Rodeo riding into Tuttle Friday & Saturday

The 41st Annual Tuttle Rodeo will be held at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday nights at the Tuttle Rodeo Arena, located at Tuttle’s Schrock Park.
Admission for Friday will be $10 for adults, $5 for children 7-12, $5 for senior citizens (65+), and free for kids six and under.
Admission will be higher for adults, $15, on Saturday because the rodeo will host a dance. Admission will be the same for everyone else. Cash will be the only way to pay for entry.
Tuttle Roundup Club President Ladd Borden said Thursday, “It has been a lot of work. We were very blessed this year. We had a really, really good turnout for our clean up day, cleaning up around the arena trying to make everything look a little bit more presentable. That was very, very nice. And a big shout out goes out to everybody that did show up and helped out far as with the mowing and weed eating and piling brush, and it worked out real good.”
The Tuttle Roundup Club’s numbers are close to 70 members currently. One big reason is its play days that allow equestrians to meet up at the rodeo arena in Schrock Park to socialize and run barrel races, among other things.
Borden said, “We do a barrel race every Friday night if the weather is permitting. We’re also doing sanctioned play days now, through OCA (Oklahoma Cowgirls Association), so if you attend so many, then it qualifies you to go to a state competition, and run in the state play day where you run against all the different clubs all around, which is real nice. They give saddles out, buckles, plaques, and it’s a good family fun organization.”
Borden talked a bit about the events that will be featured, saying, “We will have the saddle broncs, ranch ride, bareback, the bull riding of course. We’ll have our time events as far as the barrel racing, breakaway, tie down, team roping. I think we’re going to try to throw in a couple of little fun events, one for Friday night and one for Saturday night. We’re kind of leaning towards doing a women’s on Friday night and do a money the hard way, and then do the money the hard way on Saturday night for the men.
“Then we’ll have the mutton busting for the kids. We still need sponsors but my goal is I would like to give two bicycles away each night. On the mutton busting for our little kids, you usually have the boys and girls competing against each other, and I feel that you should give them out where the girls can win a prize, and the boys can win a prize. We do have some little girls that are a whole lot meaner and tougher than a lot of the little boys, but the rule of thumb is that the boys are going to be able to out muscle the girls a little bit.”
The Roundup Club president said he hopes to see folks bringing their kids out to encourage the younger generation to take an interest in the tradition of American rodeo.
“I just hope everybody comes out and has a good time,” Borden said. “My goal is to make the Tuttle Rodeo bigger and better than ever. I’m all about the rodeo fans and the rodeo itself, and it’s like I’ve been telling everyone, I want to get more and more kids involved.”