First day of rodeo kicks off in Sikeston

SIKESTON Mo. (KBSI) – The bulls, the blood, the dust, and the mud. It’s a Sikeston tradition dating back to 1953.

Thousands gathering today telling us there’s nothing quite like the Southeast Missouri Bootheel Rodeo experience. 

Justin Rumford has been a rodeo entertainer for over 13 years. He says no other job is like the one he has today.

“I get paid to party. I mean that’s one thing I’ve always wanted to do, I used to do it for free so now I’m getting paid to have a good time and that’s why I love it .”

Rumford emphasizes that he gets irritated when people say rodeo competitors and bull riders are crazy. Rumford ensures if you are passionate about what you do and you learn at a young age nothing is crazy. 

“If you don’t know how to drive a car and you try to drive to St. Louis odds are you’re going to get in a wreck and kill yourself because you don’t know what you’re doing. Now if you learn how to drive a car, you learn the safety features of a car, you learn the do’s and don’ts of a car and you go to drive ya there’s a chance you still might wreck but not as much. Same deal with rodeo, these guys are professionals.”

As Rumford said, practice makes perfect. 

It takes practice to be a competitive roper like Clay Clayman. For Clay this rodeo is extra special as he is close to home. He has been training since he was young and loves everything about entertaining crowds with his roping skills. 

“I’m a multi event cowboy. I sea wrestle and team rope. The team roping isn’t as hard but the sea wrestling can be hard on the body but we try to stay as healthy as possible. I’ve been doing this as long as I’ve been able to walk or ride a horse, roping and cowboying and this is the biggest rodeo we come to in the state of Missouri and I am a Springfield native so it’s fun to come down here and compete.”

Clayman is just one of many that push their bodies to the edge when it comes to competing and it’s not just people, it’s the animals too. He says the animals he cares for and competes with mean everything to him. 

“When we’re on the road we just try to take the best care of them as we can. Give them the best rates and take care of them as best we can to keep them in the best shape we can because they’re athletes just like us and if they’re not competing at they’re best we can’t compete at our best.”

I also met with Rodeo Queen, Kennedy Gibson. This is her first rodeo as a rodeo queen this year but she always grew up in rodeo as her dad was a bull rider. 

Gibson says being a rodeo queen is special.

“I am really looking forward to spending a little bit more time in the arena and being an inspiration to young girls. They look up to everyone in the rodeo community but it’s different when you’re dressed up as what they would consider a princess to be.”