story by Michele Toberer
“It’s a family thing,” at the Pond Hill Ranch in Castleton, Vermont, where for the past 50 years the O’Rourke family has been producing rodeos to entertain crowds from all across the country. In 1970, Josephine and Harry O’Rourke Jr. began the family’s legacy in the very location it sits today. Now the second and third generation of O’Rourkes hold 10 Pond Hill Pro Rodeos each summer, sanctioned with the American Professional Rodeo Association, and there’s a fourth generation already waiting in the wings to continue this family lifestyle for hopefully another 50 years.
The Pond Hill Ranch encompasses approximately 3,000 acres and resides in the lakes region of Vermont, near ski country as well as rural farm country. The combination of residents that live or have second homes in the area, as well as summer tourists provide an appreciative audience for the series of summer rodeos held between July 4th and Labor Day each season. Their typical attendance can easily be 2,000 spectators at the events, and they have a good number of contestants that attend every single rodeo during the season. Not only do the O’Rourkes hold typical rodeo events at their sanctioned rodeos, but they also add in a few additional crowd pleasers such as ranch rodeo events and novice bronc and bull riding events. Harry O’Rourke explained, “We offer the novice events and not only does the crowd love it, but it gives local cowboys just starting out, an easy way to try it out. We keep track of points in the novice rough stock events and award buckles at the end of the year, just like the buckles that our standard event winners get. And, the APRA helps promote the participation by giving a paid membership card for the following year to the winner of each of the novice events. So, hopefully we’re building some new rodeo contestants for the future also.” Besides the rodeos held at the ranch, Pond Hill Pro Rodeo also produces several rodeos for other rodeo committees around the region.
Many in the O’Rourke family pitch in, and there are brothers, sisters, nephews, nieces, aunts, and uncles, all stepping in, in one way or another, to get things done at the ranch. You might find them announcing, secretarying, picking up broncs, or feeding livestock used for the events. They own all of the stock used for the rodeos and in addition to the rodeo stock, they are one of the largest horse leasing operations in the East. Bryan O’Rourke described some of the stock the family manages, “Currently, we buy most of our bucking horses because we’ve found that it works really well to buy proven bucking stock; but we are starting to breed some of our own for the future. We run about 60 head of bucking stock cows and have about 120 bulls ranging from yearlings up through bucking stock. Once we pull calves off the cows, we use them for breakaway roping in the rodeos. We buy commercial cattle to use for tie-down roping and have roping steers also.” Pond Hill leases stock out to other rodeo contractors occasionally, but although the rodeo is a great attraction for the ranch, one of the main parts of their business is leasing horses. They lease and sell approximately 800 horses in 12 states each year, providing horses for children’s camps, resorts, stables, horseback riding facilities, and individuals.
Pond Hill Pro Rodeo was honored to be named as the APRA Stock Contractor of the Year in 2018 and 2019, as well as having their big bay 5-year-old crossbred gelding, 421 Bearcat, named the 2019 Bareback Horse of the Year. The O’Rourke family looks forward to the future with APRA and continuing to carry on the lifestyle they’ve all grown accustomed to, working and succeeding alongside one another as a family.
