The Hawaii Youth Rodeo Ohana held a roping clinic on Sept. 24 at the Rose Andrade Correia Rodeo Arena in Honokaa.
The clinic, facilitated by Kona cowgirls Macey and Marla Loando, provided training and support for the fundamentals of roping to 66 cowboys and cowgirls, ranging in ages from 3 to 17.
Rodeo is a sport that allows cowboys and cowgirls to progressively improve from one skill to the next. The day began with keiki giving their best shot at dummy roping, where youth lasso the heads of calf mannequins.
Participants transitioned to small group breakout sessions, where keiki were grouped according to ability, and were tasked with increasing their skill sets.
Keiki then participated in relay racing where they highlighted their new knowledge and skills in a fun, competitive environment.
The morning session ended with keiki partnering with parents and ohana to see which team could finish a roping relay in the shortest amount of time.
“This is where we saw true learning,” said Lynn Higa, founder of HYRO. “When keiki can demonstrate what they learn and information is embedded. This is referred to as applied learning.”
The afternoon session permitted keiki to fine-tune their skills and allowed those that demonstrated proficiency to move on to the next level of learning, where they were able to ride horses and rope a moving calf dummy.
“The highest achievers were able to end the day with live horses and cattle,” Higa said.
HYRO was formed to provide opportunities for learning about ranching, rodeo, the paniolo culture, and animal health. Board members believe that learning can be scaffolded, should be culturally informed, and can occur outside of a classroom.
HYRO seeks to perpetuate the paniolo heritage by hosting educational workshops at every HYRO-sponsored rodeo. Clinics are open to the public at no cost through generous donations from the community.
“We have tremendous resources right here in our community,” Higa said. “HYRO utilizes homegrown subject experts, because they have the knowledge and cultural ties to our island community.”
HYRO’s second season begins on Oct. 22 and runs through March 2023.
Interested families can find more information for keiki between the ages of 3-18 online at https://hiyouthrodeoohana.wixsite.com/keikirodeo or email hawaiiyouthrodeoohana@gmail.com.
There are neither membership fees nor GPA requirements for participation in HYRO events.