspaper/shopper publisher for the River Valley Newspaper Group.
