Summer Events 2023 | Hugo Ranch Rodeo Steeped in Cowboy Way
Twenty-two years ago, some locals in Hugo, Colo., approached Tina Waite about the idea of putting on a ranch rodeo in their town. She and her husband, Daryl Waite, who then managed the Withers Ranch near Hugo, had experience with ranch rodeos. She said yes, agreed to be the secretary, and today the Colorado Championship Ranch Rodeo is bigger than ever and continues to grow. This year it will be held June 23-24. It was the first ranch rodeo in the state sanctioned by the Working Ranch Cowboys Association – which has strict requirements to support their mission of preserving ranch history and educating the public.
“We try to align our event with the purpose of the WRCA and let people see ranch cowboys do still exist,” said Tina Waite. “Like that song says, ‘You just can’t see them from the road.'” The winning team at Hugo also earns the right to compete at the World Championship Ranch Rodeo in Amarillo, Texas.
Since the first rodeo in 2001, the Hugo event has turned into a two-day event jam packed with western entertainment and activities. Friday night opens with the first performance of the ranch rodeo, with a calcutta beforehand and dancing to live music afterward. Saturday opens with the Top Hand contest, the youth ranch rodeo, Jeremiah Ward Memorial Open Bronc Riding, a chuckwagon cook-off, and the second perf of the main ranch rodeo. This year a concert has been added Saturday night, featuring the traditional West Texas musician Randall King. Both days offer a western trade show with more than 30 vendors.
One secret to the success of the Colorado Championship Ranch Rodeo is teamwork and longevity, says Waite. “We have a really good committee of 10-12 people; everyone has their role and they just do what they do, you don’t have to worry about checking up on things.”
The other is family – all members of the Waite family have been involved since the rodeo’s inception.
Daryl, who retired from the Withers Ranch and is now a fulltime saddle-maker, and their sons, Chance and Caleb (married to Cat with son Declan), have helped in all areas from the start. Daughter Jessica (Waite) Casteel, who lives in Vale, S.D., with her husband Travis and their kids, Haddie and Tapadero, draws the program cover and designs the ranch rodeo posters. Daughter-in-law Tayla, married to Chance, manages the trade show.
In turn the event has created opportunities for the family. “Working with the ranch rodeo association has been a huge blessing for our family,” said Waite. “We’ve met some wonderful people. It’s given our family and our kids a chance to connect with some really good cowboys and work on some really good ranches.”
The main ranch rodeo competition at Hugo accepts 14 teams of four to six members, with no specifications on age or gender. However, all members must be prequalified through the WRCA which requires members’ income is from ranching on operations that meet criteria of a certain number of mama cows or yearlings ran. This year the events in the main rodeo will be stray gathering, number sorting, team branding, wild cow milking, and ranch bronc riding.
Last year was the first year of the WRCA youth ranch rodeo at Hugo. Team members can be aged five to 16 on 5-man teams. Events are trailer loading, team branding, doctoring, and sorting, and instead of the bronc ride they do a wild steer race, where teams must mug a steer and have someone ride it across a line.
The Top Hand Contest is a single man competition, featuring trailer loading, dally calf roping, and sorting. All these events are done with just one guy on their own and no help from anyone else, said Waite. Participants are invited to compete in the Top Hand competition after being named top hand at other ranch rodeos throughout the year.
Waite, whose full-time job is working at Eastern Slopes Rural Telephone in Hugo, said over the years they have just continued to add a little more each year. “But we’re about at maximum capacity on what we can fit in one weekend,” she said. “We just are always trying to make it better and more appealing to the public, and also trying to help get a winning team at the world championship.” Over the 22 years, several teams that won Hugo have gone on to win the WRCA world championship rodeo.
Cody Heck runs a cow-calf (and yearlings if it rains, he said) operation in Clarendon, Texas. His ranch rodeo team has competed at the Colorado Championship Ranch Rodeo for the last four or five years, and before that he competed there with a different team. “Hugo has always been a great rodeo,” Heck said. “Tina and her boys and Daryl do a great job putting that on with two full rounds of competition and good cattle and good bucking horses. And good people – definitely good people.”
On Heck’s team with him are Jody Padilla, Ethan Roucloux and Rylan Ferbrache. Last year they qualified to go to the world at the Maverick Ranch Rodeo in Cimarron, New Mexico, but so far have never won at Hugo. “We’ve been second a few times,” Heck said, “but that rodeo is definitely one of the highlights to go to each year.”
