JAUNTS : Rodeo Riders Toss Their Hats in Ring : Michele Burgard of Oak View will be among many in county competing in Conejo Valley Days events.

When veterinarian Michele Burgard isn’t tending a horse, she is most likely riding one--at breakneck speed in the 40 or so rodeos that she competes in during the year.

The 34-year-old Oak View woman will take to the saddle this weekend, along with a handful of other Ventura County hopefuls, during the Conejo Valley Days rodeos.

This is a three-day riding, roping and wrestling extravaganza in pure cowboy tradition. There will be two afternoon rodeo performances Saturday and Sunday. The junior rodeo is tomorrow evening.

For Burgard, a professional rodeo rider since 1982, it means saddling her quarter horse, Turbo Doc, for the barrel racing event and guiding him around three barrels in a cloverleaf pattern before galloping like the wind to the finish.

She was eighth in the state last year in barrel racing and, earlier this month, she took home $510 for a second-place finish at a rodeo in Chowchilla.

“Everyone dreams of making a living at this,” said Burgard, who took up rodeo riding when she was about 14 and living in Huntington Beach. “But I knew I needed a career.”

So she graduated from UC Davis in 1990, having competed in the college rodeo circuit. She worked as a vet in Northern California before moving in August to Oak View.

This weekend, Burgard will be joined by 210 other professional riders, mainly from around the state, for the two-day rodeo. A dozen or so are from Ventura County.

The rodeo gets off to a flashy start, with a parade around the arena featuring the rodeo participants and the youthful Conejo Riders showing their precision moves.

The sporting events are all gutsy, backbreaking feats, especially bull riding, in which the rider not only has to stay on a 2,000-pound bucking brute but also make a safe getaway. In this event, keep an eye out for these locals: John Mattivi and Stephen Mederios, both of Camarillo; David Smith of Fillmore, and Frank Torgerson of Simi Valley. Two other bucking events include bareback and saddle bronc riding.

In steer wrestling, the cowboy leaps from his horse to catch the steer by the horns and wrestle it to the ground. In team roping, two riders rope a steer’s head and feet and, in calf roping, a cowboy must dismount and get the calf to the ground before tying three feet together.

At the junior rodeo, some of the events are similar, such as barrel racing, team roping and calf roping. But some have a different spin, such as pole bending, which involves riding through a slalom course, and goat tying, in which the young wrangler wrestles a goat to the ground and ties its legs.

The junior rodeo is open to kids 5 through 18 years old, and the events get a little more difficult as the kids get older. The younger boys ride calves, but by the time they are 11, they are atop steers. In the chute dogging event for older boys, they run out of the chute with the steer and try to throw it to the ground.

The rodeo is part of the Junior Rodeo Assn. circuit, and about 20 young riders from Ventura County will be competing along with others mainly from Southern California--all of them vying for belt buckle prizes.

The locals include Tiphanie Williams, 17, and Elizabeth Davis, 16, both of Newbury Park, who are qualified for state competition this year. Elizabeth’s sister, Catherine, 13, also is an up-and-comer. Also riding this year is Simi Valley’s Mike DeVan, 16, whose team roping skills sent him to the national high school competition last year.

Details

* WHAT: Conejo Valley Days Rodeos.

* WHERE: Conejo Creek Park, near the Moorpark Freeway and Janss Road in Thousand Oaks.

* WHEN: 1:30 and 4:30 p.m. Saturday and 1 and 4 p.m. Sunday. Junior Rodeo is 6 p.m. Friday.

* COST: Admission to Conejo Valley Days activities is $5 adults, $3 students, $2 children 7 to 12 and free for 6 and under. This admission fee includes the rodeos.

* FYI: Call 499-1993.