De Golyer Bucking Horse & Bull Bash returns this weekend

When the pandemic struck four years ago, Cody and Kristina de Golyer were unsure if their annual summer rodeo event would return.

After it was canceled in 2020, the summer rodeo returned the following year but with restrictions. The de Golyers had only four weeks to pull off the event in 2021 and with doubts surrounding the family, they were still able to make it happen. The contestant list was full and fans came in droves to attend one of the area’s first big events since the state’s pandemic restrictions began to ease.

In 2022, more than 100 contestants from Nevada, California and Oregon packed the Lahontan Valley as 4,000 spectators filled the stands. Last year, the event matched those numbers to keep the rodeo performance at the three-hour mark.

This weekend, the de Golyer Bucking Horse and Bull Bash rodeo event will celebrate its 10th anniversary when it returns to the 3C Complex at the Churchill County Fairgrounds with the action at the outdoor Fairview Arena.

“Hitting the 10-year mark was so far-fetched when we were at the second- and third-annual Bull Bash,” Kristina de Golyer said of the event, which has won third place as Fallon’s best community event the last two years. “We had only had the goal to reach a five-year celebration. This rodeo has exceeded the size and expectations that Cody and I had ever imagined.”

And they have no plans of slowing down as this event is one of the biggest summer rodeo events in the region.

“We will continue the Bull Bash as long as we can,” de Golyer said. “We have seen mutton busters start with us, continue to calves, steers and now riding bulls and that was our main goal: to keep the sport of rodeo alive in our community for our future generations. To actually be in the 10th year is remarkable for us. All the effort we have put in has paid off.”

The rodeo weekend kicked off Wednesday with a free movie night at the Fallon Theatre and it resumes on Friday with a benefit concert event at Boomers Bar at 128 E. Williams Ave. There’s no cost for Friday’s live comedy and band event, which starts at 5 p.m. and will benefit the Fallon animal shelter, but guests are encouraged to bring an animal-related item.

For Saturday’s rodeo, gates open at 3 p.m. on Saturday at the outdoor arena followed by the rodeo at 5 p.m. An afterparty performance by White Water will follow the rodeo along with a fireworks show at 9 .m. The evening will also include food trucks and vendors, free kids zone with child’s ticket purchase, Troy’s Double Shot Bar and The Famous Riata Ranch International Trick Riders.

While keeping the rodeo at around 100 contestants, de Golyer said for this year’s event they created a VIP section to accommodate the overflow from the grandstands. The VIP section, which is close to the action, sold out at 200 guests who will receive a catered dinner by Wild Horse Cafe’s Shelley Gallagher to go with private parking, bar and restrooms.

“To see our community and surrounding communities coming out for one night to enjoy all of our rodeo festivities all while keeping it affordable and seeing all of the smiling faces, hearing the rumble from the crowd going wild over the contestants competing is why we will always continue to produce the de Golyer Bucking Horse and Bull Bash,” said de Golyer, who’s thankful for the community’s continued support.

Tickets for the rodeo are $20 and are being sold only at the gate.

Events for the rodeo include mutton bustin, calf riding, junior steer riding, team roping, barrel racing, breakaway, bull riding, wild horse race and ranch bronc riding.