Silver Spurs Rodeo—family fun by a ‘family business’

154th edition starts Thursday

  • Kissimmee’s Garret Bryant was one of a number of local participants in bull riding and barrel racing at Saturday’s Monster Bulls event at the Silver Spurs Arena. Okeechobee’s Daron Powers won the bull riding with an 83.5-point ride. PHOTO/KATIE WILLIAMS
    Kissimmee’s Garret Bryant was one of a number of local participants in bull riding and barrel racing at Saturday’s Monster Bulls event at the Silver Spurs Arena. Okeechobee’s Daron Powers won the bull riding with an 83.5-point ride. PHOTO/KATIE WILLIAMS
  • Okeechobee’s Daron Powers won the bull riding with an 83.5-point ride. PHOTO/KATIE WILLIAMS
    Okeechobee’s Daron Powers won the bull riding with an 83.5-point ride. PHOTO/KATIE WILLIAMS
  • Silver Spurs Rodeo 2024-25 Big Boss Randy Booth. He's a third-generation Big Boss and seventh direct family member to wear the big hat. SUBMITTED PHOTO
    Silver Spurs Rodeo 2024-25 Big Boss Randy Booth. He's a third-generation Big Boss and seventh direct family member to wear the big hat. SUBMITTED PHOTO

    Talk about a longtime “family business” in and around Osceola County, and the conversation eventually makes its way to the legacy that cattle raising and ranching has held here for generations. There’s families whose lineages have been working the land in the county’s rural areas for upwards of a century. The Silver Spurs Rodeo marks its 81st year starting tonight through Sunday afternoon; rodeo ticket purchases include admission to the Osceola County Fair, which takes place right outside the arena. It is also much like a family business, as generations of a handful of Osceola families have put on the event since they formed the Silver Spurs Riding Club in the 1940s and staged their first show in 1944 to help support the World War II efforts.

    This year’s Silver Spurs Rodeo Big Boss— the chairman of the board that oversees the event—is much a part of that family business. Randy Booth becomes the seventh member of his family by birth or marriage to wear the hallowed hat.

    “It’s never been a job, it’s been fun,” he said. The Spurs is like a big family.”

    Booth’s grandfather, Henry H. “Doc” Partin, was the sixth Big Boss in 1946, and was followed by uncles Hank (1963) and Doug (1972) Partin, father Tom Booth (1989), brother Ricky (2011) and brother-in-law Chris Fluke (2018).

    Booth was around and about inside the Silver Spurs Arena at Saturday’s Monster Bulls event, just like he’s been around the rodeo for decades. On Saturday, the club presented a charitable donation to the Howard Phillips Foundation, which aids children and families in need. At the Thursday through Sunday rodeos, the club will support the Osceola County School District’s agriculture education initiative, Foster our Future, Kissimmee’s Beyond Pregnancy Care center and Give Kids the World Village.

    And, that doesn’t include the ongoing support the club provides Osceola County’s 4-H and Future Farmers of America clubs throughout the year. The Spurs have provided over $1 million in charitable funding “All those funds stay in the local community,” Booth said proudly.

    While the Big Boss’ job is to ensure everything runs smoothly, Booth said the mission has gotten harder over the years, but the hundreds of volunteers involved have been rolling with the changes like a bull rider or saddle bronc cowboy rolls with the bucking steed.

    “We’re losing ranch land to development,” he said. “But we have a lot of these families here, who are going to show up every year no matter what, and they know what needs to be done to put on the show.”

    And, without the fans, who filled the arena to capacity at last year’s Friday and Saturday night evens, there’s no show. And, despite the changing community, with other forms of entertainment and its shrinking attention span, the Silver Spurs Arena remains the place to be every late February weekend.

    “This is all thanks to their support,” Booth said. “People still love a rodeo and come from all over to see it. It’s fairly priced, and it’s a chance for kids who have never seen a horse or a bull up close to experience that. For that night, we’re all cowboys.”