SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO : Rancho Days Begins With Roping Contest
Rancho Days, a weeklong celebration of the city’s cowboy heritage, begins today with a team-roping competition and a roping clinic given by two national champions.
The daylong event will be followed on Sunday by a horse-training demonstration and clinic. Both events will take place on a lot at Camino Capistrano and Junipero Serra Road. Registration for both daylong events starts at 9 a.m. Admission is free to spectators.
“We’re really looking forward to a sizable crowd and some great competition,” said Jerry Harris, who is organizing equestrian shows for Rancho Days. “The fact that the current and six-time national champion Jake Barnes and the two-time national champ Alan Bach are coming to our town of San Juan . . . is a unique and rare event in itself.”
Barnes and Bach will critique riders’ form from the equestrian arena. There will be no charge for the clinic.
The purpose of team roping is to chase down and rope a steer in the least amount of time. In team roping, the “header” tosses a rope around the steer’s horns while the “heeler” lassos its hind legs.
Rancho Days is a city celebration that reflects “on an era when our community was primarily ranches and farms,” Harris said. “We want to bring a little bit of that nostalgia back.”
Next weekend’s activities will include a Western vaudeville show, the Miss San Juan Pageant, a rodeo and a fiesta at Mission San Juan.
For more information about this weekend’s events, call (714) 661-0354.
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