Sisters Rodeo bursts out of the chutes this weekend

It bills itself as “the biggest little show in the world” and it gets underway this weekend for the 65th time.

The Sisters PRCA Rodeo has performances scheduled for June 10-12. The first performance begins Friday at 7 p.m. with other performances scheduled for Saturday at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m., and Sunday at 1 p.m.

“We will again have some of the top rodeo performers in the country coming to Sisters for our three-day rodeo,” said Glenn Miller, president of the Sisters Rodeo Association. “On this particular weekend, this will be the biggest rodeo in the country.”

Each performance opens with the grand entry of the Sisters Rodeo parade grand marshal Edith Leithauser, a long-time Sisters resident, and the Sisters Rodeo Queen, Miska Asman of Prineville. Visiting rodeo courts and others follow them.

Then, the rodeo begins with the Wild Horse Race in which three-man teams attempt to saddle a wild horse and ride it to the end of the arena. After this exciting start, the rodeo gets down to business with all seven major rodeo events presented at each show, including tie-down roping, bareback bronc riding, steer wrestling, saddle bronc riding, team roping, barrel racing, and two sessions of exciting bull riding.

“We will have more than 404 cowboys and cowgirls performing this year,” Miller said, “and there will be a total purse of $120,000.”

John S. Payne, “the One Arm Bandit,” returns this year as the featured entertainment for all four performances.

A popular rodeo act throughout the United States, Canada and Europe, Payne performs an outstanding riding exhibition on horseback while herding buffaloes. Payne appeared at the 2002 Sisters Rodeo performing with longhorn steers that year.

Grand Marshal Edith Leithauser, who was in the first Sisters rodeo parade in 1941, will lead this year’s parade down Cascade Avenue on Saturday morning starting at 9:30 a.m.

Visiting rodeo courts, marching units, floats, and other entries will parade through downtown Sisters. The annual Kiwanis Buckaroo Breakfast will be served at the rodeo grounds on Sunday from 7 to 11 a.m. A cowboy church service will be held Sunday at 9 a.m. at the rodeo grounds.