Arcadia All Florida Championship Rodeo – Arcadia, Florida

The Arcadia All Florida Championship Rodeo is held in Arcadia, Florida which is southeast of Tampa right in the middle of Florida cattle country.  Florida has been a big source of cattle for many years.  Florida was a strategic area even back in the Civil War because the state produced sugar, salt & cattle, which were important to both sides.  Now Florida is a big source of young cattle for the beef industry.   So cowboys have always been in Florida.   Our cowboys were called Crackers as they cracked bull whips as they rode through the palmettos moving the cattle about the big ranches.  Where there are cowboys there are rodeos, so Florida has

always been a rodeo state!   The oldest one is in Arcadia!    They just held the 2016 88th edition!   It was a great spring day for this annual event!

 

 

The quadrille is like a square dance on horseback.  I participated in a quadrille group when I was a kid & it was a lot of fun, a lot of work and some of the moves are very dangerous as they perform some of the moves at a gallop!

 

 

This rodeo includes the regular events, barrel racing, bronc riding, bull riding, calf roping and steer wrestling.   These are events some of which originated with the work that cowboys did on the ranch or were started as competition between cowboys became popular.

Bare back Bronc riding.

 

 

Steer wrestling.

 

Calk Roping.

 

 

Barrel racing.

 

 

Bull riding.

 

 

Rodeo is one of the original American sports.  The Arcadia All Florida Championship Rodeo is a terrific example of the cowboy sport!

See additional images from the rodeo at my website.

That is all for now.

Lynn