To promote the upcoming APRA Katherine Rodeo, which will be held at the Katherine Showgrounds on Friday at 6.30pm, bull and bronc riders Darcy Nixon-Smith, Steve Taylor and Jim Rousell as well as 2010 National Rodeo Assosication bull ride champion Fraser Babbington from New Zealand visited four transition and Year-1 classes at the school.

Queensland bull-rider Jim Rousell said he enjoyed visiting schools to talk about his passion for rodeos.

“It’s a bit of a dying breed,” he said.

“To tell the kids about rodeo and what we do and how to ride a bull hopefully gets the idea out to visit a rodeo and maybe some of the kids get involved themselves when they are a bit older.

“I was probably 10 when I rode my first steer and 13 when I rode my first bull, and now I travel around the country riding with some of the best,” the 25-year-old said.

Year-1 student Lekeeta Campbell said she wasn’t so much interested in the cowboys, but she likes the bulls at rodeos.

“I rode a bull once, but it was only a baby one,” she said.

“You know, I’m only six years old, I am not allowed to ride the big bulls yet, but I like to watch the other people ride.”

Transistion student Jessica Osterburg, 5, said she saw her first rodeo at Mataranka and “loved it”.