Twenty-First Annual Fort Armstrong Rodeo Deemed a Success

by Olivia Wasilko

The twenty-first Fort Armstrong Championship started on Friday night with a number of events that pleased every audience.

The show was produced by the Rawhide Rodeo Company of Piffard, New York, a family-owned business that has operated for over thirty years. According to owner Sam Swearingen, the rodeo includes one hundred head of bucking horses in addition to bulls, calves, and several riding horses (including Swearingen’s prized Quarter Horse, Manny, who came along to the event).

Swearingen says that he came into the rodeo business when he was 14. As a saddle bronc rider, he used his winnings to invest in horses and arenas until he was able to put on his own shows.

Today, the company travels all across North America to bring rodeos to places such as Fort Armstrong.

“Wherever we’re hired, we come put on the show,” said Swearingen.

And it was no small show that was put on. The Friday night rodeo included a live band, singing of the national anthem by 13-year-old Lauren Wilder, steer wrestling, saddle bronc riding, bull riding, calf roping, and the crowd favorite: barrel racing. Almost every event included an introduction from the Fort Armstrong Horsemen’s Association (FAHA) Rodeo Queen, Kelsea McConnell.

McConnell, who was born and raised in New York before settling in Pennsylvania, has been riding horses for her entire life. She and her Arabian/ Quarter Horse Gracie are especially fond of pole bending and barrel racing, both of which she has competed in through Pennsylvania Amateur Horsemen’s Association (PAHA) shows in Crooked Creek Horse Park, Ford City.

A Lenape Vocational Technical School graduate, McConnell is on her way to great success.

“I went to Ford City first and then to Lenape Tech for Biomedical Technology,” said McConnell. “Now I’m planning on going to Clarion to get my bachelor’s degree in biology. Then hopefully I’ll go to Pitt for medical school and be a pediatric oncologist.”
Between events, the crowd was kept entertained by the jokes of rodeo clown Trent McFarland and announcer Doug Simcox. McFarland and some well-disguised actors treated the audience to a long skit during the intermission, which was a favorite among the children present.

The show also featured the Dynamite Dames, a group of women dedicated to the art of trick riding. They performed dangerous stunts such as the “hippodrome,” which includes standing straight up in the saddle of a galloping horse.

Although it may seem less dangerous than trick riding, there was a fair amount of falls in the tie-down roping and bull riding events. The Ford City Emergency Medical Service had an ambulance on stand-by just outside of the central arena, but thankfully nobody was seriously injured.

Some events, such as bull riding and saddle bronco riding, are scored by time and a point system of up to one hundred for the intensity of an animal’s bucking. Others, such as barrel racing, are purely time-based, and the rider with the fastest run wins.

The sport of rodeo can be expensive after adding horses, travel, and equipment, and the prize money is usually little. Though some shows have varying prizes, cow folks know that the rodeo isn’t for money. As 12-year-old Maryland roper Tanner Naylor said, “I just came to have fun and rope steers.”