OVERSEAS RODEO SHOW TO TOUR DOMINION

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5280, 17 December 1946, Page 6

OVERSEAS RODEO SHOW TO TOUR DOMINION

Carrying their polished and ornamented saddles, six riders for New Zealand's first full-scale rodeo for many years landed at Wellington from the Ormonde. All the customs and fe'ats of American, Mexican and Australian horsemanship and stockmanship are combined in the rodeo in whieh they will appear, but 'the proprietor, Lance Scuthorpe, is a Queepsland rough lider who stars in his own show. Also a Quee2islander is the manager, Mr. A. L. Barton. He came over 011 the Waipouri a fcrtnight ago . as acting-groom to seven of the horses. These are being cared for at Miramar till the rest of the eompan.v arrives. It is not an easy matter to get a rodeo to New Zealand, Mr. Barton said. The ccmpany, including the rest of the horses and the gear, was arriving as it could find shipping space. Opening at Auckland Though no definite date can yet be given, the "big top" — and it measures 140 by 80 feet — will go up first in Auckland. The show, however, is to go to most places in New Zealand. The horses, mules and donkeys will trave! in 18 horse-trailers — long narrcw vehicles in whieh they will pack head to tail. Though there will be plenty of thrills in their performances, they are experienced and docile travellers. Even Aristrocrat, the wall-eyed bay 12-yeai-old who has never yet been ridden, and who went to America with Lanee Scuthorpe when he rode in Tim McCoy's show, is a real pet so h-ng as you keep off his back. Incidentally, it is worth £'100 to anyone who can stay there for 10 sec(Uids. When the big top goes up, there will also be clowns, tumblers and all thc'fun of the fair by a cornpany of forty.