Farm-City Pro Rodeo Board of Directors member David Bothum shows the Remuda Award for procuring the best livestock that FCPR received at the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association annual convention earlier this month. FCPR also received the honor five years ago, the first year it was awarded.

Hermiston’s Farm-City Pro Rodeo has won an award recognizing its quality livestock for the second time in the five years it has been offered.

FCPR Board of Directors member David Bothum said Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association members voted to give the Remuda Award to FCPR again this year at the annual convention in Las Vegas earlier this month.

He said the awards banquets at the PRCA convention, which takes place during the National Finals Rodeo, honor the year’s best clowns, announcers, contractors and several different size classifications of rodeos. Bothum said the Remuda Award, “for putting together the best group of stock” of all sizes of rodeos, was a high honor because it acknowledged the rodeo was accomplishing its goals.

“To me, it is just as good or better than winning Rodeo of the Year because this is commending that we’re doing a great job to make the rodeo better for the cowboy,” he said. “The rodeo has always been for the cowboy, by the cowboy.”

FCPR was one of the first smaller rodeos to bring in multiple stock contractors to offer cowboys many quality animals that would provide a challenge and deliver high scores, he said.

“When you have 60 or 80 bronc riders, for instance, a contractor doesn’t have that many good-grade horses,” Bothum said. “There’s not much opportunity for a cowboy to win. It’s kind of like a drawing contest. When we started the Farm-City Pro Rodeo, we wanted to take the draw out of it. We wanted to make it the best contest it could be for the cowboys.”

FCPR also won the award five years ago, the first year it was offered, and Bothum said quality livestock brings in contestants and crowds.

“If you put up the good stock, you’ll have the cowboy,” he said. “If you have the cowboy and the stock, you’re going to get the spectator.”

Bothum, an Eastern Oregon Trade and Event Center Authority Board member, showed off the award at the EOTEC meeting Friday. The new facility will be the site of the 2016 Farm-City Pro Rodeo and Umatilla County Fair. Board member Dan Dorran said it was “incredible” that FCPR won the award twice in five years, considering the number of rodeos across the United States and Canada.

“When we talk about this (EOTEC) facility, we always talk about the world-class rodeo that Farm-City Pro Rodeo is and what it means to the cowboys and, in turn, what it means to the crowd,” Dorran said. “It’s amazing how these guys have always taken care of the cowboy, which really has taken care of the crowd. When we do talk about a world-class rodeo, it’s nothing short of that.”