The Omeo and Buchan rodeo all round buckle winners for 2024 are Kenny Organ and Julie Breed.
Every year all round cowboy and cowgirl buckle winners are announced after the back-to-back rodeos, the winner determined on points.
The cowboys must compete and place in a rough stock events and also compete and place in one of the timed events at both Omeo and Buchan.
Many years ago the majority of cowboys would ride and compete in a variety of the events which saw the Omeo and Buchan events join forces to give the cowboys an extra incentive to attend as well as really test all of their skills.
There are two types of events at the rodeos for the cowboys, the first being the rough stock events, which include, saddle bronc, bareback or the bull ride.
The cowboy must ride one of the bucking horses or bucking bulls for eight seconds while not touching the animal with their free hand that they are using to balance themselves with.
If they are successful then the two judges will give them a score out of 50 and also give the animal a score out of 50 which are added together.
The second component is the timed events which are the team roping, steer wrestling and the rope and tie.
These are all scored according to the time it takes to complete the task.
These days the modern cowboy now is generally a specialist in either the rough stock events or the timed events, mostly due to the competitors getting better,as the rough stock are also being bred specifically to do their job of bucking.
So in this day and age it is a great achievement to compete in both ends of the arena.
Only in the past 10 years has an all round cowgirl buckle been up for grabs at the Omeo and Buchan rodeos.
The cowgirls must compete and place in the barrel race and then they also must compete and place in the breakaway roping.
This may sound simple but a horse is required for both events and the skills required for each is different.
If the lady uses the same horse in both events, then it is a pretty special horse and the rider is an excellent a good trainer.
So usually, the ladies will have a different horse for each competition.
Breed has been competing at the Omeo and Buchan rodeos for well over 30 years and was very happy to finally win a much coveted all round cowgirl buckle.
Organ has also been competing at the Omeo and Buchan rodeos for the past 10 years and decided that he would step up on a bull again this year.
Organ hasn’t been riding bulls for several years now but decided that this was the year he just might be able to win the buckle, so he tried his luck and was a happy and worthy winner of the much-coveted prize.
