Covered Wagon Rides available for free at Western Days

Covered Wagon rides will be available for visitors and residents of Mustang to ride throughout Western Days in 2022.

The rides will begin Friday as the Western Days festivities kick-off and will begin again after the Parade on Saturday morning (rides available between 1 p.m. and 5 p.m.) before they head over to the rodeo for the evening.

Paulette Statler, Luxury Real Estate, is sponsoring the rides so everyone can enjoy them for free.

“We’ll be giving wagon rides all day Saturday (following the parade),” Statler said. “And then on Friday we’ll be at the Rodeo and we’ll be giving rides earlier.”

This year is the third year the wagon rides are happening for Western Days, with Jerry and Yolanda Stroup bringing their mules and wagons from eastern Missouri ahead of the Western Days event. Statler said almost 500 people rode the wagon this past year during the Western Days 2021 events.

This year, the wagon rides will meet at the Southeast corner of the community center, close to where the tractor club will be. The route depends on the traffic and the layout of Western Days, but typically it goes from the Southeast corner of the community center to the fields behind the town center before letting people back off at the starting location.

Wagons will be in the parade and will have to get a place in the line just like a float would.

Renee Peerman, Mustang Chamber of Commerce President and CEO, said the wagon rides will start around 1 p.m. Saturday to give time to the horses to get back to Wildhorse Park and give the group time to feed them after the parade.

Statler and two others will be sponsoring the rides, making them free for all who want to enjoy the Western Days festivities through the unique experience.

“The wagon rides are free,” Statler said. “Free for anyone and everyone. They just have to get on it and sit down.”

The wagons will also feature on both Friday and Saturday night.

Peerman said the dignitary wagon goes to the rodeo arena for the rodeo on Friday and Saturday night to help open the event.

“They usually open up the rodeo with some of the other riders, and just kind of ride around and sometimes pull dignitaries waving, as well,” Peerman said.

So, when spectators attend the rodeo on both evenings, the dignitaries’ wagon can be expected to be a part of the attraction.

Keep an eye out for them throughout the Western Days festivities.