This past weekend we attended the Show Low Days festival in Show Low, Arizona. June by the way is a perfect time of year to escape the desert heat and head up to the White Mountains. Show Low Days includes several events including the Cruz’n the Rim Car Show, Derby Down the Deuce and a Stick Horse Rodeo. We made stick horses this year for Rodeo Days in Tucson, so the boys were excited to bring their horses out of retirement and participate in the Stick Horse Rodeo. Naturally I wanted to share a bit of the fun the boys had and also share the cool stick horse rodeo ideas. Holding your own stick horse rodeo would be a fun summer activity or birthday party theme!

As soon as we arrived, the rodeo action started with the kids registering and getting a number on their back just like real rodeo cowboys. The numbers served two purposes, they used the numbers to score each child after the parade and also to keep track of which kids had earned a prize at each game. The kids were allowed to play the games as many times as they wanted but only earn one prize from each game. I loved how they kept it fair and fun!

I also loved the fact they had pool noodle horses available to purchase (at a minimal cost) for kids who didn’t have a stick horse. In fact I almost made our stick horses out of pool noodles earlier this year, check out my Rodeo Break Pinterest Board for more stick horse ideas.

They had several activities for the kids to participate in besides the rodeo parade. The “Rodeo Arena” itself was set up with hay bales and lots of homemade signs for each game.

Naturally both boys loved the Shoot Out game the best. They each walked away with a Sheriff Star.

I thought the Snake In My Boot game was pretty clever. I’m a sucker for a Disney reference. 😉

You simply had to toss small plastic snakes into a cowboy boot. The prize was one of the toy snakes that made it into the boot.

I also liked the Rope ‘Um game. Another simple game that the kids enjoyed.

The prize for this game was a small toy horse.

The last game was panning for gold. Each child discovered a “gold coin” and a penny after sifting the sand out of their pan. Both boys were thrilled with the penny. 🙂

There were also two different miniature horses to feed. Feeding animasl is always a hit with my boys.

There’s talk of an actual petting zoo at next year’s event! The boys would love that, this mom would love a little extra shade too. 🙂

After the games, the kids marched in a stick horse parade around the baseball diamond and then were presented one at a time to the judges. Some kids were clearly better at hamming it up.

They had prizes for 3 girls and 3 boys. The winners were the ones decked out in cowboy gear. Anyone want to guess what my boys plan to do next year? 🙂 They also had a couple random raffles for the rest of the kids.

Local rodeo queens helped out during the Stick Horse Rodeo. My boys weren’t too impressed with them but lots of little girls took pictures with them. 🙂

All the cowboys and cowgirls enjoyed a shot of root beer while they waited for the judges to pick the winners.

This is not a sponsored post. We really enjoyed this small town event and I wanted to share it with you. I do want to give a special shout out to Jill Tinkel, and Tractor Supply in Show Low for sponsoring the Stick Horse Rodeo. It was totally free to participate in. They promise a bigger and better event for next year and you can be sure we will make a point to attend. The boys want to dress in full cowboy gear and win a prize. 😉