Kids Gearing Up For Mutton Bustin’ Fun

By STEPHANIE BUNKER

The Progress

The Mutton Bustin event at the Clark County Fair is a crowd favorite. Something about watching a little cowboy or cowgirl be brave enough to hop on the back of a sheep is just really fun to watch!
This year there are 121 kids signed up to put their cowboy boots on and make that wild ride. Kids from all over come to ride the sheep at the Clark County Fair.

A lot of the entrants are local Clark County residents. But there are also some kids that come from around the state like Alamo, Pahrump and Cold Creek, Nevada. And there are even a few kids coming from Utah and Arizona.

Participants must be between the ages of 4 and 7 and must weigh under 60 lbs to take the ride.
The Mutton Bustin arena will be located at the southwest corner of the fairgrounds near the Nevada Showcase Tent. The show can be expected to be seen at 3:00pm and 5:00 pm on Wednesday and Thursday. There will be 3 rounds on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday: happening at 1:00, 3:00, and 5:00 pm.

The first two rounds on Friday, Saturday and Sunday are the qualifying rounds. The top 5 kids from both rounds come back to participate in the Championship round at 5 pm each day.

On Wednesday and Thursday the only qualifying round is at 3:00 with the Championship round to be held at 5:00.

The entry fee is only $15 to compete. And every participant wins a t-shirt and $5 cash.

More money is given out to the kids that win 1st, 2nd, and 3rd of the qualifying round. A fancy cowboy belt buckle is awarded every day to the winner of the Championship round.

Randall Dalley is the newly appointed Mutton Bustin Coordinator this year. He is taking over for long time coordinator Stuart Riggins.

“Last year, Reese Hoy called and asked if I would be willing to take over the Mutton Bustin for this year,” Dalley said. “I agreed to do it. So I shadowed Stuart last year to learn the ropes on how it was done.”

Dalley said that he is excited to continue the tradition of Mutton Bustin. That includes trying to make the Mutton Bustin event as authentic as they can.

“We have a judge, an announcer, and a rodeo clown,” he said. “Everyone that works there is dressed in a long sleeve button up shirt. We want to give the kids the experience of being in a real rodeo and they can hear the crowd cheering for them.”

The Mutton Bustin Arena has had an upgrade and the layout has changed.
“We got new panels for the arena and we aren’t using a return lane this year,” Dalley said.

The return lane was previously used to bring the sheep back to the other side of the arena. Dalley explained that it was difficult to push the sheep past the crowd in that spot. So instead they have swapped places with the shoots and scoring table. With these changes Dalley is hoping to have a smooth-running show and they hope all those that attend the Clark County Fair will come watch the fun at Mutton Bustin Rodeo.