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The Border Challenge Rodeo is coming to LaFayette. Sunday, starting at 2 p.m. CT, guests will be able to watch bareback riding, saddle bronc riding, bull riding, steer wrestling, cowgirls barrel racing, cowgirls breakaway roping, tie-down roping and team roping at the Chambers County Agricultural Park in LaFayette off of US Highway 431. Admission will cost $10 for adults and $5 for children. According to long-time Chambers County rodeo promoter Eddie Adams, church groups will receive a 10 percent discount. Only cash will be accepted. Concessions will be available.

“This is kind of something we kind of just hastily sort of put together,” Adams said. “We had a stock contractor that’s going to be down in this area, and we just decided, ‘Hey, he’s going to be here, close by. [It’ll be a] beautiful Sunday afternoon…’”

Adams estimated that over 100 contestants will compete.

“In the history of the 40-something years of rodeo within Alabama, we’ve got the best line-up in saddle bronc and bareback that we’ve ever had,” he said. “We’ve got several past and former world champions of the IPRA and the NCPRA.”

Adams said credit for the rodeo largely belongs to Bar W Rodeo Company from Hayesville, North Carolina. This rodeo is sanctioned by the International Professional Rodeo Association and National Cowboy Pro Rodeo Association.

Adams said he’s organized and/or promoted every rodeo in LaFayette for about 40 years. He is also an approved rodeo judge and will perform that role at this rodeo.

“We’re proud to have this opportunity to offer it on a beautiful Sunday afternoon,” Adams said. “Go to church, come to the rodeo.”

The IPRA, originally called the Interstate Rodeo Association, was founded in 1957 by two rodeo promoters as a rodeo management organization and a sanctioning body.

“Concerned with expansion west of the Mississippi River, this new group’s primary interest was to enhance rodeo’s credibility with the news media in the east, where fly-by-night rodeos and Wild West Shows and unregulated contests had done much to discredit the sport,” says the IPRA on its website.

The IRA began counting championship points won at its rodeos the year it was founded and named their first world champions at the end of the year.

The organization changed its name to International Rodeo Association in 1964 and added “Professional” to its name in 1993.

The NCPRA says that its goal is “to ensure each and every rodeo is presented to the rodeo fan at the highest of levels.” It says it aims to maintain the highest standards possible for animal treatment, cowboy personnel, stock quality and fairness to competitors.