Rounding ‘Em Up : Thousands Join Cowboys at Rancho Santa Margarita Rodeo

Out here beneath the twin Saddleback peaks on the flat plano trabuco , on what they now call Rancho Santa Margarita, the whistles of cowboys that pierced the air Saturday meant it was rodeo weekend.

For thousands of people like weekend cowboy Steve Dulmage, local volunteer Bonnie Watson and Rancho Santa Margarita newcomer Renee Bazinet, it’s one of the finest times of the year--a chance to get out the 10-gallon hat and boots, squeeze into a pair of jeans and mingle with the local throng of rodeo lovers.

“I haven’t been to a rodeo since I was 14 years old,” said Bazinet, now the mother of a 13-year-old son, as she stood in the hot midday sun. “We’ll be going to the rodeo, then the dance and Cooks Corner afterward. We love it.”

The fourth annual Rancho Santa Margarita Fiesta Rodeo is a four-day event that was launched with a genuine cattle drive Thursday. The cattle were brought from Rancho Mission Viejo’s Chiquitas Corral at Oso Parkway to the Rancho Santa Margarita rodeo grounds, which was about a five-mile ride. The event will continue with the grand finale rodeo today.

“This rodeo gets us going for the whole year,” said Watson, a member of one of the first 50 families to move to Rancho Santa Margarita. She became the first president of the Community Activities and Services Assn., which holds the event. “It allows us to put on the other activities like the Easter egg hunt and our Christmas party.”

About 7,000 people attended the junior rodeo Friday and more than 5,000 came Saturday, festival organizers said. Along with the rodeo, they found an assortment of Western-themed food and crafts booths.

Those who didn’t come fully prepared could buy a hat or boots from one of the booths, and at least walk the walk of rodeo cowboys.

Dulmage, 25, of Trabuco Canyon, a CASA volunteer and an amateur rodeo rider, has real cowboy dreams. He has been riding bulls for more than two years and has reached the point where his wife feels a little more comfortable with the idea of him doing so, Dulmage said.

“I do some bull riding, but I’m in it for the fun,” he said. “I’m at the point of just staying on. The good guys are milkin’ ‘em and spurrin’ ‘em.”

Out on the rodeo grounds, members of the Sierra Circuit of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Assn. competed in seven events--everything from bareback bronc riding to steer wrestling to calf roping.

The Sierra Circuit is one of 13 PRCA circuits that stage rodeos nationwide. Sierra Circuit cowboys hold rodeos throughout California, where the sport is growing in popularity, Dulmage said.

“A lot of people don’t know about it but there’s a lot of rodeo in Southern California,” he said. “I guess sometimes it gets lost with all the football and basketball on television.”

Dulmage scoffs at protests that the animals are mistreated in the rodeo world. It is actually just the opposite, he said.

The bulls the cowboys ride are pampered and well-fed, sell for about $1,500 each, and “work only about 15 or 16 seconds a week,” he said.

“If it weren’t for the animals, these contractors wouldn’t be in business,” Dulmage said. “They’re really taken care of.”

The rodeo grounds open today at 10 a.m. with a chili cook-off. The rodeo begins at 2 p.m.