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Sierra Kondos

Special to the Orange Leader

ORANGE — Cowboy Church of Orange County’s new arena is already booked into next year with a pro-rodeo, play-days, a circus, magic show and its first wedding event.

The church members celebrated the ribbon-cutting on Sept 26 at the arena located at 673 FM 1078 in Orange.

“Well, we started working on this arena a year ago,” Harland Strother, pastor of cowboy church of Orange County said. “The weather delayed us, but we finally finished it. We just had our first big event, Trade Days, and it was in the month of September.”

Strother says the pro-rodeos will now be held at the arena.

“Every year, we’ve had an annual pro rodeo, but we’ve had to go to T2 to do it,” he said. “But we will be able to conduct our old pro rodeo here April of 2025. The last one we held, we set records for a church having a rodeo. We had over 3,000 people there. We’ll have a pro-rodeo here now and we will be able to have barrel racing and team roping, just to name a few. Because of not having a roof, it was hard to play in because of the weather in Southeast Texas. But now that we have a full-scale rodeo arena and can plan as far as advance as we want, and we’ll be bringing in professionals that even ride in the in the finals in Vegas.”

Strother says Shane Young is behind putting on the full-scale rodeos.

“He is the contractor that puts it all on for us and pro rodeo riders from all of the United States will be here,” Strother said. “He would be a livestock contractor that burnishes the bulls and the bucking horses.”

The church celebrated its first Trade Days last weekend.

“It was a complete success,” he said. “Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people attended, and we had a lot of vendors. All the vendors did so well that they’re upped for next month that we probably have another twenty this that said they would be here. We’ll have that every month. We’re already booked all the way through 2025.”

Strother said there is more to come for Southeast Texans already booked for 2025.

“We have a company out of California that’s contacted us,” he said. “They’re bringing a circus facility, and another company is bringing a magic show to the arena, and it’s just amazing. And finally, we have our first wedding that’s going to happen here. I mean, we’ll rent the venue out to anybody to do, obviously, within as long as it’s family friendly.”

To contact Cowboy Church of Orange County call 409-920-2271.