Riding High
What’s a Rascal Rodeo? Think Special Olympics in dirt
Ann-Erica Whitemarsh wanted to be a cowgirl. Growing up in Pasco, Washington, not far from the Oregon and Idaho borders, she hoped to follow in the bootsteps of her older brother, who made it to the national steer-wrestling finals for high school students.
She tagged along to those finals, and in the process heard about a number of different events that occurred alongside steer-wrestling, one of which in particular piqued her interest. Even more rewarding than riding and roping, it seemed to Whitemash, was the so-called “exceptional rodeo,” for people with special needs.
Think Special Olympics in dirt. Dozens of kids and adults with various mental and physical disabilities rode ponies and participated in rodeo-like events. They roped wooden steer, ran around with stick horses, and sat on barrels that rocked back and forth like bulls. Whitemarsh could not help but be inspired by the stories.
In 2001, when it was time to do her high school senior project, Whitemash decided to organize an exceptional rodeo in Pasco. It was a success. She went off to college for business and spent a few more years working in a cubicle, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that what she really wanted to do was organize exceptional rodeos.
Whitemarsh lassoed her dream in 2011, incorporating the nonprofit Rascal Rodeo to produce rodeos for people with special needs. The first RR was held at the Kennewick (Washington) Fair, with thirty participants. The following year, RR produced four events (two each in Washington and Oregon) and seven in 2013, and is on pace to do at least twelve this year, expanding into Idaho.
Rascal Rodeos take place on the same day and at the same location as professional rodeo events. Whitemarsh arranges for her group’s equipment to be set up either in the arena or just outside it, and the Rascal Rodeos usually start at 10 a.m. and run about an hour and a half.
Each event draws participants from nearby communities, who register online or by phone. They have ranged in age from 2 to 70, and no disability is excluded. RR has had participants with autism, Down syndrome, schizophrenia, and other mental challenges; some of the wheelchair participants are disabled as the result of accidents.
“I love doing it so people with special needs can go to a large community event and get to be a part of it,” Whitemarsh says. “They get to be the stars of the show. The whole town shows up.”
She also loves doing it so she can show parents of special needs kids that their children can do things they never imagined possible. The parents, she says, are often wary to get involved due to their experience with their kids’ limitations, and many need convincing just to show up.
But here’s how it usually goes: “After a couple of minutes their child wants to see everything and touch everything, and then they really warm up and want to ride a horse,” Whitemarsh says, “and by that time the parents are crying.”
At other times, it’s the kids themselves who need some persuading. That was the case with Jacob, whose mother, Laurie Sarver, brought him to his first Rascal Rodeo at the Kennewick County Fair three years ago, when he was six. It was crowded and loud, and Jacob, who has high-functioning autism, was overwhelmed.
“But once he was convinced to try and sit on a horse for the first time, my son became a cowboy,” Sarver says. “Now Jacob makes it his personal goal to ride every horse at the rodeo—multiple times.”
While on horseback, Sarver says, the usually fidgety and high-strung Jacob is calm and relaxed, with a sense of confidence she’d never seen before. He’s been to six Rascal Rodeos, and the events have also given her son a host of new friends, both his age and among the adult volunteers.
One of those volunteers is Maggie Little, an 18-year-old rodeo queen. In 2013, Little—who was Washington’s Miss Teen Rodeo the previous year—was the queen of the Kennewick County Fair and Rodeo, where she met Jacob. At Rascal Rodeos, each participant is matched with one or two volunteers to help them through the different stations. After being introduced to Little, Jacob grabbed her hand. They’ve been rodeo pals ever since.
“Before he told me his name, he told me that he was the horse-riding champion of the world,” Little says. “He’s just the most adorable kid, and you can see him light up when he gets on the horses. He really has a natural ability for it.”
The two recently paired up for the third time.
“He feels a connection with her. He trusts her,” Sarver says. “As a parent I just sit back and watch him and think, Oh my god, is this my boy? I can’t believe the confidence he has. With Maggie, he walks up to these big animals and thinks, Yeah, I can ride this horse.”
At his most recent Rascal Rodeo, Jacob participated in the dummy calf roping, running around the barrels and riding in a cart pulled by a horse. “Of course we did the rides on the horses,” Little says. “That’s his favorite, because he’s a horse-riding champion.”
“Who knew he had this horse connection?” says Sarver. “The minute the horse starts moving, all his tension releases. He talks, but it’s not this frantic repeating himself—it’s a real conversation.”
Sarver also says that Jacob’s experience with Rascal Rodeo has opened the door for him to try other new things without being nervous. “Traditionally, kids with autism have issues with self-esteem when they reach fourth, fifth, or sixth grade,” she says. “This gives me a lot more hope for what he’s going to face in the coming years.”
In four years, Rascal Rodeo has had about 1,500 participants and a couple of thousand volunteers. The organization is growing, but it hasn’t been easy. Whitemarsh is the only full-time employee, and she doesn’t get a salary. She’s been living with her parents for the past three years, babysitting and housecleaning to pay her student loan bills.
She went three years without a vehicle after her car died in 2011, depending on volunteers to shuttle her and the Rascal Rodeo equipment around. But things are looking up: Toyota recently awarded RR a 2014 Tundra pickup truck, and a local farm and ranch supply store chipped in on the cost of a trailer.
Whitemarsh hopes to dramatically grow RR, one day opening regional offices around the western U.S. The need for what she’s doing is just too great, she says, and doing it is too enjoyable.
“There are special needs people in every community, and they are told not to do things, and it’s expected that they can’t do things,” she says. “But when they are given the opportunity, they blow us away. Just because you’re stuck in a wheelchair doesn’t mean you can’t ride a horse.”
Rodeo 101
If you live in the western half of the United States or the Canadian province of Alberta, there are few things more popular than rodeo. According to the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA), more than 31 million people identify themselves as fans of ProRodeo, the PRCA’s professional circuit. Rodeo is seventh in overall attendance for major sporting events in the U.S., ahead of golf and tennis, and the audience increased by 18 percent in 2012, according to Sports Business Daily. The total payout at PRCA rodeos in 2012 was over $39 million.
The main events
Rascal Rodeo participants can go to any of these stations, as many times as they want:
- Calf roping and steer roping with dummies
- Cow milking with plywood cows and bottles
- Running or being pushed in a wheelchair on stick horses around barrels in a cloverleaf pattern
- Calf and bull riding on barrels that rock forward and backward or side to side
- Riding in a cart pulled by a horse
- Horse and pony rides; some participants ride alone and others are accompanied by a volunteer
Photos by Josiah Stromstad
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