4th annual Hollie Brewer adaptive rodeo

This is a rodeo in Polk County today giving kids and adults with developmental disabilities a chance to get in on the action. The fourth annual Holly Brewer Adaptive Rodeo starts at 10 this morning in Bartow with everything from barrel racing to roping to cow showmanship and it's all adapted so that people with different physical abilities can participate. Fox 13's Regina Gonzalez is there as they get ready for the big day. Regina, I know you are the co-emcee today. I see you in your cowboy hat. Tell us what families can expect. Good morning. Good morning, Matt. Good morning to all of the Good Day Weekend viewers. I am back like I never left because it is about to be so much fun here in Bartow. As you just mentioned, Matt, the Holly Brewer Adaptive Rodeo just about under a half hour away from getting started and families can expect a whole lot of fun. And I want to waste no time introducing you to the Holly Brewer family and the women that started all and their incredible children. Macy, Maddie, everybody say good morning. bring in Sarah and Jenna because this started right as a quick event you wanted to get your kids involved you grew up on the farm and talk to me about how involved into this incredible group of people and what we're about to see today so actually started we we have older daughters we have Mackenzie in the back she is my older daughter and then we have Carly who is Jenna and Brent's older daughter and they were showing cows riding horses doing different youth fair events things like that and we realized very quickly that our community we have a very large special needs community here but there was nothing for them to be able to do so we wanted them to have a full day of their own we wanted them to be able to participate in all the events that everybody else could participate in so we came up with the bright idea this was only supposed to start we were going to do it 10 kids in a backyard and we are now up to 70 contestants wow we do So, um, roping, barrel racing, whip popping, cow showmanship, um, what else am I forgetting? Mechanical bull riding also. Wow. So, since we started this up, we actually have Mrs. Christy Schennefield with us too. She runs the, um, she was actually the second one. She runs a Cowabunga, which is another cow show, and we presented the idea to Christy, and she was actually the second one, or sorry, the very first one that decided to pick this up as well. So she also, from there, we have a bunch of different shows now that have adaptive events. That's awesome. And, I mean, what does it mean to you to be able to see children, adults of all different abilities be able to participate? I mean, this, in general, is not easy stuff. Yes, it is not easy. It takes a lot of planning. We will start, actually, probably come Monday, we will start planning for next year's event. Next year will be our fifth event. it's just a really amazing day because this actually gets to these contestants gets to showcase things that they never imagined they could do yeah we have people that come here and things that we take for granted every day that we could just get on a horse and we could ride a horse these kids never dream I say kids but it's also adults also they just never imagined that they would be able to do something like this so with the help of the community we have adaptive equipment that we use. We have special saddles to make this day possible for all of these cowgirls and cowboys. We also award at the end of the day today, they walk away with tons of swag. They walk away, they each get a belt buckle because they're all champions in our eyes. But then of course, we do have an overall cowboy and cowgirl that we award. I love it. And people across Polk County and across the Tampa Bay area, I mean, this goes all day. They can still come out. They can and our future goal for the reason behind this will never change. Yeah. But our main goal now is to expand. And we were trying to find land for the Holly Brewer adaptive ranch where adults and kids aging out of school can transition and live a life of community service and having jobs and just interacting with the community and being able to live independently on their own and I mean I've done a lot of stories about how being on a horse when it comes to you know children and adults with developmental disabilities it is it is so therapeutic yes it is very therapeutic to them you'll see that today I know I'm so excited when you guys see the smiles on their face it tells it all oh my gosh beyond smiles we are laughing we are cheering right of this address this location how can people watching this come support we are at 1702 U.S. Highway 17 South in Bartow. Most of the people in Polk County know it as the Polk County Youth Fairgrounds. Got it. Got it. Well, you heard them, guys. Wish us well. We are about to get started. We're going to have a great day. And if you are in this area, if you're not come on down, because it's just going to be so awesome to see. Matt, we'll send it back to you. The smiles, the cheers say everything, Regina. And when one barrier comes down, other barriers come down. I love to see this. I want to go myself. Thank you for showing us a look. And we'll talk to you later. I hope you Have a great time, Regina.