Not long after she began to walk and talk, Paige Wingfield learned to ride. Now, the 20 year-old is set to become the Hometown Cowgirl when RAM Rodeo comes to Rockton later this month.
The event, which features two full days of activities on July 27 and 28 at the Rockton Fairgrounds, hasn’t been held in Flamborough since before Wingfield was born. She’s excited to be bringing the sport she loves to the Fairgrounds, and has been working with a planning committee at the Rockton Agricultural Society (RAS) to organize the details.
“We’ve had meetings every couple of weeks to discuss the sponsorships, as well as what we want to have going on during the rodeo,” she said. “We have a bunch of kids’ games that are going to be happening, and little tractors they can ride around on, things like that, and a musical artist.”
But not just any musical artist – Flamborough country singer Ty Baynton will be performing several times on each day. Fans will also get to see him show off his skills in the ring.
“Ty will also be a participant in the rodeo himself,” said RAS General Manager Sandra Caleta. “When we reached out to him he was really excited – he let us know he had been to several RAM Rodeos as a participant.”
Wingfield got her start with the Rockton Saddle Club, where she rode until about age 10 before moving over to the Norfolk Saddle Club. There, she got involved in RAM Rodeo last year and discovered a much larger community, traveling to events in small rural towns around southern Ontario to compete in barrel racing and pole bending. The circuit winds up its season at the International Plowing Match, followed by the championships at the Ancaster Fairgrounds. The top competitors move on to compete at the Royal Winter Fair.
“A friend just mentioned it to me…and I’d never really thought of going outside of doing saddle club,” she said. “When I went to my first one, I just loved it. There’s the bronc riders, the bull riders the barrel racers and the pole benders. It’s really just neat to see everybody come together and enjoy the community and the sport and one another. And they cheer you on and whatnot.”
She signed on with several sponsors, including the Stampede Ranch in Guelph, The Hat Effect, the Blue Roan, Swing Construction and Livesey Fabrication, who support her with advertising, promotion and covering entry fees and expenses.
Wingfield returned to Rockton Saddle Club last year, where she was named youth champion in barrel racing and reserve champion in down-and-back.
She says her rodeo season got off to a slow start this year; she had hoped to enter eight to 10 of the scheduled 16 RAM events, but has missed a few weeks. She’s working with a new horse, a 14–year-old off-the-track thoroughbred named Kat, who came up lame after their first rodeo; it’s taken some time for her to heal, but the pair are planning to compete in barrels and pole bending at Brigden this weekend, then in Erin on July 20 and 21, before returning home to Rockton.
Though they’ve only been together for a few months, Wingfield is confident in Kat's abilities. “She’s a very outgoing horse, she has a lot of stamina and always wants to go,” she said. “I gave us a couple of weeks to get to know each other, and she's one of the harder horses that I've worked with before. She's a lot trickier to learn, because she has a lot more ways of how she tests you.
“She has different quirks to her. I’ve ridden a lot of horses and she was definitely one of my harder ones. But we figured out.”
Wingfield is looking forward to riding in front of the hometown crowd, and says RAM Rodeo events typically attract over 100 participants who compete for cash prizes.
In addition to the official contests, there will be plenty to do. There will be vendors and a food court on site, and a licensed bar will be set up in the arena. Line dancing lessons will give people a chance to dust off their boots and give it a try, and the RAS’s popular Ag Alive Barn will be open for the weekend, where visitors of all ages will be able to interact with different farm animals.
“The animal barn is looking really good. There’s going to be a lot of different animals in there, not just the ones featured in the rodeo,” said Caleta. “It just gives a chance for maybe anyone who’s coming from the city to get up close and personal with the animals.”
RAM Rodeo came to town when it first started out 25 years ago, says Caleta, but there hasn’t been an opportunity to bring it back until now. Norfolk, which previously hosted RAM events, has switched to a pro rodeo.
“There’s definitely been interest; it’s just never been the right time,” she noted. “This year it finally managed to work out and they had a date available so we just jumped on it.”
They’re hoping for a good turnout – it’s a huge undertaking, but if it’s successful the rodeo may become an ongoing summer festival.
“We’re very optimistic that it will do well,” said Caleta. “That’s the goal, to have it as another yearly event, just like the Fair.”
RAM Rodeo runs at the Rockton Fairgrounds Saturday, July 27 from noon to 9 p.m. and on Sunday, July 28 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Advance tickets for each day are $25 for adults, $10 for youth and free for kids 5 and under. Admission at the gate is $35 for adults, $15 for youth and $5 per child.
The gates will open early, says Caleta. “People are welcome to come and spend the day here. There’s a variety of games people can play and we’re not charging anything for that – everything’s included with admission.”
