The only teaching rodeo in michigan!

R.E.S.P.E.C.T.  Rodeo Encourages Sportsmanship, Positivity, Education, Community, and Teamwork

Rodeo is the seventh most popular sport in the world. One of the top ten sports not just in the United States, but the entire world. Not a lot of people see this, as it’s not a largely televised sport, and the media does not cover it like it does professional baseball or football. It’s a sport that a lot of people do not understand because they do not see it every week on the television. It’s the silent sport in the arena under the lights on a Saturday night. It’s the dust and mud, and the shimmer of that gold buckle that catches your eye. It’s the adrenaline of tying your hand onto a two-thousand-pound animal leaving only you, the animal you sit on, and God to decide your fate. It’s a sport that not only teaches you patience and competition, but it teaches you that you are your biggest competitor. Not the other girl on the faster horse, not the guy in the chute next to you who rode all three of his rides last weekend, not the kid who caught their steer in three seconds at the last show. You are your biggest competition. You and the animal partner you are riding with. With each ride in Rodeo, you work harder to make yourself better for the next run, you work harder and practice harder to be better than last time. And you look forward to a better run.

Michigan Youth Teaching Rodeo Association  began in 2016 with a vision from Rodeo Veterans and lovers of the sport. We realized that the sport was dying out and that the Tradition of the Cowboy was being overrun by video games and electronic devices. Our kids were spending more time inside than in the fresh air and learning positive life lessons needed to be thriving adults. In a world or participation ribbons, we needed our youth to learn what competition was, and needed them to become pillars of society as they grow and move on into the real world. So we invited kids any age up to seventeen to join us and get out in the fresh air and live a little, learn a lot, and become the next generation of our great sport.

In the late 1990’s 4H rodeo was removed from the 4h program with no real explanation as to why. Many Veteran Rodeo contestants from this point on had to learn the sport by jumping in headfirst and not having the proper training needed to do it safely and correctly. Each sport has their own conditioning regiment, even Rocket Football has state mandates and requires 10 days of conditioning and practice prior to even putting pads on and we realized that there was no place for kids to actually learn the sport of Rodeo. Though there are many associations available to perform, there was no place to actually learn how to do the events. Before this association Michigan kids had to either "Sink or Swim" when they called in. Seeing the need for an association like this, an amazing group of volunteers and rodeo veterans came together to provide an affordable and safe solution to entering the sport of Rodeo.

One weekend a month the youth get together for a Saturday practice taught by professionals in the sport, to prepare them for the events at the Sunday performance.

After growing from 30 members our first year to 175+ members and approximately we moved facilities and changed our name in 2020 to MYTRA, Michigan Youth Teaching Rodeo Association. We also applied and received Non-Profit Status in 2020 to help the association. And we have grown even more.

Why have we grown so big so fast? Because we provide a service that no one else does. We teach our kids RESPECT. (Rodeo Encourages Sportsmanship, Positivity, Education, Community, and Teamwork).

Our association is 100% Volunteer based and every dime we receive goes back into the kids and the program. Which is why we work closely with sponsors and volunteers to make sure that the program survives.

We thrive to keep our program extremely affordable so that all kids no matter the economic status can attend. We turn no child away who wants to learn. We provide member opportunities ranging from $50 to $100 a year per family that provides not only year end awards to the kids but also brings in professional clinics for them as well. These clinics are used to educate our children about many things from a specific event that they choose to learn into important things like proper saddle fitting, proper equine nutrition, proper animal care etc. 

We are not just teaching our kids the sport, but how to be a good horseman and how to properly care for their animal partners. We are not an exclusive member only association either, we are open to anyone who wants to try the sport. We offer day passes for kids that may not be able to become members but still want to learn the importance of RESPECT. And when we speak of respect, we hold our kids to a higher standard than some. Our expectations of our contestants and parents are held high, not because these kids cause trouble or are disrespectful, but because we want this association to thrive and continue to the next generation to keep the sport alive. We are an American Tradition.