Five generations of North Platte family have attended rodeo
North Platte, Neb. (May 18, 2015) – Ron and Nancy Richardson’s granddaughter is getting a special rodeo treat.
On her birthday, which is May 23, the soon to be three year old will get a pair of spurs from her grandma and grandpa and a pair of boots from her mother, just in time to wear them to the Buffalo Bill Rodeo.
Little Rowan, who is Ron and Nancy’s granddaughter, is the fifth generation of her family to attend the rodeo, held in North Platte the third weekend of June each year.
Her mom, Brooke Lee, has gone to the rodeo with her parents, Ron and Nancy, since she was a little girl. And Nancy, who grew up in Wellfleet, attended the rodeo with her grandparents, beginning when she was just a toddler.
Actually, Nancy estimates she’s never missed a year of the rodeo since she was two, and Ron hasn’t missed many years, either. Before NebraskalandDays came to North Platte, and the rodeo was a separate event held in August, Ron’s grandparents and parents had box seats in front, when the rodeo was held at the Lincoln County Fairgrounds.
And their own kids went with them when they were young. Jason, who is married to Suzanne and lives in North Platte, and Brooke, who is married to Cody Lee, have gone every year and still attend. Jason and Suzanne’s daughter Daytona has also attended the rodeo.
It’s made great memories, Ron said. When Jason was two or three, his parents dressed him in a Ted Kimzey (a former North Platte rodeo barrelman) look-alike costume and put him in the kids’ parade. Jason won the best dressed costume, and a photographer took a picture of him and mounted it, two feet square, in his studio window. “We got more comments off that thing,” Ron said. “Jason had a ball.”
Nancy remembers getting a picture taken with Rex Allen, and her brother and cousins, back when the rodeo invited a celebrity each year. In 1985, Rex Allen returned for a second visit to the rodeo, and Nancy had her picture taken with him again, this time with Brooke.
Ron and Nancy love good rodeos, and they’ve traveled all over the nation to see them. They’ve been to Frontier Days in Cheyenne and went to Arlington, Texas for the American Rodeo this past March. And they have plans to go to the Pendleton (Ore.) Round-Up in 2016.
They’ve seen rodeo livestock all over the country, but Ron considers the North Platte livestock to be the best. Bennie and Rhett Beutler of Beutler and Son Rodeo provide the horses and bulls in North Platte. “Beutler has some of the best stock, second to none, in the U.S.,” Ron said. “They’ve been here since the rodeo started, so they must be doing something right. They’re just good.”
Ron, who spent his youthful weekends and summers on the family ranch twenty miles north of Sutherland, appreciates good horseflesh, and his favorite parts of the rodeo is the saddle bronc riding, the tie-down roping, and the bulldogging. “I like good broncs,” he said. “I like it all, but I like the saddle bronc riding the best. And I like to watch good calf roping horses and the bulldogging, in that order.”
This year’s rodeo begins at 8 pm each night, June 17-20 at the Wild West Arena in North Platte. Tickets range in price from $7 to $15 and are available online at NebraskalandDays.com, at the NebraskalandDays new office (2801 Charlie Evans Drive at the Wild West Arena), and at the gate. For more information, visit the website or call 308.532.7939.