Altenburg Rodeo Entries Announced

The entry list for the 10th annual Perry County Community Rodeo, which will be held in Altenburg this Friday and Saturday, June 4 & 5, includes some highly ranked contestants. Toping the list are two 2009 world champions -- bull rider Jared Long from Ramona, Oklahoma, who will compete on Saturday, and 14 year-old four-time barrel racing champion Mesa Leavitt from Bluegrass, Iowa, who will compete on Friday. Leavitt has also won the prestigious Josey Junior World Barrel Racing Championship four times. They won their crowns at the International Finals Rodeo held in January in Oklahoma City. The field of 128 entries will include 23 cowboys and cowgirls that competed at the finals and 35 that are currently ranked in the top fifteen in their events with the IPRA. The entries have won a combined total of 15 IPRA Championships and 18 events in the past at Altenburg.

Chip Porterfield of Sparta, Missouri will be recognized on Friday as the only contestant to compete in all ten of the rodeos at Altenburg. He has won the tie-down event five times and also has won once in team roping. No other competitor has more than two Altenburg wins. His wife Phyllis won the barrel racing event at the inaugural rodeo in 2001 and his seventeen year old daughter Larae won in barrel racing in 2002 and 2009. Larae will compete for her eighth time at Altenburg to rank second to her father. Several competitors have competed seven times. Bareback riders Raymond Cooper of Center Ridge, Arkansas and Kyle Kiser of Memphis, Tennessee are the only contestants other than Chip Porterfield that competed in the first Altenburg rodeo in 2001 that will return this year.

Among area contestants entered are barrel racers Samantha Sniadecki of Perryville and Erica Burns, Nicole Burns, and Molly Cureton of Fredericktown. Competing in team roping will be Andrew Ratliff and Cody Tuschhoff of Oak Ridge and Hunter Grantham, Will Wilson, and Mark Berry of Jackson. Ratliff will also compete in tie-down roping as will Brian Glueck of Friedheim and Kadin Boardman of Jackson. Jeremy Nice of Jackson, who competed in the 2009 International Finals Rodeo, is entered in saddle bronc riding. Bull riders entered from the area are Ryan Friese of Altenburg, Jerry Seabaugh of Delta, and Josh Long from Fredericktown.

Rodeo performances are scheduled to begin at 7:30 pm each evening with pre-rodeo activities including a calf scramble and mutton busting beginning at 6:30 pm. The rodeo is held at the East Perry Community Fairgrounds in Altenburg. Universal Rodeos LLC of rural Jackson will serve as the stock contractor and provide stock that has appeared and the International Finals Rodeo in Oklahoma City, Cheyenne Frontier Days, and several Professional Bull Riders events. Brian White of Oklahoma City will serve as the rodeo clown and present specialty acts and Brandon McLagan of Centerview, Missouri will serve as the announcer. The Jimmy Lee Band will provide live music following the rodeo performance on Friday and Uncle Pearl will perform on Saturday. Admission for the 10th anniversary rodeo will be only $5.00 with children 10 and under admitted free.